On January 21, at the headquarters of the Inter-agency Zone of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment in Ho Chi Minh City, Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Party Committee, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) Dang Quoc Khanh and Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee, Deputy Minister of MONRE Nguyen Thi Phuong Hoa met with Professors, Associate Professors, and Doctors from units under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment in the Central and Southern regions.

Attending the meeting were Prof. Dr. Nguyen Kim Loi, Director of the Center for Climate Change Research, Ho Chi Minh City University of Agriculture and Forestry; Prof. Dr. Nguyen Phuoc Dan, Chairman of the Interdisciplinary Council of Earth and Environmental Sciences, VNU-HCM; Prof. Dr. Phan Dinh Tuan, former President of Ho Chi Minh City University of Natural Resources and Environment; Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Dinh Tuan, former President of Ho Chi Minh City University of Natural Resources and Environment; Assoc. Prof. Dr. Phung Chi Sy, Vice President of the Vietnam Association for Nature and Environmental Protection; Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ho Quoc Bang, Director of the Institute for Leadership Development, VNU-HCM; Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pham Trung Hieu, Head of the Department of Geology - University of Natural Sciences - VNU-HCM...

Also attending the meeting were more than 80 civil servants, officials, experts, and scientists with PhD degrees from units of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment in the southern provinces.

At the meeting, Professors, Associate Professors, and Doctors working inside and outside the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment expressed their thanks to Minister Dang Quoc Khanh and the leaders of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment for organizing a friendly meeting, bringing great encouragement and timely attention to scientists in the field of natural resources and environment. At the same time, the Professors, Associate Professors, and Doctors made many important and practical contributions to the fields of state management of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

According to Prof. Dr. Phan Dinh Tuan, former Rector of Ho Chi Minh City University of Natural Resources and Environment, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment is undertaking a particularly important task, being the standing agency in implementing the task of reducing emissions to zero by 2050 as committed by the Government. At the same time, the development strategy of the natural resources and environment sector in the coming time is extremely heavy and involves many ministries, sectors and many fields, so Prof. Dr. Phan Dinh Tuan affirmed that scientists realize the need to have the responsibility to contribute more to the implementation of the heavy tasks of the natural resources and environment sector in the coming time. Specifically, scientists need to create research works and valuable products, directly solving the tasks of the Ministry; maximize capacity, experience, and advise the Ministry to perfect increasingly more complete policies, put them into practice to serve the sustainable development process of society.

Prof. Dr. Nguyen Kim Loi, Director of the Center for Climate Change Research, Ho Chi Minh City University of Agriculture and Forestry, proposed solutions to improve the quality of human resources in the natural resources and environment sector to meet the increasingly heavy and modern tasks of the sector. Accordingly, the training units of the Ministry need to innovate traditional training models, and need fundamental, inter-ministerial solutions to improve the quality of enrollment and training.

Also at the meeting, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Phuoc Dan, Chairman of the Interdisciplinary Council of Earth and Environmental Sciences of VNU-HCM; Assoc. Prof. Dr. Phung Chi Sy, Vice Chairman of the Association for Conservation of Nature and Environment; Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Dinh Tuan, former President of Ho Chi Minh City University of Natural Resources and Environment; Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pham Trung Hieu, Head of the Department of Geology - University of Natural Sciences - Ho Chi Minh City National University; Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ho Quoc Bang, Director of the Institute for Leadership Development of VNU-HCM... shared and gave comments to the leaders of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment on many issues such as: solutions to build legal policies on geology, minerals, reduce air pollution, manage household waste...

After listening to the opinions of the scientists, Minister Dang Quoc Khanh respectfully thanked and expressed gratitude for the enthusiastic and practical opinions of the scientists at the meeting as well as their great contributions to the natural resources and environment sector over the past time.

According to Minister Dang Quoc Khanh, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has always received advice and support from Professors, Associate Professors, PhDs, and leading scientists in the work of building and perfecting policy institutions and state management in all fields. It can be affirmed that the team of Professors, Associate Professors, and PhDs have made important contributions to the overall development of the natural resources and environment sector.

At the meeting, Minister Dang Quoc Khanh took the time to share the important tasks of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. In particular, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, with the task of being the agency in charge of drafting the Land Law (amended), was passed by the National Assembly with a high number of votes in favor. Through the record, local leaders, businesses and people were very happy and excited because the Law has fundamentally resolved the existing problems in the land sector in the past, unleashing land resources, serving socio-economic development.

The Law on Water Resources (amended) drafted by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has also been approved by the National Assembly. In particular, the Law stipulates the mobilization and prioritization of resources to restore dead rivers and polluted rivers; organize river basin management by decentralizing and delegating power to localities... In addition, a particularly important task implemented by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment in recent times is the development of a National Marine Spatial Planning for the period 2021 - 2030, with a vision to 2045.

According to Minister Dang Quoc Khanh, the tasks in 2024 for the natural resources and environment sector are very heavy. In particular, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment must preside over the development and submission to the Government for promulgation of 5 Decrees, followed by the development of Circulars guiding the implementation of the Land Law (amended); focus on completing the Draft Law on Minerals to submit to the National Assembly for consideration at the May 2024 session; focus on the process of amending Decree 08 detailing a number of articles of the Law on Environmental Protection; accelerate the implementation of the commitment to reduce net emissions to zero by 2050 as committed by the Government... and other heavy tasks in the 9 management areas of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

Therefore, Minister Dang Quoc Khanh proposed to continue receiving contributions from Professors, Associate Professors, PhDs, scientists, and intellectuals to participate in building institutional policies in the field of natural resources and environment as well as the process of organizing, implementing, and bringing legal policies into life.

The Minister emphasized that in the coming time, the management agencies of the Ministry need to strengthen training, attract and develop a team of cadres and scientists to contribute more of their knowledge and expertise, provide high-quality advice to managers and leaders of the Ministry in planning industry development strategies, and handling difficulties and problems from practice.

Regarding scientists, Minister Dang Quoc Khanh hopes that the Ministry's team of scientists will be more proactive in advising on topics, proposals, and initiatives in the management areas of the industry. At the same time, in many different forms, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment is ready to listen, receive, and acknowledge the contributions of scientists to build an increasingly strong natural resources and environment sector, contributing more and more to the achievements of the country's socio-economic development.

Minister Dang Quoc Khanh and Deputy Minister Nguyen Thi Phuong Hoa presented gifts and took souvenir photos with PhDs from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (Central and Southern regions).