A Scientific Review on the Issues of Sustainability in Vietnam During the Period from 2011 to 2021

Sustainable Development (SD) was considered a formal concept in The Brundtland Report, published in 1987 by the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development after an upsurging recognition of the ecological, resource crisis in the prior from the beginning of the 18th century to the end of the 20th century [1].

Vietnam joined the United Nations (UN) on 20 September 1977 after reunification and the establishment of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in July 1976. With the support of the UN, a powerful revolution took place in areas such as administration, policies, social protection, health care, education, and agriculture. Moreover, Vietnam also has actively participated in the implementation of the global sustainable development agenda.

From 1992 to 2012, Vietnam became part of the Earth Summit on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992; the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2002; the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, the Global Agenda 21; etc; and active commitment to implementing sustainable development. Specifically, Vietnam implemented the Strategic Orientation for Sustainable Development (Vietnam Agenda 21) on 1 August 2004. Accordingly, The National Council on Sustainable Development was established in 2005 and was entrusted with providing counsel to the Prime Minister and delivering detailed guidance on the accomplishment of the Strategic Orientation for Sustainable Development nationally. Subsequently, Vietnam has made considerable efforts to implement sustainable development projects and achieve remarkable performance in economic, social, and environmental areas. Characteristically, Vietnam has released a sequence of policies that take responsibility for SD. The Socio-Economic Development Strategy for 2001- 2010 and The Socio-Economic Development Strategy for 2011-2020 are powerful evidence. Vietnam has also signed international agreements such as the Montreal Protocol on Substances which Deplete the Ozone Layer; the Vienna Convention on Protection of the Ozone Layer and Viet Nam’s Comprehensive Poverty Reduction and Growth Strategy (CPRGS), which was adopted in 2002, and organically linked economic growth objectives to hunger eradication, and poverty reduction, and ensured social equity and sustainable development. In addition, the support and integration with other sectoral programs, including the National Target Program on Rural Clean Water and Sanitation from 2006; the Program on Saving Electricity for the 2006 – 2010 period; the Program on Distribution of Populations in Areas Prone to Natural Disasters; Critical and Highly Critical to Protective Forests and Strictly Protective Premises of Special-Use Forests for the 2006 - 2010 period and Orientations to 2015; and the National Target Program on Construction of New Rural Areas for the 2010 – 2020 period, were provided. In this stage, there was a governmental review named the National Report at the UN Conference on SD (2012) [2]. This review was considered an instruction manual for the implementation of SDs in Vietnam by the government. It also provided impressive achievements and imperfections. A review of energy access programs was presented to show the discourse on the energy approach and sustainability [3], and some discussions about regional problems such as floods and salinity in the Mekong Delta [4], coastal zones [5], and landslide geohazard in north-western of Vietnam [6]. These scientific findings can greatly contribute to the understanding of poly-makers. Nevertheless, there are several serious obstacles. In particular, the economy was not associated with social development and the protection of natural resources; poverty, unemployment, and education quality did not improve significantly [2].

In the past 10 years, there were some vivid achievements and outcomes until 2016 in Vietnam’s Voluntary Review (2018) which was a formal review from the government. Regardless, the existing issues create many obstacles for Vietnam to achieve SDGs including inappropriate policies in ethnic minorities, rural areas, etc…; Vietnam is one of the countries affected the most by climate change such as disasters, drought, salt water intrusion, etc…; the lack of finance to implement SD [7]. In this stage, there was also an inclusive review of energy for a clean and more sustainable economy in Vietnam that discussed energy resources, policies, and science to support SD [8] and other scientific results on the sustainability and productivity of resources in Vietnam [9], the effect of the industrial revolution on sustainable economic development [10], and the evaluation of irrigation systems for agriculture [11], etc…These findings are observed and disputed to solve problems related to SDGs. Nonetheless, there is a lack of review of the scientific results as an overview for poly-makers to reach goals in vision.

This review discusses scientific findings on current issues according to specific objectives:

• Conducting a comprehensive review of sustainability in the three areas of people, nature, and the economy including the updating results of SDGs from 2010-2020
• Implementing a review of policies following sustainable development and studies providing solutions in certain areas in Vietnam from 2010-2020
• Discussion of the links between resources, policies, technologies, observational research, and economic conditions.
• Forward-looking perspectives and suggestions for sustainable development for Vietnam are provided based on potential areas.
• Research strategies and scientific topics would be proposed to enhance policy and decision-making.

These targets tend to deliver prospective and principal supplements to fill the gaps in articles and summarize the proposed policies and decision-making processes, as well as in conjunction with awareness-raising of SDGs in Vietnam.

Viet Nam’s Sustainable Development Goals consist of 115 nationalization targets which were established following “Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”.

