Green business forum on climate change opens in Vietnam

A green business forum in response to climate change in Vietnam's southern Mekong River Delta opened on Wednesday in southern Ho Chi Minh City, attracting representatives from local enterprises, non-government organizations and provinces in the Mekong delta, according to the Vietnam News Agency. Participants discussed and shared experience and commitment to making their production and business activities "green". Currently, the Mekong delta is hit by a double impact of climate change, including construction of reservoirs on the river and increasing demand on water for agricultural production, and the rising of sea water, said Prof. Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Tran from the Research Center for Development of the Mekong Delta. To cope with those obstacles, "green" enterprises should set forth concrete measures in response to climate change, as well as cooperate with universities and institutes in research so that both sides can cope with those impacts effectively, Tran said. Vietnam has now about 500,000 enterprises, which have made worthy contributions to the country's socio-economic development. Their participation to fighting climate change across the country in general and in the Mekong delta in particular is indispensable, said the professor. The forum was held by the Vietnam Business Center for Sustainable Development, Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the World Wildlife Fund in Vietnam, and the Tropical Biology Institute.