- What does the recognition of an environmentally sustainable ASEAN city mean to Hai Phong city, sir?
In June 2025, Hai Phong submitted its application to participate in the 5th Environmental Potential City Certificate - 2025. Up to now, the ASEAN Secretariat has sent the results of the ASEAN Environmentally Sustainable Cities Award. Of which, Hai Phong achieved the 5th Environmentally Sustainable Potential City Certificate (COR) in 2025.
The ASEAN Environmentally Sustainable City Award and the ASEAN Environmentally Sustainable City Certification are among the ASEAN cooperation programmes. The programme is coordinated by the ASEAN Working Group on Environmentally Sustainable Cities (AWGESC). The programme aims to promote sustainable development of cities in ASEAN by recognising and appreciating cities that have undertaken various initiatives and efforts to build a clean and green locality. The ASEAN ESC Award was first held on 8 October 2008 and has been held every three years since then.
To achieve the "Environmentally Potential City" certification, a locality must meet criteria for sustainable development, including environmental management, efficient use of resources, biodiversity conservation and pollution reduction. Specific criteria include: Per capita green space ratio, air and water quality, public green space area, solid waste management, application of green technologies in industry and transportation. At the same time, there must be an effective, transparent and participatory environmental management system. Environmental education and awareness raising programs….
The 5th ASEAN Environmentally Sustainable City Award 2025 is a recognition of Hai Phong city's initiatives and efforts in environmental protection and climate change response.
According to the announcement of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development OECD, Hai Phong is one of the 10 cities in the world most threatened by climate change. Faced with difficulties, risks and challenges, the city has developed and implemented many projects to respond to and adapt to climate change. Typical projects include: Action plan to respond to climate change in Hai Phong city for the period 2021 - 2030, vision to 2050; Greenhouse gas inventory and proposal of solutions to manage and reduce greenhouse gas emissions; Assessment of impacts, vulnerability, risks, and losses due to climate change; Green transformation of Hai Phong city for the period 2025 - 2030, vision to 2050...
Information, forecasting, warning, and response solutions are available, accurate, timely, effective, and flexible. The city has economic development solutions that ensure sustainable development goals. 150 hectares of mangrove forests in Cat Ba and Dinh Vu have been restored, helping to absorb tens of thousands of tons of CO2/year, while preserving the coastal ecosystem. 2 industrial parks (Deep C Industrial Park and Nam Cau Kien Industrial Park) are pioneers in green transformation according to the ecological model in Vietnam. This is the basis for the city to build 12 more industrial parks in the direction of green, ecological, high-tech industrial parks, supporting...
In particular, the city integrates gender factors in the development and implementation of disaster risk reduction policies; empowers women to take advantage of their knowledge and experience in resource management and resilience building, especially in areas and communities vulnerable to natural disasters.
With many outstanding policies, in 2024, VCCI announced the Provincial Green Index (PGI), (an index that evaluates and ranks the quality of local environmental governance from a business practice perspective), Hai Phong city ranked highest: Total score of 29 with outstanding achievements in all 4 component indexes.
- How does the Department of Agriculture and Environment advise the city on integrating gender analysis into the ASEAN Environmentally Sustainable City (ESC) Award indicators ?
To prepare for the 5th Environmental Potential City Certification in 2025, Hai Phong City has identified 6 groups of strategies and actions on biodiversity, specifically: Protecting special areas (Cat Ba archipelago world biosphere reserve...), where development activities must strictly comply with biodiversity protection; managing water resources and marine resources to protect marine species and ecosystems; developing sustainable tourism; raising public awareness; researching biodiversity, proposing more effective conservation measures; promoting cooperation with international organizations and countries to learn from experience and knowledge on biodiversity conservation.
In particular, Hai Phong integrates gender analysis into the “Urban Biodiversity and Green Spaces” group in the ASEAN Environmental Sustainability Awards (ESC) Index. Integrating gender analysis into sustainable development helps identify the needs, experiences, and different contributions of gender groups to the environment; thereby providing appropriate and effective solutions and promoting equal participation of genders in environmental protection, towards the goal of sustainable development.
The integration of gender analysis in the ASEAN Environmental Sustainability Award (ESC) is specified by indicators and results of women's environmental protection activities. Such as the number of newly planted trees in wetland areas and areas planned for tree planting; the number of households with women effectively implementing waste classification at source; the number of public areas where women are responsible for environmental sanitation; the number of kilometers with women's participation in water source protection; the number of environmentally friendly products and tools used by women; the number of models of women participating in recycling and reusing waste products from agricultural production activities; models of women participating in not burning straw, not burning waste, not using honeycomb coal for cooking.
The role of women in the above practical specific activities will help localities have the opportunity to maintain and move towards a locality with clean air, clean land, and clean water according to the criteria of an environmentally sustainable city of ASEAN.
Regarding gender-integrated disaster risk reduction policies, it is necessary to focus on ensuring equal participation of women and men in the planning stages and disaster prevention and control measures; empowering women in vulnerable communities and leveraging their knowledge and experience in resource management and resilience building.
- The city aims to maintain the achieved results and strive to win the 7th ASEAN Environmentally Sustainable City Award. In the coming time, what tasks will the Department of Agriculture and Environment advise the city to implement?
To maintain and develop the city towards achieving the 7th ASEAN Environmentally Sustainable City Award, in addition to what has been done in responding to climate change, the city integrates gender issues into sustainable development efforts in the city.
However, the city currently does not have a comprehensive gender database system, lacks specific data and gender mainstreaming indicators over time, making it difficult to assess and monitor. The staff working on gender is still lacking in quantity, limited in knowledge and skills in gender mainstreaming, affecting the quality of actual implementation.
The organization of the gender equality work apparatus is not strong enough, the coordination mechanism between sectors and localities is weak, disrupting the gender mainstreaming process. There are currently not enough legal documents, clear regulations and specific support policies to ensure that gender issues are systematically mentioned and resolved in development plans; the work of inspecting and supervising the implementation of gender mainstreaming at the grassroots level has not been carried out regularly and effectively.
In the coming time, the Department of Agriculture and Environment will continue to advise on strengthening the legal basis and promulgating regulations on gender mainstreaming in the city's development planning process; develop and apply specific indicators for each field, and improve the system of collecting and reporting gender data. Develop support policies, especially training policies and regimes for officials working on gender equality in the city, train, improve capacity and skills for officials working on gender in the city.
- Thank you very much, comrade!
THU THUY - TRUNG KIENSource: https://baohaiphong.vn/asean-vinh-danh-hai-phong-la-thanh-pho-tiem-nang-ve-moi-truong-518260.html
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