International expert workshop on eco-industrial parks in Vietnam

Attending the conference were the Swiss Ambassador to Vietnam, Leaders of the People's Committee of Quang Nam province, representatives of relevant ministries, branches and localities, and many leading experts in the world and Vietnam on ecological industrial park (IZ) models and green industry development.

The workshop is an outstanding activity within the framework of the Project "Implementing the eco-industrial park initiative towards a sustainable industrial park model in Vietnam" to pilot the conversion from conventional industrial parks to ecological industrial parks in Vietnam. The project is implemented by the Ministry of Planning and Investment in collaboration with UNIDO with funding support from the Global Environment Facility and the Swiss Bureau of Economics.

The project has a total non-refundable aid budget of 4,554,000 USD with the goal of enhancing the transfer, application, and dissemination of technology and cleaner production measures, energy saving, resource and chemical management in industrial parks, and promoting cooperation in the common use of resources and by-products between businesses in the same industrial park, thereby piloting the conversion to ecological industrial parks for industrial parks: Khanh Phu (Ninh Binh), Hoa Khanh (Da Nang) and Tra Noc 1&2 (Can Tho).

The conference is an opportunity for Vietnamese state management agencies and domestic experts to contact and exchange with world experts about successful eco-industrial park models in the world, technical standards and legal frameworks for converting as well as building new eco-industrial parks in other countries. At the same time, consensus was reached on the concept, minimum technical standards, and policy mechanisms to encourage the development of this model, thereby concretizing it in legal documents in Vietnam.

Speaking at the Conference, Mr. Tran Duy Dong, Director of the Department of Economic Zones Management, Ministry of Planning and Investment, Project Director said that in order to realize the goal of Greening production in the National Strategy on Green Growth, the Government of Vietnam requires newly established industrial parks and economic zones to be designed and built according to advanced standards on greenhouse gas emissions, waste treatment and ensuring green space, encouraging recycling and reuse technologies. energy and waste to form ecological industrial parks. At the same time, the Government has assigned the Ministry of Planning and Investment to preside over research, amend and supplement Decrees regulating industrial parks and economic zones, which specifically stipulate the eco-industrial park model.

The workshop has important significance for the institutionalization of the eco-industrial park model in Vietnam and is consistent with the orientation of the Vietnamese Government in developing this model in the coming time. At the same time, the close cooperation between Vietnam and donors during project implementation has actively contributed to realizing the goal of sustainable industrial development./.