An Action Plan for Green Growth

Vinh Yen is an industrial suburb that serves as a gateway to Viet Nam’s capital, Ha Noi. It has a robust economy and vibrant private sector. The city counts Dam Vac lake and nearby Tam Dao tourism area as its environmental assets.

The city, however, needs to address several issues. These include vulnerability to natural disasters, the presence of polluting industries, the disparity between the economic growth rate and lower

social growth rate, lack of financial resources, outdated urban infrastructure (wastewater, solid waste, drainage), and the absence of a public transportation system.

The GrEEEn Cities Action Plan outlines four key initiatives to achieve the following goals:

• Promote ecobusiness in manufacturing and services.
• Improve the urban environment, including Dam Vac lake.
• Promote regional ecotourism.
• Become a regional leader in education and health services.

To promote ecobusiness in manufacturing and services, the plan has adopted the following measures:

• Implement a clean manufacturing plan that supports high-value manufacturing with a smaller environmental footprint.
• Promote the use of local parts by foreign manufacturers.
• Promote the development of low-polluting service industries such as tourism, education, and banking and finance.

To improve the urban environment, including Dam Vac lake:

• Build the institutional capacity of the city government and their utility.
• Create a sanitation credit scheme for low-income households to help them cope with the costs of constructing toilets, septic tanks or latrines, and for connecting to the piped wastewater network.

To promote regional ecotourism:

• Preserve and enhance its environmental assets to capture a larger share of the regional ecotourism market.
• Put better transport connections between Ha Noi, Vinh Yen city, and Tam Dao mountain.
• Revise and improve the regulatory framework for lakeside development.
• Use public-private partnerships for individual development projects.

To become a regional leader in education and health services:

• Develop a university city and build new hospitals.

To successfully implement these measures, the action plan highlights the need for:

• strong partnerships and inputs from stakeholders at all levels,
• strong local government capacity for strategic planning and the rollout of agreed measures, and
• a performance monitoring and evaluation framework, including a citizen’s community scorecard for rating service providers.

The plan sees the following outcomes/results:

• Increased tourism and job opportunities, cleaner environment, and improved real property values.

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