Vietnam's environment in development process: current status and policy

• Published in: Vietnam social sciences Vol. 4; no. 150; pp. 9 - 19
• Main Author: Thuan, Nguyen Quang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.01.2012
• Subjects: Environmental degradation; Environmental management; Environmental policy; Vietnam
• ISSN: 1013-4328

Along with economic growth and the impact of social, technological and demographic factors, the environment of our planet today has been seriously degraded in many respects. For the rich countries, to sustain economic growth in this context means more damages on environment, as the consequence of natural resources utilization. For developing countries, the production with the old and outdated technology is still common, therefore, resulted in low efficiency and greater impacts on the environment. One of the issues that researchers and managers are very concerned about environment is the role of policies and institutions. As a country with continuously high economic growth for many years, China's environmental policies have emphasized the use of instruments that create differences between urban and rural areas (Hiaqing Xu, 1999); and the lack of cooperation of the market mechanism in addressing environmental problems (Hiroshi Matsuno, 2009). Vietnam, since Doi Moi (Renovation) in 1986 with the transition to a market economy has so far gained tremendous achievements in economic and social development. Economic growth since the early 1990s and the years after has associated with success in population growth control, science and technology application and market expansion. But, in process of development, Vietnam is facing many complicated issues, including that of seriously degraded environment: `The management of natural resources and environment in the recent years has exposed a number of defects. Land and water resources have been exhausted and degraded, marine and island environment management and protection are insufficient, forest quality is declining, deforestation remains, biodiversity is lowered, while natural disasters and climate change continue increasing...' (Ministry of Planning and Investment, 2010). Therefore, for sustainable development, there must have accurate assessments on the environmental problems in order to design appropriate policy measures. This paper focuses on analyzing the status of environment and environmental policy in Vietnam in the current development process.