Green Economy Development in Vietnam and the Involvement of Enterprises

Abstract

Vietnam has become increasingly integrated into the global economy since its accession to the WTO in 2007, which is not only beneficial, but also detrimental. Membership was almost immediately followed by the 2008 global financial crisis which, along with Europe’s escalating public debt, dramatically slowed Vietnam’s, at that time, rapidly developing economy. To mitigate the persisting effects of that economic shock and facilitate growth sufficient to the needs of its citizens, Vietnam is obligated to reevaluate the sustainability of its “brown economy” and develop strategies toward the adoption of a “green economy” growth model. Vietnam is fortunately located in a region that has been experiencing dramatic economic development and with its neighboring countries, many advantageous social and legal conditions for the development of a green economy. Yet, Vietnam’s economy persists in being driven by a brown growth model which is characterized by reliance on raw materials production, the consumption of unsustainable quantities of fossil fuels and natural resources and burgeoning environmental pollution. This paper provides a nation-level analysis of green technology development in Vietnam by using the data from the National Office of Intellectual Property to analyze the extent to which green technology constitutes technology use in Vietnam. Vietnamese enterprises were interviewed to gain insight and data regarding the development and renovation of green technology. Given this situation, an assumption is made that initial growth in greening the economy is primarily driven by enterprises. Greening economy can start from technology renovation and it was hypothesized that such renovation would have been due to both knowledge-based labor and outside support. It was also hypothesized that green economy can be pushed under the outside pressure on Vietnamese enterprises. This paper was designed to test these hypotheses.