3.1 Human and social sustainability

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Figure 2. Vietnam poverty rate

Source: General Statistics Office of Vietnam (GSO VN)

In 2010, Vietnam’s Human Development Index (HDI) was 0.6; however, this value is unchanged at 0.704 from 2012 to 2020 which seized the nation to a high human development categorization —standing in 117 out of 189 countries and regions. Vietnam’s 2020 HDI of 0.704 is less than the median of 0.753 for countries in the high human development group and less than the average of 0.747 for East Asia and the Pacific countries. From East Asia and the Pacific, Viet Nam is compared with the Philippines and Thailand, which have HDIs ranked 107 and 79, respectively [13].

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Figure 3. Map of the Six Large Regions and Provinces in Vietnam [14]

The National Target Programme on Sustainable Poverty Reduction (NTP-SPP) was released in 2016-2020 to pay more attention to vulnerable groups, which are mostly ethnic minority people. Results are witnessed in Figure 2: Compared with that in 2010, the poverty rate in 2021 was reduced by 1 third of 3 times. This process is still needed to reach the poverty goal. The reason is that there are obstacles in the northern midland and mountainous regions and in the central highland where ethnic minorities live (overview of the regions in Figure 3). However, the government issued the “Decision approving a number of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) indicators for ethnic minorities associated with the SDGs after 2015”. As shown in Table 1, the Vietnam Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) decreased significantly in 2020 in comparison to 2016 in the Northern midland and mountainous regions and the central highland; however, it was still 2 times or 3 times greater than that in other regions. Although Vietnam has achieved and continues to reduce poverty rates significantly, it has not achieved SDG 1 of poverty.

Similarly, Vietnam has achieved a decline in hunger. According to the 2021 Global Hunger Index, Vietnam ranks 61st of the 116 countries with moderate hunger levels. Due to the increasing population, and climate change (one of the five countries most affected by climate change), targets related to ending hunger and improving nutrition are being influenced substantially.

By the end of 2020, 90.85% of the population had health insurance, compared to 59.57% in 2010. Therefore, Vietnam has completed SDG 5 to reduce maternal mortality. However, there was a slight decrease in the under-five mortality rate from 23.8% in 2010 to 22.3% in 2020. In the SDG 6 targets, gender quality does not reach targets in terms of narrowing the gap in women’s participation in leadership and managerial positions, or women's educational attainment [15]. In addition, while the percentage of households with hygienic water was relatively high 97.4% in 2020, a slight increase of 90.05% was observed in 2010. The water resource master plan is still unclear, and it is difficult for highland ethnic people to access clean water due to the topography.

To conclude, referring to the human pillar, Vietnam has achieved certain results in the past 10 years, especially in SDG 5 (gender equality), and SDG 6 (water and sanitation). Nevertheless, despite considerable efforts by polices, strategies, and plans have been released to pursue goals. Among ethnic minorities, the multi-dimensional poverty rate is still high, and there is a gender imbalance in access to education, and difficult access to clean water. In terms of regions, the northern mountainous region of the Central Highlands contributes to high poverty and a slow-going drop in the under-five malnutrition rate. Although there is a “Decision approving a number of MDGs indicators for ethnic minorities associated with the SDGs after 2015” for ethnic minority groups and another plan for certain regions, the lack of envelopment of governmental assistance and effective application leads to a gap in performance to achieve goals.

Table 1. Vietnam multidimensional poverty index (MPI) by regions

Source: GSO VN

H: Headcount ratio

A: Average deprivation share

The MPI: expresses quite accurately the areas of education, health, housing, water and sanitation, and access to information.

3.2 Economic sustainability

The government has released the strategies named National Green Growth Strategy 2011- 2020 and Vision to 2050 as well as the National Action Program on Sustainable Production and Consumption by 2020 with a vision to 2030 and other policies to pursue SD economic growth. As a result, Vietnam’s annual average GDP growth reached the target of SDG 8.1 with a GDP growth rate of 5.25 to 7.02 % from 2010-2019, excluding 2020 due to the effects of the epidemic, which had a GDP growth rate of only 2.91%. The productivity of the employed population in 2020 was 3 times greater than the 1.869$ per person. Detailly, the data in Figure 4 shows that the labor of mining and quarrying is more productive than that of other fields. Positively, the productivity of scientific and technical activities is increasing and becoming greater than that of agriculture and construction.

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Figure 4. The productivity of the employed population in some areas

Source: GSO VN

Table 2. Assessment on improving policy and mechanisms to implement SCP

Source: [16]

Additionally, sustainable consumption and production (SCP) is an important part of a sustainable economy, Table 2 shows the effectiveness of the policies and actions taken to accomplish SCP. Although enterprises had to reach 60-79% of the total applied clean technology in 2020, there is currently no data on the SCP. The green sector and the environmental industry sector also experience similar situations. The lack of results is limited to reaching the targets in 2030. The aim of industrial companies to apply clean was 50% which was obtainable in 2020 compared to 11% in 2010.

Ultimately, Vietnam economy is developing as the SDG targets. Nevertheless, green growth strategies are often applied when there is a lack of resulting data on how the green economy will follow SD until 2020.

