On the behalf of VBCSD Executive Board, Mr Sengupta reported on the council’s activities in popularising and raising awareness of the Vietnamese business community on sustainable development, research , training and international cooperation. VBCSD also handed over to the Deputy Prime Minister two reports on “Economic Empowerment for Women” and “Green Buildings,” which discussed three aspects of the Vision 2050, namely “Human values,” “People development,” and “Buildings.” The Vision 2050 is a new agenda for business towards sustainable development, initiated by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and deployed by 62 member countries of the Council regional networks, including Vietnam.

 

According to VBCSD, enhancing economic empowerment for women will liberate productive forces and impact many social issues. Recommendations included expanding women’s presence in technical fields, encouraging female business leaders to lecture at universities, set a man-to-woman employment ratio in State-owned enterprises, offering tax incentives for enterprises using women workers, reducing fees for registration and transaction of assets legally owned by women, offering soft loans to women, supporting women to access bank loans, increasing retirement age for women equal to men's, etc.

 

 

Deputy Prime Minister Nhan said the Government always creates fair opportunities in all aspects for women and he asked VBCSD to introduce the report to the Vietnam Women’s Union. He also stressed the importance of raising women’s awareness of economic capacity.

 

“Green Buildings" recommendations include building the legal framework and encouraging foreign investors to apply Green Buildings standards like the "Lotus", efficient energy use, protect water sources, and deal with pollution.

 

He noted recommendations must be discussed with the Ministry of Construction and relevant bodies. He also expressed his interest in applying green standards in social housing projects and industrial works. He suggested green standards be applied one by one, starting from construction materials and building cooling systems.

 

In conclusion, the Deputy Prime Minister told VBCSD to study measures to attracting investors in training employees, and introduce sample models, standards, practices and experiences in the coming time.

 

Source: Vietnam Business Forum Magazine