Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam shouldact fast to switch to the circular economy, heard a workshop on promoting theno-carbon circular economy held by the Swedish Embassy, the Ministry of NaturalResources and Environment and Hanoi People’s Committee on November 12.

Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Vu Tuan Nhan, told the workshop that after a long time of depending on and spending naturalresources, Vietnam has made significant improvements in its socio-economicconditions. However, the country has had to trade off economicgrowth for environmental change and pollution.

“Transforming the current economic modelto the circular economy is a suitable action that Vietnam is striving for sothat it achieves the sustainable development goals,” he said.

Swedish Ambassador Ann Mawe said acircular economy will benefit both consumersand businesses.

She said: “Companies that are moving inthis direction have proved that recycling used products can be more costeffective than creating them from scratch.

“Production costs are reduced, so the saleprice is also lowered, thereby benefiting the consumers. I hope this isinspiring for Vietnamese businesses,” said the ambassador.

The two officialsstressed that private firms should be called for deeper participation in the developmentof the circular economy.

According to Nguyen Hoang Nam from the Ministry of NaturalResources and Environment (MoNRE), WorldBank in 2019 estimated that the impacts of environmental pollution might cutoff 3.5 percent from Vietnam's GDP in 2035.
Other statistics were also provided toprove the traditional linear economy was hampering natural resources,increasing waste volume and pulling down the world’s socio-economicdevelopment.

“The statistics create a big questionwhether we are moving forward or backwards with the current economic model,” said Nam, who is also an official at the Institute of Strategyand Policy on Natural Resource and Environment.

He said because of this it is important to promote the implementation of a circular economy to preserveand develop natural capital through rational use and re-generation of resourcesand use of renewable energy.

In addition, it would optimise the yieldof resources and materials as much as possible in production cycles, andimprove the overall system performance by minimising negative externalitiesthrough waste design, he said./.