3.3 Environmental sustainability

Vietnam is one of the five countries most affected by climate change worldwide. However, Vietnam still faces challenges and difficulties due to weak intercooperation, and the lack of funds to access technology or support adaptability [7]. Besides, due to industrialization and urbanization, Vietnam is facing pollution, resource and biodiversity depletion [17, 18]. There have been some vivid outcomes in recent years.

Particularly, following the Cleaner Production (CP) Strategy 2010- 2020, Vietnam still did not reach its target in 2020 and even reached the target in 2015 (Table 3).

Table 4 shows the waste collection rates in several popular areas in Vietnam. In the large cities including Ha Noi, Ho Chi Minh, Da Nang, Dong Nai, and Hai Phong, the waste collection rate is more than 90%, while some urban areas and suburbs of provinces such as Nghe An, and Kien Giang, the waste collection rate is 50 to 60%. The reason is that poor or rural areas still exist in the informal sector of waste collection [19]. This leads to difficulties in waste collection in the whole country.

Table 3. The results of Strategy on CP

Source: Viet Nam Cleaner Production Centre

Unfortunately, the flourishing economy and urbanization tendency in the last minute of the 2000s have caused a serious growth in waste generation each year. However, segregating waste at the source has not been conducted properly in Vietnam. The recycling of waste is performed by individuals or groups of personal interest for their living outside of a formal management system. As a result, recycling can not be evaluated in Vietnam [20, 21].

Table 4. Rates of municipal solid waste collection in several localities in 2019

Source: 2016-2020 National Environmental Assessment Report [22]

In summary, Vietnam's efforts include participating in conferences, submitting and making commitments to reduce pollution, and adapting to climate change, and conserving biodiversity. Among the pillars of the environment, Vietnam does not fulfill its goals in this area due to asynchronous management. Among the 3 pillars of people, the economy, and the environment, Vietnam is trying to achieve 5 to 6 SGDs by 2030. Currently, Vietnam has not yet achieved any goals, however, Vietnam is being on the promised process of implementing SD.

5.1 Renewable energy

The development of renewable energy is an action in the National Strategy on Climate Change and the National Strategy on Green Growth. As displayed in Table 5, renewable energy capacity in Vietnam is diverse, bagasse, solid biofuels, and renewable waste are examples. The total capacity in 2020 with 35.649MW was 3 times higher than in 2011 with 10.241MW which presents great innovation in renewable energy recently. Especially, the dramatic development of Wind energy and Solar energy from 2015 until now, is shown in Figure 5. From 2018, Solar energy capacity rose sharply to 16504MW far beyond wind energy and others. The potential renewable energy in Vietnam manifests huge reserves (Table 5), and the current capacity accounts for only 10% of the total renewable energy [42].

Table 5. Renewable energy (RE) capacity in Vietnam

Source: International Renewable Energy (RE) Agency (2020) [42]

Accordingly, Vietnam has the enormous potential to expand renewable energy when the current capacity is many times lower than the total renewable energy.

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Figure 5. The renewable wind energy and solar energy capacity in Vietnam

Source: International Renewable Energy (RE) Agency (2020) [42]

5.2 Sustainable use of ecosystems

A handful of policies about organic development have been launched over the past few years. Specifically, Organic Decree 109 was issued in 2018, Circular 16 Guiding Decree in was issued in 2019, and most recently the National Organic Development Program for 2020-2030 was released in June 2020 [14]. After 3 years, organic agriculture has developed significantly as shown in Figure 6. During the past 10 years, the organic agricultural land area increased roughly 3 times in 2021 compared to 2010, together with the organic share of farms and producers.

Due to the emergence of Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS), organic certification schemes have been approved. Despite positive attainments, organic production is still limited, and small scale when the organic share of farms is only 0.6%. The products are mostly exported to the United States, and Europe, while the domestic market demand is rising. Consequently, organic development can be probable to expand tremendously in both domestic markets and exporting.

Additionally, the State of Forests and Forestry has been observed in 10 recent years displayed in Figure 7. Positively, total forest areas extend remarkably, this leads the forest cover rate reaches to 42% in 2022. The reason for the increase in forest area is mainly planted forest, from 3.23 million in 2011 hectares to 4.656 million hectares in 2022. As a result, Vietnam's forests have the potential to create about 50 - 70 million tons of carbon credits. This helps Vietnam be on the way to reaching the goal of conserving biodiversity and ecosystems. As presented in Figure 7, there is no data for the newly planned forests in 2019, and by 2022, the forest area should be boosted progressively over the next time.

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Figure 6. Vietnam organic development

Source: Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) survey 2021, 2016, 2013, 2010

Regardless, Vietnam also has enormous potential for providing a large carbon tank because of the considerable size forest. Additionally, developing organic farms has not been paid attention to much while agriculture is the key area of economic development.

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Figure 7. States of Vietnam forest

Source: GSO VN