The signing ceremony took place yesterday in Hanoi and was attended by Norwegian Ambassador Hilde Solbakken, UNDP Vietnam Resident Representative Ramla Khalidi, and representatives from the Vietnam Environment Agency (under the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment), the People’s Committees of Cam Pha City and Phu Quoc City, the private sector including Norwegian company TOMRA, Duy Tan Recycling, Lam Thach Cement, and project implementation partners.
“Scaling Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships for Circular and Sustainable Waste Management” is Phase 3 of the Five City Project "Scaling Up a Socialised Model of Waste Management in Five Cities" funded by the Norwegian Embassy in Hanoi to UNDP during period 2019 - 2024. This Phase 3 aims to support the Government of Viet Nam in addressing challenges in municipal solid waste (MSW) management through two main solutions: (i) developing an MSW management model by promoting waste separation at source, establishing a Material Recovery Facility (MRF), and co-processing non-recyclable wastes in cement kilns; and (ii) piloting a Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) for plastic packaging.
Norway places high priority on combating marine plastic pollution, emphasizing the importance of sustainable waste-management, and therefore, has committed one billion NOK (around 95 million USD) for this purpose from 2019 to 2024. The Norwegian Government has decided to extend the program with an additional one billion NOK for the next four years with 15 million NOK of this being dedicated to this project.
Built on the success of its Phase 1 and Phase 2, this Phase 3 will continue connecting the dots in the waste supply chain, be it collection, recycling, treatment or development of regulations related to extended producers’ responsibility (EPR) and DRS.
In this phase, the role of the private sector will be enhanced with the participation of the Norwegian company TOMRA and two Vietnamese entities. This is essential to the success of the project and exemplifies the power of the public private partnerships in driving sustainable change and achieving our shared goals.
Speaking at the event, Ambassador Solbakken said: "I am honored to be here on behalf of the government of Norway to sign this new project agreement. Reducing plastic pollution in the ocean is a very high priority for our program, and the way to do that is to focus on waste management systems. Through this program, Viet Nam has been a very important partner — a long-term partner — and we have a very constructive cooperation that is starting to show some very interesting and encouraging results. While the government has a very important role in setting the regulations and the framework, the public-private partnership is key to finding good and long-term sustainable solutions in this area. I am confident that together we will succeed."
