The two-day conference, which opened on Wednesday, is jointly organised by the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and aims to draw up a plan of action to execute the  sustainable development strategy recently adopted by the Vietnamese Government as well as the country's commitments to the international community in this area.

Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Phan Quang Trung said his ministry will guide branches, sectors and localities nationwide in building their own sustainable development programmes. The immediate task is to combine 19 areas prioritised for sustainable development with the socio-economic development plan until 2010.

Trung noted Viet Nam has made tremendous achievements in social and economic areas, with ever increasing investment in social fields.

He highlighted substantial improvements in the living conditions of people in both rural and urban areas as well as enormous strides taken in the fight against poverty.

However, the country has over the past few years relied much on exploiting natural resources to help its socio-economic development, Trung underlined, pointing to the fact that production capacity remained low using energy-intensive technologies, and other outstanding issues such as rapid population growth, high rates of poor households, and inadequate education and healthcare services.

He also mentioned the incompatibility between policies and legal tools that failed to effectively combine socio-economic development and environmental protection goals.

Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Pham Khoi Nguyen told the conference that his ministry will continue drawing up a legal system on land, water resources, minerals, and the environment towards achieving sustainable development in these areas.

Subinay Nandy, UNDP Deputy Resident Representative, praised Viet Nam's  development strategies which are based on three main pillars of economic growth, environmental protection and social equality.

He also called for concerted efforts by all people and social organisations to narrow the development gap between the rich and the poor, build up localities' capacity, and ease the pressure of urbanisation and industrialisation on the environment.