HA NOI – The Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) has been working with other relevant ministries to draft a Green Growth Strategy for Vietnam by 2020 which will be submitted to the Government this June.

The strategy aimed to restructure and change the country's growth model, effectively using natural resources to increase the competitiveness of the economy, create jobs and improve people's living standards, while coping with climate change and contributing to efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, said Le Duc Chung from the MPI's Sustainable Development and Climate Change project.

Chung said the strategy had been planned to adjust with the development of related industries. Under the draft, the strategy would help Viet Nam reduce energy consumption by three per cent per GDP per year by 2020, while greenhouse gas emissions would drop by 10-15 per cent compared with 2010.

A committee run by the Minister of Planning and Investment and seven other deputy ministers has also been formed to oversee the strategy.

Three main duties have been drawn out: adopting green production by fostering the efficiency of existing industries with environmental manufacturing; reducing greenhouse gas emissions while increasing renewable energy use; and changing lifestyles and consumption for sustainable development.

Chung also said there were plans to adjust investment policies to attract more ODA, FDI and domestic sources of income to subsidise green development.

In Vietnam, after years of maintaining economic growth of around 7 per cent per year, economic structure has been industrialised, improving people's living standards while coping with the global economic downturn as well as climate change, but the economy remained unsustainable, and urgent changes were needed to utilise natural resources more efficiently. – VNS