At the beginning of the two-day workshop Ms. Nguyen Tram Anh defined a circular economy as followed:
“The circular economy is an economy in which the value of products, materials and resources are maintained in the economy for as long as possible and minimize the generation of waste to the environment” – Ms. Nguyen Tram Anh
During a timeframe of five years (ending 06/2019) a project in Ninh Binh, Da Nang and Can Tho aimed to convert an active industrial park into an eco-industrial zone. In this eco-industrial zone companies are working linked with each other and local communities to reduce their environmental impact and reduce production costs. In addition, clean technologies and low-carbon production experience are demonstrated in industrial zones to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, persistent organic pollutants and water pollution.
Eco-industrial parks offer enterprises to save input material and to reuse resources which can optimize in a connected network the production activities, the production costs, the increasing profits and the capacity compete. The environment benefits in several ways such as a reduced water consumption, reduced greenhouse gas emissions and Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). Furthermore, provides an eco-industrial park a lot of benefits for the surrounding communities. On the one hand improves a cleaner production the health and on the other hand creates an eco-industrial park in the area green jobs. With the new jobs increases also the quality of life as complex facilities like kindergartens, hospitals and public transportation improve the infrastructure.
Ph. D Michael Parsons underlined that three steps have to be taken toward a socialist-oriented circular economy:
By June 2019, Vietnam counted over 326 industrial parks. The total volume of wastewater is estimated at 500,000 m³ per day. 395,000 m³ of the wastewater is treated in centralized treatment systems before being discharged into the environment. The rest is taken care of by facilities in the industrial zone before it gets directly discharged into the environment. Around 88 percent of the industrial zones have a centralized wastewater treatment system.
To avoid that untreated wastewater gets discharged into the environment it needs high investments in wastewater facilities. Therefore, it is important, that the construction of centralized drainage, wastewater treatment systems and rainwater drainage systems of the industrial zones are completed before the industrial park goes into operation.
An eco-industrial park is a highly organized form and a current trend of sustainable development in the world based on saving energy, water, raw materials and reducing waste. The water supply and the drainage system of the wastewater of the industries must be planned and completed before the industrial park goes into operation. Furthermore, the drainage system must be designed on basis of circulation, reuse water and the minimization of wastewater being discharged to the environment.
One important pillar of the work of the Hanns Seidel Foundation is the cooperation with different think-tanks to provide training to government managers, ministerial officials and private-sector decision makers on green development. To ensure success in the implementation of SCP and the Agenda 2030, the HSF has been working with ISPONRE since many years.