Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc: Need to unify awareness and action on sustainable development

Opening his speech at the plenary session of the 2019 National Conference on Sustainable Development with the theme “For a Decade of More Sustainable Development”, towards the milestone of 2030, on the afternoon of September 12, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc expressed his impression of the large participation of experts, businesses, leaders and the conference scene using recycled items for decoration, not using disposable plastic items.

The Prime Minister affirmed that sustainable development is both an urgent need and an inevitable trend of social development, “inevitable means that if you do the opposite, you will fail”. Therefore, the policy of sustainable development is consistently expressed in documents, programs, and plans for national development in each period.

If we do not develop rapidly, we will fall behind the world, but we must develop sustainably, the Prime Minister stated clearly. In 30 years of renovation, Vietnam has implemented many synchronous solutions to promote sustainable development and achieved many important achievements such as basically stable macro-economy, Vietnam's economic growth has been maintained at a high level, and growth quality has been improved.

Vietnam's Human Development Index (HDI) in 2017 was 0.694, in the upper middle group out of 189 countries. Vietnam actively and effectively participates in global environmental protection initiatives. According to the fourth annual assessment report on the progress of implementing the sustainable development goals in 2019, Vietnam ranked 54th, up 3 places compared to 2018, and the sustainable development index ranked 2nd in Southeast Asia. The high-ranking indicators in Vietnam are hunger eradication, poverty reduction, education, energy access, consumption patterns, sustainable production, and climate change response.

“However, the above results are not commensurate with the country’s potential and advantages. Productivity, quality, efficiency and competitiveness of the economy need to be improved,” said the Prime Minister. The situation of inefficient exploitation and use of natural resources, environmental pollution and imbalance in ecosystems still occurs in many places. Looking at all the achievements, positive aspects and the shortcomings and limitations mentioned above, we can see that over the past decade we have had encouraging changes and many steps forward in sustainable development, but there is still much to do to make the next decade more sustainable and better.

Photo: VGP/Quang Hieu

The Prime Minister suggested that there should be unity in awareness and action at all levels, sectors and the whole society regarding sustainable development. “This is the responsibility of the entire Party, the entire people, the entire political system and all components of society.”

It is necessary to focus policies and resources on sustainable development. The United Nations Human Development Report has clearly identified the sole goal of putting people at the center of the development process. People are the center of sustainable development. Meeting the material and spiritual needs of all classes of people more and more fully, building a rich and strong country, a fair, democratic and civilized society is a consistent principle in every stage of development.

We have had too many development strategy documents for different goals in the same period. Therefore, implementation is still ineffective, unable to concentrate resources, including human resources, to implement well. The Prime Minister requested ministries, branches and localities to study so that the 2030 agenda for sustainable development is the focus and consistent content in the socio-economic strategy for the period 2021 - 2030 with specific plans and tasks.

It is necessary to speed up the process of restructuring and perfecting economic institutions towards more efficient use of natural resources, saving energy, improving economic competitiveness, innovating technology, adapting to climate change, reducing poverty, and ensuring sustainable economic development.

The Prime Minister recognized the initiatives and action plans of the business community. Photo: VGP/Quang Hieu

Act with the international community to soon implement the Paris Agreement on climate change response. Integrate and accelerate the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, especially Goal 13 on timely and effective response to climate change and natural disasters and Goal 14 on conserving and sustainably using the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development before 2030.

It is necessary to synchronously implement national strategies for green growth, climate change adaptation, sustainable poverty reduction, circular economy, and sharing economy for sustainable development...