Green growth needs the support and participation of people and businesses.

The 4th Ho Chi Minh City Economic Forum with the theme “Green Growth – The Journey to Net Zero Emissions” has just taken place in Ho Chi Minh City. The forum was attended by more than 1,200 delegates from international financial institutions, international organizations such as the World Economic Forum (WEF); managers, leaders, experts from 21 countries; representatives of diplomatic agencies, consular agencies, domestic and foreign enterprises.

At COP 26, the Prime Minister made a strong commitment that Vietnam will achieve net zero emissions by 2050. Accordingly, the National Strategy and Action Plan on Green Growth were issued by the Prime Minister with the goal of reducing emissions, greening economic sectors and developing inclusively. The Circular Economy Development Project was also approved.

Speaking at the Forum, Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai affirmed that Vietnam supports and always accompanies the United Nations in implementing sustainable development goals. To fulfill international commitments as well as effectively implement major policies on sustainable development, political efforts or determination alone are not enough, but need understanding, support and broad cooperation of the people, creativity and strong participation of the business community and localities, and policy consistency and effectiveness. At the same time, it is necessary to mobilize a huge amount of resources from society and investors, domestic and foreign financial institutions.

[caption id="attachment_440215" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai delivered the opening speech at the forum. Photo: VGP/Tran Manh [/caption]

Ho Chi Minh City is the locality with the largest economic scale in the country, contributing about 1/5 of GDP, more than 1/4 of national budget revenue, leading the country in attracting FDI and import and export, the number of operating enterprises accounts for nearly 30% of the country.

However, Ho Chi Minh City is also the locality with the largest total greenhouse gas emissions (57.6 million tons, accounting for 23.3% of the country). Basically, the city's economy is still mainly developing in the direction of a linear economy and has not been greened; environmental protection has made much progress but there are still many problems and many things that need to be done more actively.

The Deputy Prime Minister directed the Forum to focus on three main issues: Creating opportunities for exchange, learning and moving towards a common understanding for action on green economy, green growth and circular economy; making good use of opportunities for connection and cooperation in green transformation and green growth, creating many new business opportunities but also requiring large resources in finance, human resources and technology; activities following the Forum require interaction and coordination at many levels, from the central to local levels, from businesses to people.

In particular, Ho Chi Minh City and localities need to promote a proactive spirit in effectively implementing policies and strategies from the Central Government, at the same time, develop appropriate green economic development orientations or strategies, clearly identify advantages and priority industries/fields, products, resources for implementation and mobilize businesses and people.

Speaking at the opening of the Forum, Mr. Nguyen Van Nen, Politburo member, Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee, said that the city wishes to meet, listen, discuss and share on this very important topic. Because, Ho Chi Minh City, along with many other cities in the world, has clearly witnessed the impacts of climate change, along with the shortcomings and lack of synchronization that need to be resolved, urging closer connection, stronger and more effective actions to respond.

Ho Chi Minh City Party Secretary Nguyen Van Nen speaks at the Ho Chi Minh City Economic Forum on the morning of September 15 - Photo: Le Toan.

This Ho Chi Minh City Economic Forum is also one of the actions to realize the cooperation contents between the Vietnamese Government and the World Economic Forum signed on June 26, 2023. At the same time, the establishment of the Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution in Ho Chi Minh City was discussed, aiming to strengthen cooperation with the centers of the Fourth Industrial Revolution in the world. Ho Chi Minh City is implementing measures to encourage creativity, promote innovation and development, creating a favorable environment for the business community to join hands to build a green growth journey, a journey towards net zero emissions reduction.

Ho Chi Minh City realizes that traditional economic development is no longer the optimal choice, so it has shifted to creating a new journey, a green growth journey. Ho Chi Minh City is urgently completing the framework of the Green Development Strategy to 2030, with a vision to 2050, to build Ho Chi Minh City into a civilized, modern, and humane city, an attractive destination for investors and tourists. The strategic framework identifies people and businesses as the center of digital transformation; at the same time, promoting regional connectivity and international cooperation to implement 4 pillars. These are developing green resources; building green infrastructure, developing green behavior, and identifying pioneering industries or fields./.

Thu Hang