The forum was jointly held by the Vietnam Union of Scienceand Technology Associations (VUSTA), the European Union Delegation to Vietnamand the Green Innovation Development Centre (GreenID) in Hanoi, and connectedto Ho Chi Minh City and 13 Mekong Delta localities.
Speakers at the forum are leading domestic and foreignscientists and experts working in the fields related to sustainable developmentof the region.
The forum included three sessions, with the first focusingon planning orientations, the second introducing selected energy initiativesand proposals on climate change adaptation, and the final being a roundtable seekingmeasures to intensify multilateral cooperation and calling for initiative forthe 2022 forum.
Ambassador Giorgio Aliberti, head of the European UnionDelegation to Vietnam, said that the Mekong Delta region is facing enormouschallenges such as land subsidence, coastal erosion, sea level rise, salineintrusion, loss of mangroves, and problems related to water, riverbed sand andgroundwater quality management. The region’s economy and people's livelihoodshave also been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. This requires a strongcollective action by all stakeholders for more sustainable recovery, he added.
Professor, Dr. Marco Abbiati, Scientific Attaché, Counsellor of the ItalianEmbassy in Vietnam, said that policies, including those on regional planningand economic promotion models, need to be suitable and close to the reality.
The proposed solutions must be comprehensive and friendly to the nature, withlong-term sustainability and long-term resources of localities taken intoaccount, he stated./.