This morning, the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and Suntory PepsiCo Vietnam (SPV) officially signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to implement the Green Index as a complementary expansion of the Provincial Competitiveness Index. Conceived by VCCI and supported by USAID and SPV, the Green Index is an initiative to promote environmental regulatory reforms and improve environmentally-friendly investment at the provincial level, helping businesses to identify provinces that are facilitating green operations. During her August trip to Vietnam, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris announced USAID’s support for developing a Green Index to rally the private sector to climate action.
The Green Index aims to assess and rank local environmental quality as perceived by businesses, and explore into firms’ environmental behavior, their willingness to apply green technologies/practices, and their readiness to invest in green operations. Additionally, this tri-party partnership intends to establish the Green Index as a useful tool to inform local policy making and development of an environmentally sensitive business ecosystem. The index will be published as part of the current Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) implemented by VCCI with support from USAID.
The Green Index is an effort to incorporate greater environmental sustainability into provincial leadership consideration moving forward. The Green Index is being launched just as Vietnam’s shift to deeper environmental awareness is taking root. The Green Index furthers Vietnam’s path towards sustainable economic development and bolsters Vietnam’s commitments at the recent Climate Change Conference (COP26).
Since 2005, VCCI and USAID have become trusted partners with cooperation underpinned by mutual respect, and each partner jointly contributing to the development of the private sector and an enabling business climate at the provincial level in Vietnam. From 2021, Suntory PepsiCo Vietnam has become the co-founder of this environmental initiative and a pioneer from the private sector.
