# UNIT 3:
The world is becoming “fragile” to the requirement of sustainable
development. In order to realize the goals committed to the
international community, Viet Nam needs to make more efforts and be
persistent with the chosen path.
On the morning of December 10 in Ha Noi, Viet Nam Business Council
for Sustainable Development (Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and
Industry) organized the Viet Nam Corporate Sustainability Forum 2020
with the theme: “Sustainable development in the new decade”: Turning
challenges into opportunities.
The event was chaired by Deputy Prime Minister VDD, Cum Chairman of
the National Council for Sustainable Development and Competitiveness
Improvement, along with over 350 delegates from ministries, sectors,
domestic and international organizations, Business community and Press agencies in Viet Nam.
Opening the Forum, Mr. VTL, VCCI President said that this year’s forum
was held in the context of the complicated development of the COVID-
19 pandemic, sudden natural disaster, i7ntense trade war, … The world
is becoming more fragile than at any time in the past to the
requirement of sustainable development.
Thanks to the drastic direction of the Gov, the participation of
ministries, branches and localities to deploy many timely and accurate
decisions to deal with the epidemic and the efforts of the business
community to overcome difficulties, Viet Nam has become one of the
few countries in the world to successfully achieve the dual goal of both
controlling the pandemic and maintaining growth at 2-3% even at this
time. Meanwhile, the global trend is that the economies are declining,
possibly shrinking to minus 5,2% this year.
Implementing national action plans such as the 2030 Agenda for
sustainable development to enhance sustainable corporate governance
capacity in the 2021 Sustainable development plan for private
enterprises to 2021, vision to 2030, Such Resolutions as 01, 02 of the
Gov on implementation of tasks of socio-economic developments and
improvement of business environment … as well as efforts to deploy
international commitments when VN becomes a member of new-
generation free trade agreements have become the defining steps for
enhancing competitiveness and sustainable development of the
business community. Fortunately, VN has soon achieved some
sustainable development indicators of the UN and ranked high in the
region in terms of sustainable development, just behind Thailand. ## Consolidation
The EU-Vietnam Business Council was officially took effect on October
22nd, 2020 at the initiative of The European Chamber of Commerce in
Vietnam and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry .
On June 12th, at the Government Office, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc
Dam, Chairman of the National Council on Sustainable Development
and Competitiveness Improvement, chaired the Council meeting after
consolidating under Prime Minister's Decision No.419/QD-TTg dated April 18th, 2018.
Vietnam Business Forum ALLIANCE is a CONTINUOUS and CLOSE
dialogue MECHANISM between the Government of Vietnam and
business community, AIMING to improve necessary conditions for the
development of the private sector, facilitate the investment
environment and contribute to the sustainable economic growth of Vietnam.
On December 3rd, 2020, the Ministry of Planning and Investment
collaborated with Hanns Seidel Institute, Federal Republic of Germany
on organizing a conference on the implementation of The National
Action Plan for the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development.
On the morning of April 20th, the Boao Asian Agenda opened in Boao
city, Hainan province, China, both online and offline. Vietnamese
President Nguyen Xuan Phuc attended and delivered a speech at the opening ceremony. 1)
Sustainable development is the overarching paradigm of the United
Nations, which response to the urgent and dramatic challenges the planet faces.
The collective activities of human beings have altered the earth’s
ecosystems so that our very survival seems in danger because of
changes more difficult to reverse every day. To contain global warming
before it reaches catastrophic levels means addressing environmental,
social and economic issues in a holistic way. 2)
A SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MEETS THE NEEDS OF YOUR CUSTOMERS
According to a report by Cone Communications, 63% of Americans want
corporations to drive positive environmental and social change. In addition:
87% of American consumers support brands that advocate for the issues they care about.
76% of Americans expect companies to take action against climate change.
A SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MEETS INVESTOR DEMAND
BlackRock: BlackRock has requested that the companies they invest in
publish disclosures in line with ESG frameworks. These changes come as
BlackRock seeks to effectively manage ESG risk in their investment portfolio.
3) The forum was co-organised by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce
and Industry (VCCI) and the Vietnam Business Council for Sustainable Development (VBCSD). UNIT 4:
1) “golden population”, which is defined as when the number of
working-aged people outnumbers dependents.
2) The current population of Vietnam (or Viet Nam) is 99,658,180 as of Monday,
February 27, 2023, based on the latest United Nations data. The median age in
Vietnam is 32.5 years. 37.7 % of the population is urban.
