On the morning of August 8, in Ho Chi Minh City, the Workshop "Green innovation for factories and industrial parks: Going with the flow for sustainable development" took place, organized by the Ho Chi Minh City Investment and Trade Promotion Center (ITPC) in collaboration with the BambuUP Innovation Platform.

The workshop attracted more than 150 industrial parks, factories, and manufacturing enterprises in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Thanh Minh

The event is organized to support businesses in industrial parks and factories to update trends, access and apply green transformation technology seamlessly and effectively. At the same time, it creates opportunities for businesses to be supported and connected to realize the circular value chain with technology, promoting green innovation and transformation.

On the journey to follow the sustainable economic development of many countries in the world, under the pressure from the requirements of the market and partners, FDI capital flows (foreign direct investment capital), new generation financial investment gradually focus on green enterprises, factories and industrial parks. To take advantage of opportunities and benefits from green investment capital, it is necessary and practical to prepare the mindset and roadmap to convert from the traditional model to the "Green" model for domestic enterprises, factories, industrial parks and economic zones.

Ms. Ho Thi Quyen - Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh City Center for Trade and Investment Promotion. Photo: Thanh Minh

Sharing at the event, Ms. Ho Thi Quyen - Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Center for Trade and Investment Promotion - said that the city is the country's leading center of innovation, dynamism and creativity in economic development, industry, tourism, services, science - technology and innovation.

According to the announcement of the Provincial Innovation Index (PII) by the Ministry of Science and Technology, in 2024, the PII of Ho Chi Minh City ranked 2nd. In recent times, the city has always focused on exploiting the city's potential and advantages in industrial development as the center of science, technology and innovation of the whole country.

Along with that, effectively exploit land resources, highly qualified human resources, apply the achievements of the fourth industrial revolution to improve productivity, quality, efficiency of industries and industrial products. At the same time, promote improvement of the investment and business environment, improve the provincial competitiveness index, create a favorable, stable, transparent investment and industrial production and business environment to attract investment.

“In the first 6 months of the year, including capital attracted through the form of investment registration certificates and capital contributions, share purchases, and capital repurchases from domestic enterprises, Ho Chi Minh City attracted more than 1.2 billion USD,” Ms. Ho Thi Quyen informed.

Ms. Nguyen Huong Quynh - CEO of BambuUP Innovation Connection Platform. Photo: Thanh Minh

To help businesses see the whole picture of challenges and opportunities that manufacturing enterprises are facing in the BANI era (unpredictable, fragile, non-linear), Ms. Nguyen Huong Quynh - CEO of BambuUP Innovation Connection Platform shared specifically about the increasing demands of the market and society for sustainable missions. This forces businesses to focus on building a green transformation roadmap. Of which, 3/10 of the world's major trends are closely linked to the story of sustainable impacts on the environment and climate.

According to Ms. Nguyen Huong Quynh, the global green and sustainable technology market, including fields such as renewable energy, wastewater treatment technology, etc., is expected to reach 61.92 billion USD by 2030, with a compound annual growth rate of 20.8% (according to Global Green Technology and Sustainability Market).

Green transformation needs to become an urgent strategy for manufacturing enterprises to improve their competitiveness, attract green investment and ensure sustainable impacts in an unpredictable BANI world. Ms. Quynh believes that there are 5 green manufacturing transformation trends that need to be implemented by enterprises, including: Energy optimization; sustainable product production; waste reduction and recycling; enhancing smart technology; and lean manufacturing approach.

Mr. Tran Thien Long - Permanent Vice President of Vietnam Industrial Real Estate Association (Photo: Thanh Minh).

Meanwhile, Mr. Tran Thien Long - Permanent Vice President of Vietnam Industrial Real Estate Association (VIREA) also shared and analyzed in detail from a global and Vietnamese perspective. In particular, the economic, environmental and social benefits of the greening trend of manufacturing enterprises, applied technologies and some examples of successful green transformation at factories and industrial parks in Ho Chi Minh City were clarified.

Also in the program, Mr. Tran Anh Dong - Director of CAS-Energy, emphasized the important role of eco-industrial parks for Vietnam to participate and compete effectively when the "green production - green export rules" are increasingly tightened.

Mr. Tran Anh Dong also pointed out that green transformation puts manufacturing enterprises in a difficult position in many aspects: finance, resources, support policies... especially in the initialization and operation stages. Some solutions such as REGreen Factory can help enterprises not only integrate renewable energy but also optimize costs, while meeting ESG (environment, society and governance) and CSR (corporate social responsibility) standards, increasing competitiveness in the export market.

One of the topics attracting attention in the business community today is the story of converting green production efforts into carbon credits. In his sharing, Mr. Vu Trung Kien - Carbon credit expert - Director of NRG - Tan Nguyen JSC and SETS (Smart Emission Trading System) project manager said that since 2021, the demand for carbon credits has increased dramatically, forecast to reach from 8,000 to 13,000 MTCO2e (unit of carbon pollution) per year. At the same time, the supply is also forecast to increase to about 8,000 MTCO2e per year to meet the increasing market demand.

Experts focused on analyzing and discussing solutions to remove difficulties in green transformation for factories and industrial parks (Photo: Thanh Minh).

“Greenhouse gas inventories are suggested as the first step for businesses to assess their emissions and develop a roadmap for emissions reduction. Green technology provides effective solutions to reduce emissions, while green finance will support businesses to invest in these technologies, creating a sustainable development cycle,” Mr. Vu Trung Kien recommended.

Notably, at the discussion session, experts focused on analyzing and discussing solutions to overcome difficulties for factories and industrial parks in the South when innovating and greening. From there, they shared some typical lessons, connected resources and suggested practical technology solutions. Enterprises participating in the program were also connected and received direct consultation with experts.