Viet Nam’s economic growth in recent decades has been accompanied by significant rural to urban migration, which has led to increased social and environmental challenges. Over the past decade, 700 square kilometers of land have been converted into urban areas and inhabited by 7.5 million new city residents. While Viet Nam’s cities represent potential engines for strong economic growth, the largest urban centers operate with poor urban design and lack adequate infrastructure.

Cities also lack sufficient levels of green growth investment, due in part to insufficient climate change and green growth mainstreaming in policy and planning processes, and climate-relevant project orientation.

To address these challenges Viet Nam has adopted a National Green Growth Strategy (VGGS), which includes priorities to deploy technologies to adapt to climate change and reduce GHG emissions through green growth actions in infrastructure, employment, and natural capital. The VGGS calls for 50% of cities to attain green urban status and targets a public transportation utilization rate of 45% by 2020. Many of the VGGS mitigation goals as reflected in the NDC will require increased low-carbon infrastructure investment in the wastewater, energy, and transport sectors. Additionally, one of the three key objectives of the Socio-Economic Development Plan (SEDP) 2016-20 is to build an infrastructure system focusing on transport and large urban infrastructure.

This project will build on GGGI’s urban green growth work in Viet Nam at the national, provincial, and city levels. Over the past two years, GGGI has collaborated with the MOC on national policy development, which culminated in the National Urban Green Growth Strategy (NUGGS). In the city of Ben Tre, GGGI conducted a feasibility study on wastewater management to unlock a $25 million ADB loan. Additionally, GGGI, MOC and the MPI worked closely together to develop a five-year CPF that includes urban green growth objectives. Achieving urban green growth development targets in the VGGS and SEDP will require technical support to develop green city action plans and tap into financing that will facilitate implementation.

PROJECT OUTPUTS FOR 2017-18:

• Conduct assessment of potential green city developments that would help achieve Viet Nam’s NDC commitments and submit to government
• Prepare a green city master plan for 1 selected city and submit to government
• Develop recommendations on integrating green growth into the next National Urban Development Program and submit to government
• Develop feasibility studies and financing proposals for 2 projects in green urban infrastructure and submit to government

PROJECT OUTCOMES FOR 2017-18:

• Government adopts green city master plan aligned to Viet Nam’s NDC commitments for implementation
• Government adopts recommendations for integrating green growth into the National Urban Development Program
• Government approves 2 proposals for green urban infrastructure projects for financing and implementation

The overall outcome of the project is to support the GoV to achieve targeted poverty reduction, social inclusion, environmental sustainability and economic growth through urban green growth development. The project will provide policy advice at the national level and support sub-national implementation by partnering with cities to develop green master plans and bankable projects. This will be done by delivering the following outputs:

An assessment of potential green city developments that help achieve Viet Nam’s NDC commitments is conducted and submitted to government. Since cities are engines for both growth and emissions, GGGI will conduct an assessment of the potential contributions by cities to NDC achievement. The findings, validated in consultation with stakeholders, will facilitate the alignment of local policy and planning with national low-carbon objectives, and assist cities and the MOC to implement a sectoral green growth action plan.

A green city master plan is prepared for one selected city and submitted to government. Based on the need to operationalize elements of NUGGS, GGGI will cooperate with a pilot city to develop a Green City Master Plan that incorporates the urban green growth indicators and the investment framework, and is informed by the revised planning code and GGGI’s NUGGS. To facilitate development, GGGI will identify a candidate city for the Master Plan, and engage national and city level stakeholders to develop a pipeline of prioritized investment opportunities for follow-up financing and action.

Recommendations for integrating green growth into the next National Urban Development Program (NUDP) is developed and submitted to the government. MOC will engage donors to develop and finance the NUDP in 2019. GGGI will provide green growth mainstreaming support to MOC by developing policy recommendations to ensure the NUDP reflects green city development principles. To facilitate this, GGGI will conduct a policy gap analysis of the NUDP to identify linkages with urban green growth, provide technical assistance on policy development in line with MDB lending portfolios for sustainable urban infrastructure under the NUDP, and support the Viet Nam Urban Forum (VUF) as a stakeholder platform to align urban green growth in the VGGS, NDC, and NUDP.

Feasibility studies and financing proposals are developed and submitted to the government. Previous GGGI support identified and prioritized investment opportunities for urban infrastructure projects. GGGI will build on that support by conducting pre-feasibility studies and assessing available funding options. Findings will result in GGGI designing a business case for potential funding entities, and supporting projects to access identified funding sources.