The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) has set up the Office for Business Sustainable Development. Vietnam Business Forum had an interview with Mr. Nguyen Quang Vinh, Deputy Director of the Office.
The Government has ratified the Strategic Orientation on Sustainable Development in Vietnam. So, how should enterprises comprehend the sustainable development?
The Earth Summit on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janerio in 1992 and the World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg in 2002 specified that sustainable development is a process of close, reasonable and harmonious combination of three development elements, namely economic development, social development (especially social progress and equality, hunger elimination and poverty alleviation, and job creation) and environmental protection.
The Strategic Orientation for Sustainable Development in Vietnam is the framework strategy comprised of broad orientations, which are the legal foundation for relevant ministries, sectors, localities, organizations and individuals to follow and express Vietnam’s commitments to the international community. To date, five ministries and sectors, and 10 provinces and cities have steering committees and offices for the sustainable development to manage and implement the Vietnam Agenda 21 (the short form for the Strategic Orientation for Sustainable Development in Vietnam).
Can you tell the main objectives of VCCI from the establishment of the Office for Business Sustainable Development?
VCCI set up the Office for Business Sustainable Development with the objectives of building a sustainable Vietnamese business community and successfully integrating in the 21st century, significantly contributing to the economic development, social progress, hunger eradication, poverty reduction and environmental protection.
The Office will cooperate solidly with the sustainable development offices of the Ministry of Planning and Investment, other ministries, sectors and localities to carry out its activities. We will gather, research, propose, advise and give consultancy to VCCI leaders and relevant organs regarding policies and measures to boost the sustainable and integration of the Vietnamese business community. The Office will also build, apply and employ tools, models and systems to help control the sustainable development to increase the competitive capacity of the Vietnamese business community.
Could you reveal specific activities of your office in the coming time?
We will conduct propagandas about the contents of the business sustainable development through conferences, seminars, mass media, internal bulletins and websites.
At the same time, we will help raise awareness of enterprises about the importance of the sustainable business; disseminate good practices about the sustainable business in the region and the world; upgrade the role and awareness of enterprises in supporting relevant bodies to prevent calamities (the act of the god, floods, storms and pandemics like HIV/AIDS and bird flu). Besides, the Office will encourage, instruct and advise affiliated enterprises to carry out the clean industrialisation process.
The Office will also conduct researches on criteria and common practices of the country and the world; construct management-supporting tools to serve the sustainable development of enterprises; cooperate with ministries, sectors and localities to organise sustainable development awards for enterprises and entrepreneurs; and carry out sustainable development programmes for enterprises as well as countryside and traditional trade villages.
In addition, the Office for Business Sustainable Development will establish supportive relationships with relevant organisations and share experience. The VCCI has worked with foreign partners and multinational companies and have received their support commitments in carrying out activities to help the sustainable development in d integration of the Vietnamese business community.
Lan Anh
Vietnamese
