Stakeholders discuss green growth and opportunities in Laos
Stakeholders discuss green growth and opportunities in Laos
Some 60 representatives from line ministries in Laos, the Royal Government of Cambodia and international organisations gathered at a two-day workshop yesterday in Vientiane to discuss green growth concepts and opportunities in Laos.
The National Workshop on Green Growth was co-chaired by Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment DrKhamlienPholsena and Assistant Director-General of the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), MrPerBertilsson.
This event was the second technical workshop on green growth following the first held in April 2016. Building on the results from the first workshop, the objectives of the event were to strengthen their understanding of green growth concepts, and opportunities and options for integrating it into the Lao national socio-economic development plan.
National guest speakers from the Department of Planning and the National Economic Research Institute, Ministry of Planning and Investment as well as other related ministries and international guest speakers from GGGI and the Cambodian National Council for Sustainable Development were also honourably invited to share knowledge and experiences on green growth development and relevant pilot projects in the regional and international contexts as well as recommendations on fiscal instruments towards green growth development.
Green growth development is key to achieving sustainable development. It is a type of development that incorporates environmental friendliness, natural resource conservation and poverty reduction into national economic growth planning. Therefore, green growth does not only cover issues like forestation but also the economic use of energy, renewable energy, waste management and disposal, pollution mitigation, and environmentally friendly production.
Recently, Laos has realised the importance of green growth to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through its Vision 2030, Ten-Year Development Strategy (2016-2025), and 8th National Five-Year Socio-Economic Development (2016-2020). These documents have been officially endorsed by the 8th National Assembly at the Inaugural Session held in April 2016, addressed by DrKhamlien in his opening remarks.
GGGI located in Seoul, Republic of Korea. The Global Green Growth Institute is an international organisation dedicated to supporting developing countries transition to a model of green economic growth that achieves poverty reduction, is socially inclusive and is environmentally sustainable.
GGGI supports more than 30 green growth programmes in more than 20 developing countries worldwide.
Laos will benefit greatly from Global Green Growth Institute Membership accession in terms of technical support and capacity building on green growth and sustainable development. GGGI member states have access to a wide range of opportunities to participate in green growth knowledge exchange and experience sharing programmes on the international stage.
Partnering with Laos and assisting the government to identify policies and actions to achieve green growth is a priority for GGGI, said MrPerBertilsson, who delivered the opening remarks at the event.
Providing technical assistance on green growth assessment, green city development and green fiscal reform will be the focus of our first phase support in the country, he said.
