TITLE:
Green Economy Development in Vietnam and the Involvement of Enterprises
AUTHORS:
Ho Thuy Ngoc, Nguyen Tu Anh
KEYWORDS:
Green Economy, Technology Renovation, Green Renovation
JOURNAL NAME:
Low Carbon Economy,
Vol.7 No.1,
March
16,
2016
ABSTRACT: Vietnam has become increasingly integrated into the global economy since
its accession to the WTO in 2007, which is not only beneficial, but also
detrimental. Membership was almost immediately followed by the 2008 global
financial crisis which, along with Europe’s escalating public debt,
dramatically slowed Vietnam’s, at that time, rapidly developing economy. To
mitigate the persisting effects of that
economic shock and facilitate growth sufficient to the needs of its citizens, Vietnam
is obligated to reevaluate the sustainability of its “brown economy” and
develop strategies toward the adoption of a “green economy” growth model.
Vietnam is fortunately located in a region that has been experiencing dramatic
economic development and with its neighboring countries, many advantageous social
and legal conditions for the development of a green economy. Yet, Vietnam’s
economy persists in being driven by a brown growth model which is characterized
by reliance on raw materials production, the consumption of unsustainable
quantities of fossil fuels and natural resources and burgeoning environmental
pollution. This paper provides a nation-level analysis of green technology
development in Vietnam by using the data from the National Office of Intellectual
Property to analyze the extent to which green technology constitutes technology
use in Vietnam. Vietnamese enterprises were interviewed to gain insight and
data regarding the development and renovation of green technology. Given this
situation, an assumption is made that initial growth in greening the economy is
primarily driven by enterprises. Greening economy can start from technology
renovation and it was hypothesized that such renovation would have been due to
both knowledge-based labor and outside support. It was also hypothesized that
green economy can be pushed under the outside pressure on Vietnamese
enterprises. This paper was designed to test these hypotheses.