Representatives from the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) nations met in Hanoi on Thursday to discuss ways to expand green growth. At the seminar, delegates emphasized that it is time for GMS nations to restructure the economy by promoting the role of nature in order to achieve steady growth and improve the livelihood of nearly 400 million people in the region.

Director of the Institute of Strategy and Policy on Natural Resources and Environment, Nguyen Van Tai, said that those nations aimed to develop the green economy by maintaining and developing natural resources, reducing environmental pollution and green house emissions: “GMS nations are implementing the economic restructuring and transition. Therefore, it is important for GMS nations to expand the green economy and build a roadmap to limit the use of fossil fuels. This roadmap has been implemented in many regional countries.”

Delegates also devised orientations in their countries’ strategies and roadmap on green growth and discussed measures to strengthen cooperation in conserving and developing natural resources, and building green economy in the region. The event was co-organised by the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Asian Development Bank, and international organizations.