On October 9, on the occasion of participating in the working delegation of the Prime Minister of Vietnam to attend the 44th and 45th ASEAN Summits in Vientiane, the working delegation of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of Vietnam led by Party Central Committee member and Minister Do Duc Duy visited and worked with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Lao People's Democratic Republic.
Joining the working delegation with Minister Do Duc Duy were Mr. Le Ngoc Tuan, Director of the Department of International Cooperation; Ms. Dang Thanh Mai, Deputy Director General of the General Department of Hydrometeorology; Mr. Phan Tuan Hung, Director of the Department of Legal Affairs; Mr. Tang The Cuong, Director of the Department of Climate Change; Mr. Hoang Van Thuc, Director of the Department of Environmental Pollution Control; Mr. Chau Tran Vinh, Director of the Department of Water Resources Management; Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Linh, Chief of Office of the Vietnam Mekong River Commission; Mr. Le Van Huu, Deputy Director, Department of Nature Conservation and Biodiversity; Mr. Vu The Hung, Secretary of the Minister and a number of professional staff.
Participating in the reception and working session with the delegation of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of Vietnam were Comrade Bounkham Vorachit, Member of the Party Central Committee, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment of the Lao People's Democratic Republic, and leaders of environmental units of Laos.
Opening up new cooperation opportunities for the common interests of the two countries and peoples
At the meeting, Minister Bounkham Vorachit and officials of the Lao Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment gave the Vietnamese delegation a warm welcome with comradely and brotherly affection.
Minister Bounkham Vorachit affirmed that Vietnam and Laos are two neighboring countries with traditional friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation, and this relationship is the foundation for cooperation between the two ministries.
Minister Do Duc Duy sincerely thanked the Lao Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment for the welcome. On this occasion, the Minister also thanked Minister Bounkham Vorachit for his concern, visit and encouragement after Typhoon Yagi caused serious damage to many localities in Vietnam.
Minister Do Duc Duy said that when he was Secretary and Chairman of Yen Bai province, he had the opportunity to meet and work with leaders of Vientiane province and Xay Nha Bu Ly province to exchange and share experiences in cooperation and development with Yen Bai province, thereby contributing to deepening the traditional friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation between the Party, State and people of the two countries.
At the meeting, Minister Do Duc Duy and Minister Bounkham Vorachit were pleased that over the years, the Ministries of Natural Resources and Environment of the two countries have made efforts to promote cooperation and achieved many important results, contributing to the unique special relationship in the world between the Parties, States and People of the two countries.
However, in the international and regional contexts and the actual conditions of each country, the two sides still have a lot of potential for cooperation in the fields of resources and environment.
Therefore, at the working session, Minister Do Duc Duy and Minister Bounkham Vorachit discussed and objectively and comprehensively assessed the cooperation results between the two ministries in the past time, and discussed cooperation orientations in the coming period, ensuring suitability with the global and regional contexts and specific conditions of each country.
The two Ministers agreed to sign the Memorandum of Understanding after the bilateral meeting between the two sides and expected that the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding would contribute to enhancing comprehensive cooperation between the two Ministries. At the same time, it would open up new cooperation opportunities with specific initiatives and solutions on resource management, environmental protection, and climate change response for the goal of sustainable development, for the common interests of the two States and peoples.
With a spirit of cooperation and high determination, Minister Do Duc Duy and Minister Bounkham Vorachit believe that the two sides will achieve good results.
Unify 7 groups of cooperation content
At the meeting, leaders of the two sides reviewed some outstanding cooperation contents in the past time and proposed to the two Ministers cooperation directions in each field.
Regarding water resources, the two Ministers proposed that in the coming time, the two Ministries will continue to strengthen cooperation and exchange experiences in: comprehensive management, protection, and sustainable development of water resources; human resource training; scientific research; sharing operational data on cross-border water exploitation and use projects; preventing, combating, and overcoming natural disasters caused by water, in order to contribute to ensuring the safety and security of water resources in cross-border river basins.
Regarding Mekong River Commission cooperation, the two Mekong River Commissions of Vietnam and Laos have closely coordinated with other member countries of the Mekong River Commission to carry out consultation tasks, implement commitments, coordinate monitoring of the actual impacts of hydropower projects as well as discuss at forums of the Mekong River Commission and other relevant Mekong cooperation mechanisms.
As Permanent Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Mekong River Commission and Member of the Council of the Mekong River Commission of Vietnam, Minister Do Duc Duy highly appreciated the active cooperation of Laos in the consultation process, implementation of consultation conclusions, information sharing, and operation of hydropower projects on the Mekong River tributaries.
