Vietnam has done well in implementing some Millennium Goals.

During the annual Ministerial meeting of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) held in Geneva from July 1-4, the international community highly appreciated Vietnam's efforts in implementing well and completing a number of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) ahead of schedule.

ECOSOC is the central forum of the United Nations, specializing in discussing international economic and social issues. With the theme "The role of science, technology, innovation, and the potential of culture in serving sustainable development and achieving MDGs", the Vietnamese delegation led by Deputy Minister Nguyen The Phuong delivered a speech at the high-level meeting on the afternoon of July 1. Vietnam was chosen as one of three countries to voluntarily share experiences and achievements in the process of national development.

Delegates from countries such as Laos, Korea, Mozambique... all commented and highly appreciated the achievements of Vietnam. By the end of 2012, Vietnam had completed a large part of the MDGs committed to the international community. Vietnam achieved the target of halving the poverty rate (MDG 1) in 2002 and continued to achieve remarkable achievements in poverty reduction, the poverty rate in 2010 was only 10.7%.

Vietnam also achieved universal primary education (MDG 2) by Vietnam standards in 2000, and to date, the primary school enrolment rate at the right age has reached 97.7%. Rapid progress has also been recorded in promoting gender equality and empowering women (MDG 3). Child health care and improving maternal health (MDG 4 and MDG 5) have also recorded significant achievements.

Vietnam has made great strides in establishing a global partnership for development (MDG 8), helping to mobilize foreign investment, official development assistance, and take advantage of opportunities from trade liberalization to promote economic growth and poverty reduction.

However, as one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change, there are many reasons to be concerned that climate change will increase the vulnerability of a segment of the Vietnamese population, and is an important cause of falling back into poverty. This is one of the major challenges for Vietnam in the coming years to be able to achieve the goal of ensuring environmental sustainability (MDG 7).

Deputy Minister Nguyen The Phuong said 2013 is a pivotal year when the United Nations begins preparations for the post-2015 Development Agenda. Up to now, Vietnam has completed 3 goals ahead of schedule, 3 goals are on track and likely to be completed in 2015, while continuing efforts to implement 2 challenging goals: ensuring environmental sustainability and repelling the spread of HIV.

Science, technology and innovation are also among the areas that the Vietnamese Government pays special attention to. The Law on Science and Technology was passed by the Vietnamese National Assembly in 2000 and took effect from January 1, 2001. In addition, Vietnam also has the Law on Technology Transfer and the Law on Intellectual Property. These laws have created a legal framework to promote the development of science, technology and innovation.

In addition to presenting reports at the official session, the Vietnamese delegation proactively held many bilateral meetings to share lessons learned and models of science and technology application of Vietnam in implementing the MDGs with international friends. Vietnam is ready to share with the international community its experiences in implementing development goals through the South-South cooperation model; at the same time, Vietnam also hopes to continue to receive cooperation and support from the international community to improve the quality of MDG implementation, together towards 2015.

Vietnam is actively coordinating with the United Nations to prepare for the development of a post-2015 development agenda for countries around the world. The United Nations has selected a number of countries, including Vietnam, to conduct national consultations, to learn about the challenges and aspirations of the consultation groups. The report on the results of the national consultations in Vietnam has been completed and is considered an important contribution to the process of deciding on the United Nations' post-2015 development agenda./.

According to (TTXVN) - LT