Sustainable development opens up many opportunities for businesses, investors

Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Implementing green growth and sustainable development goals is a challenge but also an opportunity for the business community and investors in Vietnam, participants heard at a conference on November 16.

With the theme "Taking Responsibility, Taking Action", the sustainable development conference was organised by the Investment Review. It aims to bring multi-dimensional perspectives on responsibility and action for Vietnam to build a green economy, realising the net zero goal by 2050.

The event took place two years after the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), where 197 countries participating in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change adopted a historic agreement. The agreement reaffirmed maintaining the goal of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and countries including Vietnam have committed to bringing net emissions to zero by 2050.

Speaking at the event, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Planning and Investment Tran Quoc Phuong said that sustainable development had become an overarching trend in the world.

“Green growth and sustainable development have a close relationship with each other, being both a viewpoint and a goal throughout the socio-economic development policies of the Party and State, as shown in the 10-year socio-economic development strategy and 5-year socio-economic development plans of Vietnam, in which green growth is an important method to implement sustainable development,” said Phuong.

He said that Vietnam faced a number of difficulties and challenges due to the rapid urbanisation process, creating great pressure on the need for infrastructure development and environmental pollution treatment. In addition, there are challenges of natural disasters, climate change and the effective and sustainable exploitation and use of water, natural resources and land.

“Implementing green growth and sustainable development goals will be both a challenge and an opportunity for the business community and investors,” he stressed.

Phuong also proposed a number of key solutions to promote and transform the implementation of sustainable development goals in the coming time.

“It is necessary to perfect and improve the quality of socialist-oriented market economy institutions; Enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of policy implementation through public administration reform and continue to promote the participation of disadvantaged groups in the decision-making process,” he stated.

At the same time, the Deputy Minister also emphasised the need to continue to prioritise investment in human resource development, science and technology, innovation and improvement of the economic infrastructure system to improve productivity and promote sustainable economic growth.

Solutions also need to focus on effective management and use of resources, strengthen environmental protection and response to climate change, prevent, combat and mitigate natural disasters; and promote the development of green economy and circular economy.

Le Trong Minh, editor-in-chief of Investment Review, highlighted sustainable development as an important task for Vietnam, a developing economy, and also one of the five countries most heavily affected by climate change.

As a developing country, Minh said, there were still many difficulties but Vietnam had made commitments to respond to climate change like developed countries. Therefore, Vietnam would need appropriate steps and roadmaps as well as support and assistance from developed countries and partners in terms of capital, human resource training, institution building, technology, and governance.

At the same time, Vietnam also needed a business community with a high awareness of responsibility and proactive action, even when facing great difficulties and challenges in terms of financial and human resources. That’s the goal that the newspaper organised the conference, with discussions on responsibilities and actions from relevant parties to realise sustainable development goals, according to Minh.

The event was an opportunity for policymakers, representatives of management agencies, international organisations, economic experts and the business community to discuss multi-dimensional perspectives on responsibility and action for Vietnam to build a green economy and realise the net zero goal by 2050.

The conference also heard economic experts and business leaders sharing their efforts in implementing sustainable development and responding to climate change and proposed recommendations on sustainable development and perfecting the green transformation strategy of businesses in Vietnam./.