The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and international
partners have agreed to restart the International Support Group on
Natural Resources and Environment (ISGE) in a meeting in Hanoi.
Accordingly,
a larger scale programme will be kicked off under the name of Natural
Resources and Environment Policy Dialogue (NREPD).
The agreement
was reached during the November 24 meeting to assess the outcomes of the
2014 joint action plan within the framework of the 2013 Vietnam
Development Partnership Forum (VDPF).
Addressing the event, Do
Nam Thang, deputy head of the ministry’s International Cooperation
Department, said the ministry and development partners have carried out a
number of actions to enhance the state management capacity in
implementing laws on environment and to stepping up the community’s
involvement in environmental protection.
The 2014-2015 joint
action plan was set up with a focus on implementing the support
programme to respond to climate change (SP- RCC) in Vietnam, revising
documents guiding the implementation of the Law on Environment
Protection, and increasing the national capacity on the evaluation of
the environmental impacts as well as on building and participating in
international and regional agreements related to environment.
Established
in 2009 to support the national target programme to respond to the
climate change, the SP-RCC has drawn the involvement of ministries,
agencies and localities as well as international support such as the
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), French Development Agency
(AFD) and Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)
Apart
from financial assistance, SP-PCC donors have coordinated with
Vietnamese ministries have built up over 200 policy actions in response
to climate change. A post-2015 action plan will be set up in next
June.-VNA