NINH BINH, Vietnam – December 16-17, 2014 – In support of the Government of Vietnam’s efforts to mainstream green growth in its national socioeconomic planning system, a technical workshop was held from December 16 to 17 to discuss the first draft of the Investment Guideline for Green Growth.
Organized through the tripartite partnership between the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), approximately 60 representatives from line ministries, provincial governments, and private sector participated in the two-day event. The workshop was part of a series that aims to tackle the progress of drafting the Investment Guideline for Green Growth, which will provide the analytical framework to assist the government in screening and prioritizing investment options in line with Vietnam’s National Green Growth Strategy and Action Plan.
Dr. Pham Hoang Mai, Director General of the Department of Science, Education, Natural Resources and Environment of MPI expressed his optimism about the workshop outcomes, emphasizing the importance of setting the stage for an intensive and multi-stakeholder discussion on the content of the draft.
“The Investment Guideline for Green Growth is one step forward in mainstreaming green growth at the heart of the national planning process. It will enable us to utilize a robust methodology in identifying and prioritizing investments for green growth programs and projects,” Dr. Mai said.
The workshop was further enriched by GGGI presentations on global trends and lessons learned from investment planning for green growth, as well as the UNDP-led discussions on emerging trends and approaches in tracking green growth and climate expenditures.
The participants conveyed their appreciation for the significant progress made toward mainstreaming green investments at the strategy level. At the same time, participants noted that daunting challenges remain at the sectoral and programmatic level where solid criteria and indicators need to be set to effectively prioritize options and monitor and evaluate performance. Overcoming these challenges will ensure that green growth action plans are realistic, investment-ready, and catalytic in terms of leveraging private sector funding.
“We cannot manage what we don’t measure. As such, the draft investment guideline will hopefully provide the Government of Vietnam with the solid analytical basis for more informed decision-making on green growth investment,” said Dr. Imran Ahmad, GGGI Director for East Asia and the Pacific.
Vietnam has been a member country of GGGI since 2011. GGGI has been working in support of the government’s development and implementation of Vietnam’s Green Growth Strategy and Action Plan. GGGI is also conducting a pilot study on the nexus between water and green growth in the Mekong Delta with the Viet Nam National Mekong Committee (VNMC). In 2015, GGGI will also assist the Ministry of Construction to develop a national urban green growth roadmap and action plan.