01/04/2016
The Annual Meeting with International Partners has been hold by the Ministry of Natural Natural Resources (MONRE) and Environment in Ha Noi lately. The Minister of MONRE Nguyen Minh Quang highly has appreciated active support of international partners to help the ministry realise its main tasks and the cooperation activities with overseas partners have covered all thematic areas. He also informed results and achievements of the Ministry last year and action plans this year. Moreover, the areas gained significant support from international partners including environment, climate change, land management, water resources, and meteorology - hydrology have been clarified
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| MONRE Minister Nguyen Minh Quang delivers a speech at the Meeting |
In 2014, despite difficulties and challenges, the Natural Resources and Environment (NRE) sector has achieved many important results, has implemented effectively 5 main tasks such as developing, completing and implementing effectively policies and regulations on natural resources and environment, particularly the promulgation of the Land Law and the Law on Environmental Protection; the whole sector has boosted the supervision and inspection of all authorised sectors; and the administrative reform has been carried out in a more effective and decisive manner. In addition, great changes have been witnessed in the state management of natural resources and environment in each thematic area within the mandate of MONRE including land, environment, water resources, marine and islands, meteorology - hydrology and climate change, geology and minerals, remote sensing, survey and mapping. Last but not least, international integration and cooperation has been promoted with bilateral and multilateral partners through new projects to be developed towards national ownership and Viet Nam’s priorities.
In 2014, MONRE received valuable support and cooperation from multilateral and bilateral partners, countries and international organizations in implementing including United Nations Development Program (UNDP), United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), Global Environment Facility (GEF), The World Bank (WB), European Union (EU)… and bilateral organizations such as Japan, Australia, Denmark, Korea, Canada, France and the Netherlands.
“Last year, understanding the importance of policy dialogue between MONRE and international partners, MONRE has received constructive supports from international partners in establishing a new comprehensive policy dialogue mechanism between MONRE and international partners with the objectives to ensure the update and timely sharing of information among partners in cooperation priorities and activities in the NRE sector”, the minister said.
“The 2015 objective of the NRE sector is to create a solid foundation for the successful implementation of the five-year plan 2016 - 2020, attempting by 2020 the NRE sector to develop towards modernisation and to have important contributions to the country sustainability,” he added.
With that orientation, in 2015 the whole sector will focus on developing and completing the legislation system, laws, strategies, planning on NRE, particularly focusing on some following contents and activities: finalizing and submitting to the Government the Law on Marine and Island Natural Resources and Environment, Law on Meteorology and Hydrology; finalizing and promulgating the guiding documents of the Law on Environmental Protection, the Land Law, Law on Water Resources, Minerals Law; cooperating with international partners to implement important cooperation projects in climate change, environment, land, water resources, meteorology, hydrology, integrated marine and island management, geology-minerals, survey and mapping, remote sensing.
The minister emphasized that “Challenges for the NRE sector in 2015 are enormous. To achieve the set targets, leaders of MONRE have identified that while resources are limited, the support of the international community is vital. Therefore, MONRE looks forward to having precious supports, cooperation, experience exchanges from international individuals and organizations for our activities in 2015.”
At the Meeting, Ms. Pratibha Mehta, Resident Coordinator of the United Nations in Viet Nam said that the adoption of the Law on Environmental Protection by the National Assembly was a key milestone of 2014. MONRE played a leading role in the formulation of the law, which has introduced, for the 1st time, critical climate change aspects. Furthermore, the 2013 Land Law and its initial implementation at local level last year showed a significant reduction in number of steps and documentation requirements.
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| Ms. Pratibha Mehta, Resident Coordinator of the United Nations in Viet Nam | Ms. Victoria Kwakwa, Director of the World Bank (WB) in Viet Nam |
“Looking ahead, this year promises to be another eventful year for Viet Nam and globally, including the 21th Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Paris (France). It is a good occasion to celebrate Viet Nam’s remarkable success and MONRE’S outstanding contribution to addressing climate change. Viet Nam is among the first countries to have submitted its Biannual Update Report to the UNFCCC and prepared the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions on both mitigation and adaptation. Just weeks ago, the Government established Viet Nam Panel on Climate Change (VPCC) to serve as scientific body to observe and analyze vital trends in climate change,” she added.
Ms. Victoria Kwakwa, Director of the World Bank (WB) in Viet Nam said that in the past years, the WB had partnered with Viet Nam very actively in many areas of environmental resources, especially the issue of climate change in the Mekong Delta. The WB also pledged to continue cooperation with Viet Nam in the fight against climate change, and would continue to support more actively in the land management and other State management areas of the ministry.
While Chief Representative of JICA Viet Nam, Mr. Mori Mutsuya and Dutch Ambassador in Viet Nam, Nienke Trooster and other international partners committed to continuing to support Viet Nam generally and the Ministry particularly in combating with climate change, environmental protection and sustainable development.
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