3) Main workforce contribute to the growth of gdp
the trend of rapid population aging in the context of Viet Nam’s low per
capita income will cause risks of getting old be4 growing rich If not
taking the advantage of the golden population opportunity,
Le Van Thanh, Deputy Minister of Labor – War Invalids and Social Affairs
emphasized such in4 at the workshop “taking advantages of golden
population structure and Responding to population aging” held on April 14, 2021.
Deputy Minister LVT said that in the current labor market, Viet Nam
employment rate always stay at a high level and unemployment rate remains low.
According to International Labor Organization’s unemployment
standard, VN is one of the top 10 nations which have lowest jobless
rates in the world. Especially, Vietnam’s Human development Index in
2019 was in the group of “high Human development category”, ranking
117 out of 189 countries and territories.
According to the forecast of General Statistics Office and the UN
Population Development Fund, Viet Nam’ golden population structrure
period last for 33 years and will end in 2039, which means Vietnam only 19 years left.
Concurrently/Additionally, the interim in which the aging population
transform into aged population is approximately 26 years, from 2011-
2036. This is a exceedingly short transitional period compared to
developed nations, bringing VN to the group of nations with the World
fastest rates of population aging.
“In particular, the trend of rapid population aging in the context of Viet
Nam’s per capita income is still lower than the other aging countries will
cause risks of getting old be4 growing rich If we do not make good use
of the golden population opportunity and have effective adaption
measures to the problem of population aging.” emphasized Deputy Minister
Up to now/Until now, the proportion of skilled labor force has only
reaches 24,5% if the occupations in agricultural section are included,
unofficial employment rates even account for more than 2/3 of total
number of employment in the whole country.
“This fact is the barriers for making use of the opportunities of the 4th
industrial revolution and hinders the efforts of enhancing labor
productivity.” Said Deputy Minister
In addition, Vietnam’s population is rapidly aging, meanwhile the
country’s economic resources are still limited and the social security
system is still in infancy. Up to now/so far, only 33.2% of the labor force
of working age participates in social insurance; about 45,5% of elderly
people are entitled to pension, monthly social insurance subsidy or
monthly social subsidy; The elderly care services system is still
incomplete in terms of quantity and quality. Consolidation:
Vietnam, like many other countries in the Asia-Pacific region, is
currently experiencing a "golden population" structure as well as a
rapidly aging population trend.
Deputy Minister Le Van Thanh said that there would be two
fundamental issues that Vietnam would have to face in the near future.
Firstly, there is a finite amount of time to promote the advantages of
having a golden population structure, while the quality of human
resources is still limited and the quality of employment is not high enough.
Population aging rate in Vietnam is also very fast while the country's
economic resources are still limited and the social security system
remains in its early stages. The elderly care service system is still
insufficient in both quantity and quality. This increases the burden of
social security on the state budget and poses many challenges in
ensuring and enhancing the quality of social security for the elderly.
It is necessary to effectively address the social issues arising from
gender imbalance, including some consequences of gender imbalance
such as: difficulties in getting married and maintaining a "one wife, one
husband" system due to a higher male-to-female ratio; the risk of
spreading sexually transmitted diseases due to the increase in
extramarital sexual relationships resulting from the "scarcity" of
women; an increase in some social crimes such as kidnapping,
trafficking of women, prostitution...; women may be forced to have
more children, abort female fetuses, despite the threats to their health
and life, be abused, betrayed and abandoned when unable to give birth to a son.
Opportunity for a "golden" population structure is a once-in-a-lifetime.
If the "golden" population structure is not utilized, it will be a waste,
especially in the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, where the
requirements for human resources’ quality are changing significantly. Labor-intensive Laborious /
jobs are gradually being taken over by
machines; therefore, workers who want to participate in the market
must be professional, highly skilled, and even capable of using and controlling machines. Unit 5:
Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs has asked businesses
to continue implementing measures to prevent and control the COVID-
19 pandemic, striving to send 90000 Vietnamese guests workers by 2021.
So as to gradually restore the service of sending labor to work abroad in
line with/ in accordance with the new normality, Ministry of Labor, War
Invalids and Social Affairs has asked businesses to continue
implementing measures to prevent and control the COVID-19 pandemic
, striving to accomplish the 2021 plan to send 90000 Vietnamese guests workers.
Director general of the MOLISA’s Department of Overseas Labor Tong
Hai Nam said that Viet Nam currently has 506 enterprises licensed to
provide services to send guest workers and more than 26.000 overseas
workers whose labor contracts have expired, but have not been able
return home due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mr. Tong Hai Nam added: “In the short term, the MOLISA’s Department
of Overseas Labor has directed related units to proactively grasp the
situation/to keep a close watch on the situation and coordinate with
Vietnam’s representative agencies abroad, partners, employers to
ensure workers’ safety and legitimate rights for employees before the
COVID-19 pandemic, while waiting to return home.