This is a testament to Laos’ sense of responsibility and cooperation for the sustainable development of the basin. Therefore, Minister Do Duc Duy hopes that Laos will continue to actively cooperate with Vietnam and other basin countries in this field, in order to minimize negative impacts on water resources, especially in extreme weather and emergency natural disasters.
Minister Bounkham Vorachit said he would pay attention and direct the Lao Mekong River Commission to promote the tradition of good cooperation with the Vietnam Mekong River Commission, continue to strengthen solidarity and closely coordinate in implementing common activities of the international Mekong River Commission and related cooperation mechanisms.
Regarding environment and biodiversity, in the coming time, the two Ministries will study cooperation mechanisms suitable for both sides to promote activities in the environmental field in a more practical and effective manner. Vietnam is willing to share experiences in building institutions for solid waste management, domestic waste, the National Action Partnership Program on plastics, etc.
In the field of biodiversity conservation, Vietnam and Laos are two countries with rich biodiversity resources. The two Ministers proposed that the two sides continue to cooperate, enhance capacity, build policy institutions; cooperate in conservation and sustainable use of wetlands in the Mekong River basin. Strengthen cooperation in nature conservation and biodiversity for nature reserves adjacent to the border of the two countries, especially the conservation of endangered, rare and migratory species. Cooperate and share experiences in implementing the goals of the Kunming - Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
On this occasion, Minister Do Duc Duy asked the Lao side to support the nomination to recognize three nature reserves of Vietnam (Dong Nai Nature and Culture Reserve, Dong Nai province; Pu Mat National Park, Nghe An province and Xuan Thuy National Park, Nam Dinh province) as ASEAN Heritage Parks (AHP), expected to be submitted to the ASEAN National Working Group on Nature Conservation and Biodiversity in early 2025.
Regarding climate change, Minister Do Duc Duy and Minister Bounkham Vorachit suggested further strengthening cooperation between the two ministries, continuing to exchange information, closely coordinate and support each other in regional and international cooperation mechanisms and frameworks, especially within the framework of ASEAN and United Nations cooperation on climate change; exchanging and sharing experiences, cooperating in adapting to climate change; reducing greenhouse gas emissions, implementing a fair energy transition, towards net zero emissions.
Regarding hydrometeorology, the two Ministers will direct the hydrometeorological agencies of the two countries to effectively implement the Memorandum of Understanding Implementation Plan, focusing on exchanging and sharing surface hydrometeorological monitoring data, weather radar, lightning positioning data and surface monitoring station data, to support weather forecasting and disaster warning at the national and provincial levels; sharing information on dangerous weather forecasts and disaster warnings before and during disasters to minimize damage to people and property...
Regarding land management, the two sides initially exchanged information and experience in policy making since 2019 during the consultation process on the draft amendment to the Land Law of the Lao National Assembly.
On this occasion, Minister Do Duc Duy informed the meeting that Vietnam's Land Law 2024 was passed by the National Assembly in January 2024, effective from August 1, 2024, with many new and breakthrough policies to liberate land resources, serving socio-economic development.
Minister Do Duc Duy said he is ready to share with colleagues of the Lao Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment his experience in building the Land Law in general and issues of concern.
Minister Bounkham Vorachit hopes that Vietnam will send expert delegations from the Ministry to work with specialized units of the Lao Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to discuss more detailed plans as well as exchange experiences in land management between the two countries.
Regarding training, Vietnam currently has three training units in the field of natural resources and environment and has recently trained two Lao students under the scholarship agreement between the two countries.
The two Ministers proposed to jointly develop proposals for short-term and long-term training programs and work with the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training and the Lao Ministry of Education and Sports to adopt a Protocol on training cooperation between the two Governments.
At the end of the meeting, the two Ministers requested that the specialized agencies of the two Ministries proactively work to continue to coordinate and effectively implement existing cooperation activities; at the same time, study and agree on proposals for activities of interest to both sides in the coming period to effectively implement contents related to the functions and tasks of the two Ministries of the two countries as well as effectively implement the Strategic Cooperation Agreement between the two Governments in the coming period.
Minister Bounkham Vorachit highly appreciated the results achieved at this Meeting, thereby creating a foundation for the units of the two Ministries to implement cooperation activities in the coming time in a practical and effective manner, in accordance with the international and regional context, specific conditions and priorities of the two countries on sustainable development.
Minister Do Duc Duy believes that with the spirit of cooperation and high determination, the two sides will continue to achieve good results, contributing to the sustainable development of both Vietnam and Laos. Today's meeting is not only an opportunity for the two sides to exchange and learn from each other, but also an opportunity to further strengthen the traditional friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation between the Parties, States and People of the two countries.
Source: https://baotainguyenmoitruong.vn/viet-nam-lao-hop-tac-trien-khai-07-nhom-nhiem-vu-trong-linh-vuc-tai-nguyen-va-moi-truong-381392.html
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