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Agenda 21, providing a road map for the nation’s development, has been drafted drawing on contributions from various strata of society.
While it provides a balanced direction for growth, critics say the draft needs more work before it can be effective.
Thoi bao Tai chinh Viet Nam (Viet Nam Financial Times) newspaper spoke with several specialists about the draft’s prospects for success.

Viet Nam needs to restructure its economy and improve competitiveness at the national level and among individual enterprises.

The nation must carry out its multi-sector economic policy, strictly observe entrepreneurs’ right to engage in any business not prohibited by laws and maintain a level-playing field through market observance and anti-trust efforts.

We need to help develop and support small and medium-sized businesses in both urban centres and rural areas so that these firms can create more job opportunities and tap currently idle resources.

We must combine economic restructuring with administrative reforms in order to cut business costs.

Le Quy An, Nature and Environment Protection Association

It’s just not smart to think only of environmental protection. We should concern ourselves with how to use natural resources responsibly. We should learn lessons from past mistakes, like destroying forests to plant crops.

Viet Nam is a developing country and the only way to harmonise economic, social and environmental factors is to give priority to economic development, but limit such development with environmental and social responsibility.

In agricultural and rural development, it is impossible to talk about sustainable development if you only think about developing industry and service as rapidly as possible, without paying attention to environmental protection.

Environmental solutions must be integrated into development strategies from day one. From the initial proposal to the physical development of land, the environment must be a main concern.

In addition to promoting hunger eradication and poverty reduction, we need to focus on narrowing the gap between rich and poor. The richest 20 per cent of the population is on average 4.4 times wealthier than the poorest 20 per cent. In Dac Lac Province the rich are 12.5 times richer and in Ha Tinh Province the rich are seven times richer.

In regards to the role of social and mass organisations in sustainable development, the draft only touches on the roles and responsibilities of these groups. It says nothing about their full participation in the various stages of development – particularly in the observance of democratic rights at the grassroots level.

For example, in the process of environmental assessment, publicising development projects to attract public comment has yet to be made mandatory.

Pham Xuan Su from the Water Conservancy and Irrigation Projects Department

Although water resources are less threatened than land resources, I think we are going to see some major problems with water in the long run. Viet Nam’s water resources are not distributed evenly – in terms of both location and season. We don’t know what will happen with the climate, as such we should map out water-saving policies right now.

First of all, we need to compliment the water resource management system and build a database for water resource control. So far planning for water management has yet to be conducted comprehensively. It doesn’t take into account close relationships between forests, water for industrial use, daily household consumption, the environment and ecology. The irresponsible exploitation of both forests and water resources, along with unplanned discharge of industrial and household waste, has led to the depletion of water resources.

Irrigation planning has been conducted, but some areas have not paid due attention to drainage, flood discharge or water quality.

We haven’t developed water storage to maintain the supply after flood for use in the dry season. Droughts, like those throughout the country right now, are the result.

Moreover, investment in irrigation projects remains low – about US$1,500 per ha as compared with other countries with similar water resource issues that invest as much as $3,000-$5,000 per ha.

Poor maintenance of irrigation projects has caused many facilities to deteriorate; some operate at a mere 60 per cent of their design capacity.

Better co-ordination between the various administrative levels and international co-operation will contribute to the appropriate use and preservation of water resources and the environment. This is also an important factor in promoting Viet Nam’s sustainable development. — VNS