EVENT RECAP: High-Level 14th Regional EST Forum in Asia – Viet Nam’s Statement
Photo by GIZ Vietnam
On October 18th, 2021, during the High-Level 14th Regional EST Forum in Asia, Mr Le Anh Tuan, Vice Minister of Viet Nam Ministry of Transport (MOT), shared Viet Nam’s vision towards a carbon-neutral transport system.
You can access more information about the event here on the United Nations website.
The High-Level 14th Regional Environmentally Sustainable Transport (EST) Forum in Asia was organized during October 18th-20th, 2021. During the event, Mr Le Anh Tuan, Vice Minister of Viet Nam Ministry of Transport (MOT), shared the following remarks: he hoped experts and international organizations taking part in the Forum would be an important bridge to promote cooperation, transfer technology, and mobilize resources to facilitate developing countries, including Viet Nam, to design a smart and carbon-neutral transport system.
Viet Nam is facing tremendous challenges in developing a resilient transport sector, major challenges include traffic congestion, environmental pollution, rapidly increasing greenhouse gas emissions, and especially the strong impact on transport infrastructure from climate change, sea-level rise and extreme weather events. Smart and low-carbon transport technology will be an irreversible approach to foster a sustainable transport system for Viet Nam.
During the High-Level 14th Regional Environmentally Sustainable Transport Forum in Asia, Mr Le Anh Tuan, Vice Minister of Viet Nam Ministry of Transport (MOT), shared Viet Nam’s vision towards a carbon-neutral transport system. He stated that as a developing country, the transport sector in Viet Nam possessed unique characteristics: the public transport system had not been able to meet people’s needs; the proportion of motorbikes remained significant; and traffic congestion, environmental pollution, and climate change were affecting people’s health and quality of life.
The Vice Minister confirmed that base on this context, Vietnam’s Transport Development Strategy had set out the following goals: to develop the transport system in a modern manner, with increasingly improved and affordable quality, enhanced safety, limited environmental pollution, increased energy efficiency; and to apply advanced transport technology, especially multi-modal transport and logistics.
Last but not least, the Vice Minister hoped that experts and international organisations taking part in the Forum would be an important bridge to promote cooperation, transfer technology, and mobilize resources to facilitate developing countries, including Viet Nam, to design a smart and carbon-neutral transport system.
With the aim of translating the aforementioned vision into action, the NDC Transport Initiative for Asia (NDC-TIA) Viet Nam component supports the MOT in promoting energy efficiency application and e-mobility adaptation; developing an MRV system to track GHG mitigation progress; and upgrading the scenarios towards a carbon-neutral transport.
The 14th Regional EST Forum in Asia was co-organized by the Ministry of the Environment, Government of Japan; Asian Development Bank (ADB); United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP); and the United Nations Centre for Regional Development of the Division for Sustainable Development Goals/United Nations Development of Economic and Social Affairs (UNCRD-DSDG/UN DESA); and was supported by various international organizations and donor agencies including the German Technical Cooperation (GIZ) among others. The Forum was attended by high-level government representatives and policymakers from multiple Ministries, government officials from central, regional and local governments, distinguished transport, environment and climate change experts and international resource persons, representatives of relevant UN and international organizations, selected representatives of the private and business sectors, Academia, and NGOs, etc.
Authors: Chi Pham Linh