At the same time, the department asks enterprises to review and make
statistics on the number of workers who have to go home due to the
impact of COVID-19 pandemic, hence consolidate and report to
authorized agencies for consideration and organization to send labor
back home as soon as possible, in line with the welcoming pattern of
welcoming Vietnam citizens abroad to return home.
The department has re-signed agreement on labor cooperation with
Thailand; researching and negotiating a labor cooperation agreement
with Isarel; implementing labor cooperation agreement with Korea, Japan, … etc
The department conducted market research, assess the activities in the
pilot phase to send labor to work at European nations such as Rumani,
Poland,… to promote the development, expansion and stability of labor
market, reinforce to support localities to continue piloting sending seasonal workers to korea.
In 2020, the spread of COVID-19 pandemic exceedingly affected to
global socio-economic activities, among which include the activity to
send Vietnamese workers abroad according to the contracts.
Receiving countries has issued many entry restrictions with foreign
citizens, order a temporary halt to regular commercial flights between
Viet Nam and Receiving countries.
This leads to the quantity of Vietnamese guest workers in 2020 only
reaches 78,641 ppl, accounted for 60,5% of the plan assigned by the Gov. Consolidation 1. The th
Asiana Airlines night flight on May 20 has sent 24
Vietnamese workers to South Korea in line with the terms of an
agreement to send and receive Vietnamese workers by the
Vietnamese Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs and
Ministry of Korea Employment and Labor signed again in March this year.
2. The Korean side said it will receive approximately 8200
Vietnamese workers, of which 8000 manufacturing industry and
200 fishing industry. With the recov of K ery momentum orean
economy in this year, the demand for foreign labor in general and
Vietnamese workers in particular by Korean small and medium enterprises is rather high.
3. Therefore, in order to overcome this situation, for Vietnamese
workers whose expiration date has not yet returned home from
2020, the Japanese gov has proposed policy related to new visa status, which is special visa.
4. The Taiwanese side said it had receive 10,333 mil ppl, 4707 ppl in
Jan, 2646 ppl in Feb and 3,612 ppl in March. Statistics show that
the number of workers in this market increased more than the 1st quarter of 2020
5. Enterprises’ reports show that in the 1st quarter of 2021, there
were 29,541 workers going to work abroad, working in 17
markets, 2,521 ppl lower than in the 1st quarter of 2020. The two
main receiving markets for Vietnamese labor are still Japan and Taiwan. Unit 6:
This is the 1st time in the history of ASEAN+3 cooperation framework,
the Summit is held in an online format to suit the current conditions to
make high-level political commitment and determinations, affirming the
spirit of solidarity, mutual assistance to each other to deal with the epidemic of ASEAN+3 nations.mn
Following ASEAN Special Summit, on the afternoon of April 14, the
ASEAN+3 special summit on responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. As
ASEAN chairman, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc chaired the
Meeting with the attendance of all 10 ASEAN nations, China, Japan, and
South Korea. Director General of World Health Organization also
attended the Summit as a guest.
The Summit had the report of ASEAN Secretary-General and Director-
General of the World Health Organization (WHO) about the efforts of
ASEAN and the world in preventing and controlling Covid 19 pandemic.
The leaders had exchanged, identified, evaluated, shared experiences
and discussed specific measures to soon repel the epidemic, take care
and protect the interests of the citizens, reduce the socio-economic
impacts due to the covid 1h9 pandemic, and recovery plan after the pandemic is over.
ASEAN+3 countries showed their commitment to sharing experiences,
policies, treatments, epidemiological and clinical research, supporting
the supply of medical equipment promoting cooperation in the
production of vaccine and medicines for treatment of covid 19. The
leaders said that lessons learned from China, Japan and Korea in
controlling, preventing covid 19 pandemic are beneficial to ASEAN in
the fight with pandemic which is tough and challenging. The leaders
emphasized to put citizen’s benefits first, ensure people’s health and
livelihoods, timely support and equal treatment to ASEAN+3’s citizens
being affected by pandemic, including immigrant workers, no one is left behind.
The Leaders reach an agreement on letting ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic
Research Office investigate to release policy proposal to timely combat
with recession risk and take advantage of preventive mechanism to
ensure economic, financial stability and food security of ASEAN+3 such
as The Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralization, ASEAN Plus Three Emergency Rice Reserve.
