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| Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha received Mr. Nitin Kapoor, Chairman and General Director of AstraZeneca Vietnam. (Source: VNA) |
On the morning of August 14, at the Government headquarters, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha received Mr. Nitin Kapoor, Chairman and General Director of AstraZeneca Vietnam.
The Deputy Prime Minister appreciated AstraZeneca for its valuable and timely support to Vietnam in preventing and fighting the Covid-19 pandemic, contributing to efforts to repel the pandemic worldwide.
The Deputy Prime Minister expressed his impression of the cooperation activities that AstraZeneca is implementing in Vietnam, especially in the field of vaccines and biological drugs, contributing to proactively preparing to prevent and combat epidemics that may occur in the future.
Supporting AstraZeneca's commitment to reducing emissions and moving towards carbon neutrality in all its operations, the Deputy Prime Minister emphasized that experience in preventing and combating Covid-19 shows that the world can only repel and end the pandemic if all countries have equal access to vaccines. Similarly, the goals of responding to climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions cannot be achieved if there are countries that are "outside".
Emphasizing that human health is closely related to environmental "health", the Deputy Prime Minister affirmed that the restoration and protection of the natural environment... is an important solution to prevent and reduce the burden of disease costs related to water, air and waste pollution for people and society. Technology is the "vaccine" to respond to climate change. Developing countries like Vietnam are in great need of support and access to different solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Enterprises with strong scientific research forces such as AstraZeneca play an important role in implementing climate change response goals such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions to “net zero” or achieving a just energy transition (JETP) by participating in research projects, transferring technology to produce green fuels (hydrogen, ammonia), building smart transmission systems or large-scale electricity and energy storage devices.
Discussing AstraZeneca's project to plant 22.5 million trees, the Deputy Prime Minister assigned the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Department of Climate Change (Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment) to closely coordinate with AstraZeneca to implement the project with the best results; at the same time, he hoped that AstraZeneca would participate in projects in the roadmap to implement net zero and JETP in Vietnam as a pilot project for the global mechanism.
Thanking the Deputy Prime Minister for taking the time to meet him, Mr. Nitin Kapoor reported on a number of cooperation programs and projects being implemented in Vietnam to enhance patients' access to medicines, develop a sustainable health system, improve public health, and conduct clinical trials of medicines and biological products.
Regarding some commitments to reduce emissions and move towards carbon neutrality, Mr. Nitin Kapoor said that AstraZeneca is actively working with Vietnamese agencies and partners to implement a forestation and landscape restoration project with an investment of 50 million USD, aiming to plant 22.5 million trees on 30,500 hectares, creating conditions for biodiversity development and supplementing sustainable livelihoods for more than 17,000 households.
Based on the clear recognition of the close relationship between climate change, environmental pollution and human health, Mr. Nitin Kapoor hopes that the afforestation and landscape restoration project in Vietnam will be a pilot project in the action plan of the National Steering Committee to implement Vietnam's commitments at the 26th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26), thereby spreading and encouraging other organizations and businesses to act together for the goal of responding to climate change.
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