Attending the meeting were comrade Dang Quoc Khanh, member of the Party Central Committee - Secretary of the Party Committee, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment; Deputy Ministers: Nguyen Thi Phuong Hoa, Tran Quy Kien, Le Cong Thanh and leaders of units under the Ministry in Hanoi.

At the meeting, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment welcomed and wished a Happy New Year to former members of the Party Central Committee, former Ministers of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment: Mai Ai Truc; Pham Khoi Nguyen; Nguyen Minh Quang; former member of the Party Central Committee, former Director General of the General Department of Land Administration Bui Xuan Son; former member of the Party Central Committee, former Secretary of the Tien Giang Provincial Party Committee, former Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment Tran The Ngoc; former member of the Party Central Committee, former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, former Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment Nguyen Xuan Cuong and former Deputy Ministers of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment; former leaders of units under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment organizes an intimate meeting with the Ministry's leaders through the periods, which has become an annual activity and a meaningful tradition every time Tet comes and Spring comes. This is also an opportunity for generations of leaders of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment through the periods to look back on the past year and the development orientation of the Natural Resources and Environment sector in the new year 2024.

Speaking at the meeting, Minister Dang Quoc Khanh was delighted to welcome former leaders of the Ministry and former leaders of units under the Ministry through the years to attend the meeting on the occasion of welcoming the Spring of Giap Thin 2024.

At the meeting, Minister Dang Quoc Khanh informed the former leaders of the Ministry and former leaders of units under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment about the achievements of the Natural Resources and Environment sector in 2023. Accordingly, in the past year, closely following the direction of the Government and the Prime Minister, the entire Natural Resources and Environment sector has made great efforts and determination in handling work, ensuring that the state management activities of the Ministry and the sector are smooth and consistent, especially in the context of the Ministry's leadership changes and transfers. Many important results have been recognized by the Party and State leaders and highly appreciated by the people.

Notably, the work of perfecting institutions, policies and laws continues to be directed and implemented by the Ministry, thereby creating a legal system on natural resources and the environment that is increasingly synchronous, unified and put into practice. On November 27, 2023, the National Assembly passed the Law on Water Resources (amended) with many important new points related to the restoration of "dead rivers" to restore water sources, create flows, and improve ecological landscapes; decentralization and delegation of authority in the organization of water resources management; specific regulations on the protection, development of aquatic resources and water conservation; ...

In particular, at the recent 5th Extraordinary Session, the National Assembly passed the Land Law (amended), which contained many provisions that were highly anticipated and appreciated by the people. The Land Law (amended) was passed, in which the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment played a key role in drafting the Land Law (amended) to help resolve current difficulties and obstacles, promoting the country's rapid and sustainable development.

Along with perfecting the institutions, policies and laws of the Natural Resources and Environment sector, Minister Dang Quoc Khanh said that in 2023, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has also proactively and urgently implemented the establishment and submission for approval of all national-level plans (8/8 plans), which are all important plans with the nature of opening, leading and laying the foundation for the development of the sector and field. In particular, the establishment of the National Marine Spatial Plan is very important, a difficult and complicated task, implemented for the first time in our country.

The Minister also informed that in 2023, resource management work achieved many important results. The entire Natural Resources and Environment sector proactively implemented early solutions to ensure input factors for the economy such as land, water resources, information, and hydrometeorological data to serve production and business, and develop the country's strategic infrastructure.

The Department of Natural Resources and Environment also conducted a survey of sea sand resources, initially identifying areas with feasible exploitation conditions to propose moving to the exploration and exploitation phase. The implementation of policies and laws on environmental protection continues to improve in efficiency and effectiveness; the responsibility of authorities at all levels, businesses, investors and people's awareness of environmental issues is increasingly enhanced.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has also been very active in promoting international cooperation in implementing the Party's orientation towards the goal of "building a circular, environmentally friendly economy" through the development of the National Action Plan for the implementation of the Circular Economy, in line with the inevitable development trend in the context of Vietnam's increasingly deep and wide integration into the global economy. The Ministry has advised the Government on green transformation solutions, emission reduction, proactive response to climate change, especially in promoting energy transition. Vietnam is the first country to announce a Resource Mobilization Plan, marking an important milestone towards the implementation of the Fair Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) mechanism; ...

Regarding the key tasks in 2024, Minister Dang Quoc Khanh emphasized that the working areas of the Ministry and the Natural Resources and Environment sector continue to receive special attention and close direction from the leaders of the Party, State and Government. Recognizing the role and importance of the Natural Resources and Environment sector for the cause of sustainable development of the country, from the beginning of the year, the collective leadership of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the heads of agencies and units in the Ministry have focused on directing the concretization of the goals, tasks and solutions under the functions and duties of the Ministry and the Natural Resources and Environment sector in the Resolutions of the Central Party Committee, the National Assembly and the Government into work plans and programs. Accordingly, in 2024, the entire Natural Resources and Environment sector will focus all resources to implement with high political determination, striving and making efforts to achieve important results in many aspects.

In particular, the whole industry will focus on developing and organizing the development of documents guiding the implementation of the Land Law (amended) and the Water Resources Law (amended) into life. At the same time, organize the development and completion of the Law on Geology and Minerals to submit to the Government for consideration and submit to the National Assembly in 2024; continue to review and remove obstacles in sub-law documents to promote socio-economic development.

Along with that, the Ministry also continues to decentralize and delegate maximum authority to localities, ensuring decentralization goes hand in hand with appropriate resource allocation, improving implementation capacity, strengthening guidance for localities to implement, and at the same time stepping up inspection and supervision to move towards synchronizing management work in the natural resources and environment sector; ...

On the occasion of the upcoming Spring of Giap Thin 2024, on behalf of the Party Committee and the leadership of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Minister Dang Quoc Khanh respectfully thanks the former leaders of the Ministry and the former leaders of the units under the Ministry for always following, sharing, coordinating and making contributions to the development of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment; at the same time, he wishes the generations of veteran cadres of the Ministry and their families a peaceful, healthy and happy new year. The Minister believes that with the support and consensus of previous and future generations, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment as well as the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment will continue to develop strongly, meeting the expectations of the Party, Government and People.

At the meeting, former leaders of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment highly appreciated the important contributions of the Natural Resources and Environment sector to the country's development in 2023.

Speaking at the year-end meeting and New Year greetings, on behalf of the Ministry's leaders through the periods, former Minister Mai Ai Truc congratulated the achievements that the leaders, cadres, civil servants, public employees and workers of the Natural Resources and Environment Sector have achieved in the past year and hopes that in the coming years, they will continue to achieve more good results.

At the same time, former Minister Mai Ai Truc also advised the new generation of leaders of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to always be democratic, united, closely coordinate with ministries, branches, localities and listen to the opinions and aspirations of the people to help the sector become more complete and develop more strongly.

On this occasion, former Minister Mai Ai Truc suggested that the leaders of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, in addition to the annual Environmental Awards, should promptly reward many creative examples in environmental protection work, contributing to spreading and encouraging the environmental protection movement to the whole society.

In the presence of Minister Dang Quoc Khanh and the leaders of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, former Minister Pham Khoi Nguyen congratulated the great achievements that the leaders, officers, civil servants and employees of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment have achieved in the past year and hoped that in the coming years, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment will continue to achieve greater achievements.

In 2024, former Minister Pham Khoi Nguyen hopes that the current leaders of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment will continue to promote their intelligence, strength of solidarity, unanimity, and proactively coordinate with ministries and branches to excellently complete all tasks assigned by the Party, State and People, continuing to contribute to the sustainable, prosperous and strong development of the country.