At the end of the summit, the leaders issued a Joint Statement of
Special Summit ASEAN+3 about covid 19 pandemic. The delegates
appreciated that Viet Nam has proactively organized this year’s
conference successfully, practically contributed to the common war
against Covid 19 of the region and the international community. Cons:
Speaking at the ASEAN+3 Special Summit on COVID-19 response, Prime
Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc emphasized that solidarity and mutual
assistance between countries is the key to success for these nations to overcome this difficult time.
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc also introduced experiences and
initial results Vietnam has achieved in controlling disease and protecting
people's lives. He thanked the countries for their financial support and
technical assistance to Vietnam over the past time. The Prime Minister
also raised proposals to promote ASEAN + 3 cooperation in responding
to the epidemic, maintaining stability and developing the economy.
Leaders commit to maintain open markets, sign the Regional
Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), diversify supply
connections inside and out the region, ensure goods and services
circulation, especially essential materials and medical products.
ASEAN leaders also discussed about developing a post-pandemic
recovery plan, which includes enhancing intra-ASEAN trade, promoting
economic cooperation agreements under negotiation, implementing
measures to stimulate economic demand and improving the ability to cope with external shocks…
In his speech, the Prime Minister introduced Vietnam's achievements in
disease control. He also affirmed that Vietnam will continue to support
nations with epidemics, maintain normal economic activities, supply
necessities, including food due to those countries’ demand. Unit 7:
According to a statement from the World Bank, on June 5th, the World
Bank Board of Directors approved an IDA loan with a total commitment
of 84,4 million USD to support the Government of VN in implementing
multi-sectoral policies reforms, in order to strengthen the ability to
respond to climate change on the basic of natural resources protection,
development of transport and clean energy.
‘The new loan focused on potential fields that could create
groundbreaking changes to address climate change challenges’, said
Ousmane Dione, World Bank Country Director for Viet Nam. This loan
represents WB’s strong commitment to support the Vietnamese Gov in
continuing the success of Climate Change Respond program. It also act
as a bridge to transit to a new phase with other climate change programs post-2020.
This loan will support the Gov of VN’s climate change mitigation
measures by improving the resources management and effective
management of public investment in climate change response.
The $84.4 million loan will also focus on promoting transportation and
clean energy, aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air
pollution. Supporting contents include stricter regulations on vehicle
emissions standards, implementation of a national program on
economical and efficient energy use, and incentives for wind power development.
Previously, the Vietnamese Gov had developed Climate change
response program as a premise for the implementation of national
commitments on climate change under the Paris Agreement. Viet Nam’s
pledge include aiming at reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 8% in
the period 2020-2030, or possibly up to 25% in the context of
international support and targeting at adaptation to climate change,
which requires the integration of climate change response into 90% of
long-term socio-economic development plans.
This loan also supports VN to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic through
budget support from concessional loans and policies to help cope with
the pandemic. Policies that improve forest management efficiency will
contribute to reducing the risk of new outbreaks of animal-related
diseases, while increased investment in climate-resilient natural
resources will complement the economic stimulus package to support
income for rural areas and improve community resilience. Consolidations
1. Viet Nam needs to mobilize about 35 billion USD for activities to
deal with climate change in the next decade, from 2021 to 2030,
according to Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.
2. The World Bank Board of Directors has approved a financial
package of/a worth total of $422 million in financing to support
Vinh Long city enhancing its resilience to climate change and
improve the quality of three Viet Nam National Colleges.
3. On the afternoon of March 25th, 2021, British Embassy in Viet Nam
and UN Development Program (UNDP) in Viet Nam jointly
organized the meeting entitled “climate change adaptation in the
urban context”. The meeting took place within the framework of
the 26th United Nations Conference on Climate change, which will take place in November 2021.
4. The Governments of Viet Nam and South Korea agree to
cooperate on climate change in order to strengthen the capacity
of parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the
adverse effects of climate change, thereby paving the way for the
economic transition of the parties towards low carbon emissions and climate change resilience.
5. On September 2020, the Vietnamese Government has submitted
Nationally Determineds Contributions (NDC) Update to the UN
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which
committed to increase the target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions until 2030. Unit 8:
According to the Ministry of Transport, over the past time, international
cooperation of the transport industry has continued to be promoted,
contributing to the implementation of the development goals of the
industry, as well as the country’s foreign policy.
