The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH has been working in Viet Nam for more than 20 years. Currently 181 national and 28 international employees, seven integrated specialists and 17 development workers are working in the country (as of 31.12.2018).
Due to its dynamic economic development in the last decade of more than six percent on average, Viet Nam has reached the status of a middle-income country. At the same time, it faces major challenges: quickly depleting natural resources, environmental degradation, shortage of skilled workers and high energy consumption are pressing problems.
Besides, Viet Nam is severely affected by climate change due to its long coastline. Concurrently, it is responsible for increasing greenhouse gas emissions in particular due to its growing demand for energy. In 2012, the Government of Viet Nam adapted its Green Growth Strategy, which aims to foster the economic development while securing environmental and social sustainability.
This focus is reflected by the programmes implemented by GIZ in these priority areas:
- Environment and natural resources
- Energy
- Vocational training
GIZ supports Vietnamese authorities in the management of protected areas and sustainable forests, including the certification of timbers and introduction of payments to local people for their forest-related environmental services. In the Mekong Delta, climate change adaptation measures are supported, for example by building wave breakers along the coastline to protect the backlands against erosion as well as storms and floods. On the national level, GIZ is working with the Government of Viet Nam to achieve the country´s Nationally Determined Contribution under the Paris Agreement to contribute to global climate change mitigation efforts.
Viet Nam’s demand for energy is rising rapidly. For this reason, the government aims to enhance renewable energy and energy efficiency. GIZ is proposing measures to reduce barriers for domestic and international investment in the market, e.g. by improving access to financing the renewable energy projects or simplifying the legal framework for power purchase agreements. Besides, the federal enterprise is promoting the use of renewable energy and energy efficiency and supports the technology cooperation between Vietnamese and German universities and private companies.
GIZ is working closely with the Vietnamese authorities on the development and implementation of strategies and framework conditions to improve the demand-orientation of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) with a focus on the cooperation with the business sector. Institutions of practical training are supported by GIZ in their efforts to improve the quality and practice-orientation of the trainings. The objective is to increase the provision of qualified workers, meeting the needs of a green and sustainable economy. Besides development measures in the three priority areas, GIZ also supports the implementation of Viet Nam’s Green Growth Strategy. This includes strengthening policymakers’ capacities to pursue green economic policies and providing legal advice to improve the regulatory framework. GIZ also endorses reforming Viet Nam’s public finance system and introducing new financial instruments for projects invested in environment sector in order to achieve lasting impacts and facilitate Viet Nam’s progress towards a sustainable future.
GIZ’s main commissioning party is the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Other commissions come from the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) and the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi). GIZ is also engaged in various projects co-funded by the Australian and Swiss Government as well as the European Union. It closely cooperates with the German Development Bank KfW in various joint programmes of German Development Cooperation.
