The followingare the events.
1. The 8th plenum of the 12th Party Central Committee issued Resolution36-NQ-TW dated October 22, 2018 on the Strategy on Sustainable Development ofthe Marine Economy to 2030 with a vision to 2045. The resolution outlines fivemajor policies on developing the marine and coastal economy along with threebreakthroughs and seven key groups of solutions.
2. The 14th National Assembly adopted the Law on Measurement and Map. This is the firsttime Vietnam has had a law regulating professional activities in the field ofmeasurement and mapping, which is significant in the context of the FourthIndustrial Revolution.
3. Manypolicies of the Party regarding the management of land and natural resources,environmental protection and response to climate change have been reviewed andassessed in a comprehensive manner. The policies included the 11th Party Central committee’s Resolution 19-NQ/TW dated October 31, 2012 oncontinuing to reform land-related policies and law, and Resolution 24-NQ/TW onmaking proactive response to climate change, strengthening the management ofnatural resources and environmental protection. The assessment helped pinpointoutstanding problems and shortcomings which must be addressed in the timeahead.
4. The PrimeMinister issued Directive 27/CT-TTg dated September 17, 2018 on urgent measuresto tighten management of the import of waste and use of imported waste asproduction materials amid the piling up of imported waste at sea ports. TheMoNRE also promulgated circulars on national environmental standards for sixtypes of imported waste in high demand which are scrap iron, steel; plastics;paper; glass; non-ferrous metals; and slag.
5. The sixth Assemblyof the Global Environment Facility (GEF) took place in Vietnam with theparticipation of nearly 1,500 delegates, including heads of State, Governmentleaders, ministers, heads of environmental agencies of 183 countries, UNagencies, non-governmental organisations, international financial institutes,and experts. The same year, Vietnam successfully organized several keyinternational events in the field of natural resource and environment, such asthe 50th session of the Typhoon Committee, the 15th Regional Congress on Geology, Mineral and Energy Resources of Southeast Asia,and the 25th meeting of the Mekong River Commission Council.
6. Theinitiatives on forming a global cooperation mechanism for reducing plasticwaste and building a regional partnership in management of plastic waste inSoutheast Asia proposed by Vietnam at the expanded Group of Seven (G7) Summitin Canada and the 6th GEF Assembly won appreciation of theinternational community. In implementing the initiatives, the MoNRE launched alarge-scale campaign to reduce plastic waste and the use of disposable plasticgoods, which received warm response from agencies, organisations and thecommunity.
7. The Non NuocCao Bang Geopark in the northern province of Cao Bang was recognised as aUNESCO Global Geopark at the 204th session of the UNESCO ConsecutiveCouncil in April. Itis the second UNESCO-recognised Global Geopark in Vietnam after Dong Van KarstPlateau, which was accredited in 2010. The park is also the eight of its kindin Southeast Asia to receive the status. The Non Nuoc Cao Bang Global Geoparkcovers more than 3,000 sq.km, spreading across nine districts.
8.Hanoi becomes the first city in the country to invest in an air monitoring systemmeeting national standards, with 10 automatic air monitoring stations put intouse in 2018, a mobile air monitoring vehicle, six water surface monitoringstations and an information and operation centre. Data on air quality areupdated around the clock and publicised using various media for the public tokeep check of the air quality where they live.
9.Speeding up the implementation of the e-Government, IT application,administrative reform and streamlining of business conditions and commoditiessubject to specialised inspection in the field of natural resources andenvironment. An interactive network has been completed connecting the MoNRE,the departments of natural resources and the environment of 63 provinces, thePeople’s Committees of provinces and centrally-run cities, and governmentalagencies, allowing them to contact, send and receive documents. A total of 102out of 163 business conditions were abolished (62.6 percent, surpassing theGovernment’s target of 12.6 percent), and the number of commodities subject tospecialised inspection was reduced by 38, from 74 to 36 (51.3 percent).
10. Freshwaterwas found at a depth of 80m on Bach Long Vi Island, an offshore district of thenorthern city of Hai Phong. The island, which is 100km from the mainland, oftensuffers from water shortage. The two drilled wells have a combined flow of 75cubic metres per day.-VNA