In order to promote/accelerate international cooperation activities, the
Ministry of Transport has seriously grasped thoroughly and deployed to
its surbordinate agencies and units the resolutions, regulations and
policies of the country on the management of foreign policy; issued
regulations on the use and management of diplomatic passports, civil
servants and managerial officials of the Ministry’s passport.
The management of incoming and outgoing delegations must comply
with current laws, strictly implement the Politburo's Directive, and the
Prime Minister's direction on overseas delegations and ensure efficiency and save money.
In terms of bilateral cooperation, it’s important to continue to deepen
cooperation in the transport with neighboring countries such as Laos,
Cambodia and China, strengthen cooperation with important partners
such as Japan, Korea, the United States, Australia, Germany ... and
transport cooperation with some other countries.
On the other hand, It will strengthen transport connections to meet
travel and freight demand, support Vietnamese transport enterprises to
remove obstacles, strengthen and expand cooperation with foreign
partners; as well as completing political tasks assigned by the Party and
Government, actively contributing to promoting the relationship
between Vietnam and other countries.
In terms of multilateral cooperation, the Ministry strongly promoted
cooperation at such forums as: cooperation within the structure of
United Nations organizations, ASEAN 40 cooperation, in the Greater
Mekong Sub-region (GMS), and a variety of other multilateral
cooperation mechanisms such as APEC, ASEM, OSJD... It hosted and
chaired the chairing role of some ASEAN and GMS’s important
conferences. It closely coordinates with key ministries and branches in
negotiating and implementing the Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) to which Vietnam participates.
In order to futher boost the efficiency of international cooperation, the
Ministry of Transport is determined to fulfill its commitments regarding
transport in bilateral and multilateral international treaties signed by
Vietnam. Another solution is to exchange agreements with partner
countries and ask for the signing of five international transport treaties.
To improve the organization of propaganda, spreading information on,
and guidance on the implementation of Vietnam's international
transportation commitments. Continue to research and report to the
government for permission to negotiate, sign, and join international
treaties in the field of transportation, which will bring practical benefits
to travel and freight of people, and businesses. Consolidation
The Ministers also reviewed the report of the ASEAN Transit Transport
Coordinating Committee, as well as the policy discussion on the
transport recovery plan affected by the COVID-19 epidemic, as reported
in the meeting minute on the ASEAN Comprehensive Recovery
Framework (ACRF) adopted at the 37th ASEAN Summit.
The Ministry of Transport is considering the opening of cross-border
transport routes and implementing “one-gate-one-stop" checks at
border crossings with neighboring countries, in order to connect inter-
modal transport system to meet the needs of customers. cooperation
and exploitation of transport, passengers.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam has just sent a culture of express
to airlines, the Southern Airport Authority, the People's Committee of
Ho Chi Minh City, the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, the Immigration Department of the Ministry of Public Security
on the temporary suspension of passenger entry at Tan Son Nhat International Airport.
With the experience of deploying repatriation flights between Vietnam
and Canada in 2020, Vietnam Airlines has urgently completed the legal,
technical and personnel requirements for flights to Canada this year. In
particular, the procedure for applying for a flight license from the
Canadian aviation authority is the most complicated, taking up to 4
months for Vietnam Airlines to complete.
According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam, there are only
about 30 foreign airlines from Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, the
Middle East and France to operate cargo flights, diplomats, experts and
investors. , skilled workers, foreign students, .. going to/from Vietnam. Unit 9
On December 20th 2020, the Ministry of Finance coordinated with the
International Monetary Fund and international experts to organize a
thematic webinar on “Strengthening relationships with investors''. The
Director of the Department of Debt Management and External Finance,
Mr. Truong Hung Long, attended and chaired the workshop.
Present at the workshop were ministries, branches, agencies
responsible for monitoring, reporting and publicizing socio-economic
targets and macro monitoring targets.
The workshop aimed for agencies to build a team of staff mastering the
professions and practices of the international market, proactively
accessing the market and conducting transactions in the most favorable time.
Speaking at the opening of the workshop, Mr. Truong Hung Long said
that the workshop was held when the Vietnamese Government was
producing important documents, reports approved by the National
Congress were oriented to socio-economic development, fiscal, public
debt and investment debt management.
Simultaneously, Vietnam's role and position at the gateway during the
2021-2025 period created many positive changes. Vietnam has
graduated from ODA and joined the group of middle-income countries.
This was an important milestone which opened up new possibilities for
proactive and effective debt management. To make up for the decline of
ODA, Vietnam will have opportunities to access a large commercial
capital market, allowing more flexibility in mobilizing and utilizing
capital. The estimated loan cost will be more suitable when Vietnam’s economy rises.