Firms play an important role in fostering green growth

Fishermen in Giao Thuỷ District, Nam ĐỊnh Province. The business community played an important role in fostering green growth. — VNA/VNS Photo Huy Hùng

HÀ NỘI — It is critical to promote the role of the business community in partnership with the Government of Việt Nam in fostering green growth, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyễn Thị Bích Ngọc said at the technical session of the Vietnam Business Forum (VBF) on Friday.

Green growth and sustainable development have been identified as one of the focuses in the development policies of many countries around the world in recent years, Ngọc said, adding that Việt Nam was one among the pioneering countries in the region to approach the green growth model.

The Government’s national green growth strategy and the national action plan about green growth in the 2021-30 period set the goals of restructuring the economy in line with renovating the growth model to achieve economic prosperity, environmental sustainability and social fairness and toward a carbon neutral economy, contributing to limit ing global warming.

Stressing that switching to a green economy was an inevitable trend and an important growth driver in the long term, Ngọc said Việt Nam was actively implementing a roadmap to amend the legal framework in order to raise green finance, promote green technology and investment and encourage the green transition toward a low-carbon emission economy.

In the process, the Government of Việt Nam affirmed the important role of the business community to achieving the goals of a green economy and sustainable growth.

Soren Roed Pedersen, Co-Chair of VBF, said Việt Nam was facing a number of difficulties and challenges to achieve the green growth targets, which required Government agencies and ministries to raise policies to promote the roles of economic sectors.

According to John Rockhold, Head of the VBF’s Power and Energy Working Group, Việt Nam achieved impressive economic growth in 2022 in the context of global uncertainties with GDP expanding by 8.02 per cent, compared to an increase of 2.58 per cent in 2021, the highest annual growth rate since 1997.

What happened over the past year highlighted the urgent need to accelerate the energy transition as an energy system that was heavily dependent on fossil fuels could significantly impact costs in the global economy.

Việt Nam was no exception in the energy transition trend.

“We recognise the desire of the Vietnamese Government to accelerate the energy transition so that it can meet the requirement for economic development and achieve the goal of becoming a high-income country by 2045,” he said. “The energy transition also brings job opportunities and this trend will create necessary conditions for the development of renewable energy.”

David John Whitehead from the VBF’s Agriculture Working Group said that rising inflation in foreign markets, including the US and Europe, made the demand for seafood import drop from the last quarter of 2022 and the trend might continue until the end of the first quarter of this year.

He predicted that the global economy would recover in the second half of this year, urging Việt Nam to continue to diversify markets. In addition, markets would have stricter requirements, which would force agriculture to improve adaptability and grab opportunities to develop sustainably with a focus on environmental protection and circular agriculture as a part of the circular economy.

According to Ngọc, the Government, ministries, agencies and localities would create the most favourable conditions in terms of mechanisms and policies for enterprises to achieve the harmonisation of green and sustainable growth and socio-economic recovery.