The 16th meeting on technical cooperation in the field of drainage and wastewater treatment between the Ministry of Construction of Vietnam and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) of Japan took place in Hanoi on December 26th. Mr. Ta Quang Vinh - Director of the Department of Technical Infrastructure (Ministry of Construction) and Mr. Matsubara Makoto - Director of the Department of Drainage and Wastewater Management (MLIT) co-chaired the meeting.
Mr. Ta Quang Vinh - Director of the Department of Technical Infrastructure (Ministry of Construction) and Mr. Matsubara Makoto - Director of the Department of Drainage and Wastewater Management (MLIT) signed the Meeting Minutes
In the Vietnamese side, there were leaders of a number of units under the MoC; representatives of People's Committees of provinces and cities, leaders of localities’s Departments of Construction. In the Japanese side, there were representatives of the Japanese Embassy in Vietnam, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), MLIT experts; representatives of some local governments.
Speaking at the meeting, Mr. Ta Quang Vinh said, based on the "Memorandum of Cooperation in the field of drainage and wastewater treatment" signed for the first time in 2010 between the Ministry of Construction and MLIT, the two Ministries organized regular meetings between the two countries to evaluate activities carried out in the past period and agreed on action plans for the future. At this meeting, the two sides summarized the results of technical cooperation activities during the period between the 15th and 16th meetings (from August 2022 to December 2023), and proposed a operating plan for the period from January 2024 to December 2024.
Five priority areas agreed by the two sides at the 15th meeting have achieved many positive results. MLIT is actively supporting the development of the Water Supply and Drainage Law through JICA experts; supporting policy development and evaluation, specifically planning and conducting surveys and research to draft necessary basic documents to evaluate the implementation of Decision No. 589/QD- Prime Minister “Adjusting the development orientation of urban and industrial park drainage to 2025 and vision to 2050" and Decision No. 450/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister on “National environmental protection strategy until 2030 and vision to 2050".
In addition, JICA experts are also continuing to research and propose policies related to wastewater treatment solutions, sludge treatment and reuse in localities, and urban flood prevention solutions.
In particular, improving the capacity of human resources is paid much attention. JICA has planned and implemented the Drainage Management Training Program in Japan; organized 3 workshops to share knowledge and technical experience between Japan and Vietnam in the fields of construction and infrastructure, including drainage. JICA, JICA experts and the Department of Technical Infrastructure will continue to discuss necessary training contents to meet the current needs of capacity building and human resource development for the central and local governments in Vietnam,
Overview the meeting
At the meeting, representatives of relevant localities in the Cooperation Program of both Vietnam and Japan exchanged and discussed the report content and cooperation results achieved in their localities; and raised concerns and problems and proposed many ideas to overcome difficulties.
Concluding the meeting, emphasizing the key contents of this session, Director of the Department of Technical Infrastructure Ta Quang Vinh also hoped that JICA and MLIT would continue to pay attention to training of drainage systems management capacity for localities; deploying and expanding new projects in this field for Vietnamese localities, especially class I and class II urban areas; supporting the Ministry of Construction and the Department of Technical Infrastructure in completing components of the Law on Water Supply and Drainage on schedule. In addition, Director Ta Quang Vinh also asked JICA and MLIT to consider and support the Ministry of Construction in researching and drafting the Law on urban underground space which was the Japanese’s strength.
The 16th meeting ended with the signing of the Meeting Minutes to further strengthen technical cooperation in the field of drainage and wastewater treatment between the Ministry of Construction and MLIT in the coming time.
Written by: Le Minh
Translated by: Mai Anh