All economic sectors recorded steady development. Agricultural production in particular continued to develop sustainably, ensuring food security while creating sources of commodities for export, said Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen The Phuong.

Regarding social issues, the country fulfilled the target of reducing the poverty rate to below 10 per cent by the end of 2010, equal to 1.7 million households, while social security was particularly focused upon amid the context of inflation, natural disasters and diseases, he said.

Education and training quality had been continuously improved as more focus was put on renewing education content, curricula and teaching methods, particularly in remote, disadvantaged and ethnic minority-inhabited areas. Investment in the sector from the State budget increased from 15.5 per cent in 2001 to 20 per cent in 2007 and the number of trained workers reached 40 per cent in 2010.

"The country formed many policies to create conditions for labourers to catch up with the development of the market economy and international integration with more than 8 million workers employed over the past five years, bringing the unemployment rate down to 4.6 per cent", Phuong said.

"The country has fulfilled all millennium goals and surpassed its commitments to the international community", he added.

Concerning natural resources and the environment, Phuong said a legal framework for managing and protecting resources and the environment was being finalised towards a sustainable development target with the establishment of a system of management agencies from central to local levels and a series of related legal documents.

The co-operation between the resources and environment sector and others helped raise the efficiency of resource management and environmental protection. The speed of pollution was limited, the environment quality in some areas was improved and local residents had a better awareness of their own interests as well as their responsibility for the environment.

Phuong stressed that climate change was considered the biggest challenge for sustainable development at present so the country had to actively integrate the national target programme to cope with climate change with development strategies, policies and planning.

However, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan, who doubles as Chairman of the National Council For Sustainable Development, said there remained many shortcomings that needed to be addressed.

There lacked close direction from relevant ministries and agencies, information dissemination was not focused, production output of many sectors tended to decline, environmental pollution failed to be reduced, the income gap had increased and the development of science and technology failed to meet real demand, he said.

He said the country should have both medium- and long-term solutions and roadmaps to ensure macroeconomic stability and balance capital, land, human resources and energy to ensure sustainable development, focusing on balancing human resources.

"It is essential to supervise export development, use the budget effectively, invest in disadvantaged areas, uphold the role of science and technology effectively and provide more support for the development of small- and medium-sized businesses," he said.

"It is also important to have criteria to assess the process of sustainable development, focusing on domestic green products, the supervision of production output, the abidance of laws by organisations and individuals, social security rate and the ability to access information via the internet," he added.

Sharing experience in sustainable development, United Nations Development Programme Policy Advisor Koos Neefjes said the conference was one example of the country's commitment to sustainable development and reconfirmed its strategic orientation toward sustainable development.

"Viet Nam successfully mainstreamed sustainable development in the 2006-10 social economic development plan and the Prime Minister, in his New Year's message just a few days ago, emphasised that the country must continue to transform its growth model and make sure that development is harmonised with economic growth and environmental protection. These three pillars are central to sustainable development," he said.

However, the advisor said, national and global sustainable development were being threatened in several ways which could undermine development achievements. For Viet Nam, it was critical to accelerate performance of millennium goal 7 (MG7) on sustainable development as it lagged behind on MG7 indicators, such as per capita CO2 emissions and the proportion of the population using improved drinking water and sanitation facilities.

"The country needs to step up efforts to reverse these trends in the next five to ten years, for example by strengthening human resources and technological modernisation, especially with green, clean technology," he said.

"Anthropogenic climate change is globally the biggest sustainable development challenge humanity is facing in this century and Viet Nam suffered significantly from human and material losses due to climatic disasters in 2010, which are estimated to have cost the country more than 1 per cent of GDP annually over the past two decades.

"The Prime Minister in his New Year message indeed highlighted the fact that Viet Nam was very vulnerable to climate change. He stressed that Viet Nam would actively implement the National Target Programme to Respond to Climate Change and strengthen international co-operation in this area," he said.

Concluding the conference, Nhan instructed the Ministry of Planning and Investment to promptly finalise reports to submit to the Prime Minister for sustainable development orientation during the 2011-20 period and the national action plan to implement the orientation in February. He also required localities to build and finalise their own action programmes by June this year.

On the sidelines of the conference were five forums on sustainable development in economy, society, education, business and resources and the environment.

Source: VietnamNews.