Workshop discusses green growth strategy for steel industry

The workshop was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the Southeast Asian Steel Association, the International Finance Corporation, and more than 200 businesses operating in the steel industry

Upon addressing the event, Nghiem Xuan Da, chairman of the VSA, emphasised that the workshop represents an ideal forum in which local and foreign firms can get updated information on activities of VSA, as well as policies and laws relating to Vietnam, the region, and the world. This will therefore help steel enterprises to devise appropriate development plans in line with the national and international green strategy.

“The development of Vietnam's steel industry towards the green growth strategy is critically important in implementing the Government's orientations and tasks,” Da said.

He added that the steel industry has gradually developed over recent times, making significant contributions to the country’s industrialisation and modernisation process, as well as boosting local economic growth in general.

Most notably, since 2015 the steel industry has strived to become the 13th crude steel producer in the world, taking the lead in the ASEAN region in the production and consumption of finished steel products.

However, the industry has still produced large greenhouse gas emissions and exerted environmental impacts. According to calculations carried out by experts, the sector is responsible for 7% of total national emissions and about 46% of industrial processes.

The transformation of steel production from "gray steel" to "green steel" represents an inevitable trend, Da said, adding that the occasion provides businesses with an overall view of the world's green development trends, while simultaneously heightening the responsibility to implement green production in a bid to meet the requirements of domestic management agencies and the international market, Da noted. 

Meanwhile, Hoang Van Tam, deputy chief of the Office of Climate Change and Green Growth under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, stressed that solutions to respond to climate change must be integrated in the Industry and Trade sector’s development schemes to ensure the steel sector’s stable development.

At the event, Tam also introduced the Green Growth Strategy of the Industry and Trade sector, along with further activities which seek to create a legal corridor for implementing green growth and reducing greenhouse emissions moving forward.