HCM City focuses on water, climate change

Ho Chi Minh City is focusing all resources on building plans for climate change response and water management, with a target of producing 2.3 million cu.m of clean water per day by the end of 2015.

This was announced by the HCM City People’s Committee at a seminar on water management and socio-economic development planning, in the city on March 31 as part of a four-day Vietnam visit by Crown Prince of the Netherlands Willem-Alexander and Dutch businesses.

According to Vice Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Nguyen Trung Tin, Ho Chi Minh City is one of the 10 cities in the world at risk of being hardest hit by climate change and rising sea level, with manifestations such as urban flooding, degraded water quality and increased salinity.

Meanwhile, the city is yet to develop specific, long-term and sustainable plans in response to climate change, he said.

Therefore, HCM City wants to learn from the valuable experiences of the Netherlands, in water management and adaptability to climate change and rising sea level, to apply them in its development process, Tin stressed.

Speaking at the seminar, Joop Atsma, Dutch State Secretary for Infrastructure and Environment, emphasised the need to address flooding and improve water resources for HCM City.

The Netherlands, with its experiences, will share professional knowledge and provide technical assistance for the city’s water management solutions in the future, he said.

*** A workshop to discuss measures to boost cooperation in animal husbandry, quality registration, management, food safety between the Vietnam and the Netherlands was held in Ho Chi Minh City on March 31.

Henk Bleker, Dutch Minister of Agriculture and Foreign Trade said that Dutch firms are encouraged to boost long-term cooperation and business with Vietnam and that the firms concentrate on both profits and attention to the environment, labour, and human relations.

Vietnam’s Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Diep Kinh Tan said that breeding accounts for 27-28 percent of the agricultural sector’s output. Vietnam aims to become an industrialised country by 2020 with the breeding sector making up 42 percent of agricultural production value.

The country devised the strategy on breeding development by 2020, which creates a legal basis for the husbandry sector to develop and access the value chain from farm to dining table, combined with food hygiene safety and environmental protection.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s call for investment in value chain projects have gained support and cooperation from many countries, including the Netherlands.

At the workshop, both sides signed a letter of intent for projects in agriculture.