Hanoi (VNA) - The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) onJanuary 23 kicked off a programme for advancing circular economy toprotect the environment.

Theprogramme was marked with the signing of a memorandum of understanding for cooperationin implementing a “Zero Waste to Nature” initiative between VCCI’s VietnamBusiness Council for Sustainable Development and Unilever Vietnam, Coca-Cola Vietnamand Dow Chemical Vietnam.

Accordingto VCCI, the global economy was seeing a shift from a traditional lineareconomy into a circular economy in which waste, instead of being disposed andcausing pollution, would be recycled and “revived” in other forms of resourcesand involved in the production process.

Advancingcircular economy would help reduce risks of resource scarcity in the future,tackle environment problems and redefine economic growth.

NguyenQuang Vinh, VCCI’s general secretary, said the programme aimed to raise policyrecommendations for developing a secondary raw material market, introduce goodpractices of circular economies of companies in the world to domesticenterprises, and provide support to implementing initiatives underpublic-private partnership practice.

“Enhancedco-operation is necessary to build a non-emission economy, which will helpcreate more jobs, enhance competitiveness of the private sector and graspbusiness opportunities worth billions of dollars the circular economy will generate,”Vinh said. “The programme will also contribute to promoting the green growthstrategy of Vietnam.”

Theinitiative of “Zero Waste to Nature” was the first activity of the programmewhich had four goals, including solving problems arising from plastic waste,developing a roadmap for promoting sustainable business models, developingcircular-economy oriented value chains and raising policy recommendations foradvancing circular economy.

NguyenThi Bich Van, chairwoman of Unilever Vietnam, said that the company pledged tocollect, recycle and reuse all plastic packages of its products by 2025.

SanketRay, general director of Coca-Cola Vietnam, said by 2030 the company targetedto collect and recycle all plastic bottles of its sold products.-VNA