Sustainable Development Goals Related and Broader Development Challenges Facing Vietnam and the Role of the UN

Your Royal Highness Crown Princess Victoria

Ambassador Pereric Högberg

Members of the Swedish delegation

UNCT colleagues,

First, a warm welcome to the Crown Princess, the Ambassador and other members of the Swedish delegation to our Green One UN House which they have just quickly toured. I would also like to welcome the Crown Princess as one of the UN Secretary General’s Special Advocates on the Sustainable Development Goals even though she is not visiting Vietnam in that official capacity, but as Crown Princess of Sweden.

On behalf of the UN Country Team in Vietnam, I will like to update You on the UN’s work on SDGs and summarize our key assessments of the major challenges facing the achievement of Agenda 2030 for sustainable development in Vietnam.

My brief presentation will cover 3 areas:

• The UN’s work on SDGs and our key result areas in Vietnam
• The main challenges facing Vietnam in SDG achievement, and
• Major broader challenges facing Vietnam in terms of the quality and sustainability of its economic growth and development.

1. The UN work on SDGs and key results in Vietnam Our joint UN SDG work and support to Vietnam, guided by the One Strategic Plan for 2017 – 2021 jointly agreed with the GOVN, focuses on 4 main areas:

• Investing in people to ensure more inclusive and equitable quality social services and social protection for the people, especially the most vulnerable,
• Ensuring climate resilience and environmental sustainability, effectively responding to climate change and natural disasters, and more sustainably managing natural resources,
• Promoting justice, peace and inclusive governance through strengthening rule of law and better protection of human rights, as well as improving the quality and responsiveness of all levels of governance.
• Fostering prosperity and partnership to build an inclusive and sustainable economic growth model, including an inclusive labour market to ensure decent work for all Vietnamese.

In delivering on these objectives and outcomes, we have prioritized more and more joint inter-agency collaboration and partnerships with the government, civil society, the private sector and international development partners in Vietnam, convening platforms for policy debates, policy formulation and advocacy, as well as by sharing our best global development practices and technical expertise with both national partners and local communities.

Currently, the UN in Vietnam is being asked by the National Assembly, government ministries and provincial authorities to help in the mainstreaming of the SDGs into the design of the next 10-year Socio-Economic Development Strategy (SEDS) from 2020-2030 and 5-year Socio-Economic Development Plan (SEDP) 2020-2025, which we see as an important and strategic priority for the UN in terms of support for long-term development planning and SDG achievement in Vietnam.

2. Vietnam’s main challenges for SDG achievement

• ietnam is making impressive progress in terms of poverty reduction and gender equality. Nevertheless, the country is assessed to lag behind in its implementation to achieve a number of key SDGs related to industry, innovation and infrastructure (SDG 9), climate change and environmental sustainability (SDGs 13, 14 and 15) and especially on quality governance, inclusive justice and strong and independent institutions (SDG 16).
• The 2030 Agenda requires huge financial resources while the state budget remains limited and grant ODA has sharply declined since Vietnam became a lower middle-income country in 2010.
• The GOVN confronts serious challenges in terms of domestic resource mobilization for development financing. There is also high demand from development partners, as well as both domestic and external investors, for a stronger effort by the GOVN for the removal of institutional and regulatory barriers and the design of a more incentivized and transparent investment framework to help mobilize the needed development finance resources for Vietnam, especially from the private sector.
• The integration and implementation of SDGs in Vietnam is also challenged by fragmentation and lack of coordination among government agencies, across sectors and between the central and provincial levels. Knowledge and capacity for integration and mainstreaming SDGs into policy, practice and implementation is also insufficient and not efficient.
• There is also a great challenge in SDG implementation monitoring and results measurement. The current available data covers only 30% of the total SDG indicators. Having a professional and quality official statistical system for SDG monitoring and data collection remains an urgent challenge for the GOVN.

3. Major overall challenges for Vietnam in terms of the quality and sustainability of its economic growth and development

The quality, inclusiveness and sustainability of economic growth and development remain major challenges in Vietnam.

• Multiple disparities between geographic regions and population groups remain. For example, multidimensional poverty rates in the Northern Mountains and Central Highlands are more than two times higher than the national average and multiple times higher for ethnic minorities and vulnerable groups such as certain children, women, older persons, migrants, and people with disabilities.
• Risks of social and economic vulnerabilities remain high, caused by rapid urbanization, global integration, as well as impacts of natural disasters and climate change. The most affected and vulnerable people include women, children, old people, the poor, and people with disabilities. Social insurance covered merely 27% of the labour force in 2017 and increasing social protection is a top priority of our support.
• Labour productivity (GDP per hour worked) has increased mainly due to low cost labour-intensive employment rather than innovation. Vietnam’s labour productivity is much lower than many countries in the region and the gaps, in many respects, are widening. Strengthening the capability for innovation and quality human capital - key for Vietnam to harness Industrial Revolution 4.0 and technological advancement and enhance its competitiveness, requires a new growth model.
• A new growth model for Vietnam is needed to unlock the potential in Vietnam, steering it towards sustained high growth based on quality education and human capital and high value-added labour, green jobs, innovative financing for development, and a level playing field enabling dynamic private sector development leading to increasing productivity.
• Social justice, rule of law and good governance, and a clean, efficient and responsive government are needed now more than ever before. As Vietnam moves up the economic ladder, good economic indicators alone will not be enough. Quality governance and institutional reforms are needed in terms of increased public spending efficiency, seriously tackling the root causes of corruption and broadening the tax base, as well as reforming the business environment by removing obstacles for private companies to do business. Human and societal development cannot be achieved without stronger rule of law and legal and justice systems applied equally and transparently to all Vietnamese and other economic and societal actors.
• Natural disasters and climate change have increasingly become a serious threat to Vietnam, almost an existential threat in the Mekong Delta and some other parts of the country. Viet Nam remains one of 10 countries most affected by natural disasters and extreme weather events globally. While there is green growth momentum in Viet Nam, large investments are needed in renewable energy, energy efficiency as well as effective management of its natural resources. The country is increasingly challenged by demands for a transition to greener energy resources while meeting demands for energy sufficiency.

Thank you. That’s all that the limited time permits me to say. I am now happy to welcome the Crown Princess and our UNCT colleagues to share your reflections.