The inception workshop andsigning ceremony of the project were held in Ho Chi Minh City last week.
The project has a cost of morethan 1.82 million USD, of which 1.68 million USD is official development assistance(ODA) from the Government of Switzerland through its Swiss StateSecretariat for Economic Affairs, as well as co-funding of 138,800 USD fromthe Ministry of Planning and Investment.
It is the continuation of thesuccessful implementation of the pilot initiative which concluded last yearafter being launched in 2014.
The three-year project will beimplemented in the cities of Hanoi, Hai Phong, Da Nang, Can Tho and HCM City,and Dong Nai province.
It is expected to create thefoundation for the replication of the eco-industrial park (EIP) model across the country in the comingyears.
The project has twocomponents: enhancing policies and instructions for the implementation ofEIPs, and implementing technical interventions to transform selected industrialparks into EIPs.
It will help improve the legalframework and develop information and technical databases to connect businessesand to support implementation of solutions to transform industrial parks intoEIPs.
It is expected that theoutcomes of the project will lay the foundation for Government agencies anddonors to continue mainstreaming the EIP concept throughout the country.
Speaking at the inceptionworkshop, Swiss Ambassador to Vietnam Ivo Sieber said that Vietnam’sdevelopment over the past 30 years had been truly remarkable. However, rapideconomic growth and industrialisation had had a detrimental impact on theenvironment and natural assets.
There had been a sharp increasein Green House Gas emissions (GHG) and a growing depletion ofbiodiversity over the same period of time, he said.
“It is encouraging that Vietnam’snext Socio-Economic Development Strategy 2021-2030 includes clearstrategic directions, which will promote a transformation towards a greeneconomy.
“The viability and benefits ofan eco-industrial park model will contribute to improving the economic,environmental and social performance of industries in Vietnam, which is veryresponsive to the government’s vision of a green economy.”
"Switzerland is proud topartner with UNIDO in promoting resource efficiency and cleaner productionsolutions in Vietnam," he added.
Le Thi Thanh Thao, UNIDO’scountry representative in Vietnam, said that the EIP model was essential for Vietnamto develop sustainable industrial development, while protecting the environmentthrough resource and energy-use efficiency.
EIPs would be more likely toattract investments and generate a collective competitive advantage, Thao said.
The development of EIPs wouldcreate a premise to improve policies and regulations about EIPs in particularand to integrate the EIP model into the legal frameworkon the environment and industries as well as other relevant policies,she added.
The Ministry of Planning andInvestment and UNIDO, with the support of a number of donors, implemented theeco-industrial park initiative in the 2014 – 2019 period. Ithad significant impact on policy developmentand demonstrated innovative technologies and practices.
The EIP model is mentionedin Decree 82 on the management of industrial zones and economic zones. The newdecree forms a strong legal framework for the future development ofEco-Industrial Parks in Vietnam.
Various solutions forresource-efficient and cleaner production were implemented under the frameworkof the pilot initiative.
These led to an avoidedannual demand of over 22,000 MWh of electricity, 600,000 cubic metres offreshwater, 140 TJ of fossil fuel, and nearly 3,600 tonnes of chemicals andwaste, through resource-efficient and cleaner production and industrialsymbiosis solutions.
These solutions also led toavoided emissions of 32 kt of CO2 every year.
As of the end of June, thecountry had 336 industrial parks, of which 279 are operational.
Last year, enterprises in IPsand economic zones earned 235 billion USD in revenue, a year-on-year increaseof 8 percent, and 142 billion USD in export turnover, contributing nearly 59 percentto the nation's export turnover./.