A senior Vietnamese official has appealed for stronger global link in
making policies and strategies pertaining to natural resource management
and environmental protection to show Vietnam’s serious response to
joint efforts to deal with climate change in the time ahead.
Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Ha made
the point at the Institute of Strategy and Policy on Natural Resources
and Environment (ISPONRE)’s conference in Hanoi on July 30 to review
what it had done in January-June and initiate its tasks for the rest of
this year.
ISPONRE was required to further expand relations with
international organisations and sponsors as well as establish ties with
the global network of institutes and research centres to canvass
experience and cooperation opportunities serving the making of policies.
The relationship with the Washington-based Global Environment
Facility (GEF), via the GFF Vietnam office, needs to be stepped up to
facilitate the smooth mutual exchange of information in the related
areas, Ha stressed.
ISPONRE will increase its cooperation with
agencies and institutes working in the environment fields like the
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Centre
for Regional Development (UNCRD), and the Asia Development Bank (ADB)
via research projects, forums and symposiums, the Institute Director
Nguyen Van Tai asserted.
So far this year, ISPONRE has partnered
with UNDP and ADB to lobby for four international projects on
environment and biodiversity in the country and sent its specialists
abroad for professional training.
During the first half of this
year, it had successfully held seven workshops to garner comments on
policies and legal frameworks to cope with climate change and manage
natural resources, among others.
This August, an international
seminar on Asia’s approach to climate change and natural disasters –
co-hosted by the ISPONRE, the Asia Foundation and the Korea Development
Institute, will get underway in the central province of Quang Nam,
expected to come up with experience and approaches that are workable in
Vietnam.-VNA