UEH Attending the Seminar on "Realizing the goal of circular economy development in Vietnam"

“Make the circular economy a reality in Ho Chi Minh City" marks the completion of WasteAid’s two-year Circular Economy Network program. The program aims to promote local solutions by supporting innovators and startups towards a "zero-waste city". As one of the winners of WasteAid’s Zero Waste Cities contest, UEH has recently attended the seminar "Realizing the goal of circular economy development in Vietnam" organized by WasteAid with experts at campus B of the University.

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As an excellent unit, winning the Champion of the international competition “Challenge of a zero-waste city”, University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City (UEH) shared with the community the “UEH Zero Waste Campus” project - a pioneering project in green and sustainable lifestyle at universities. Dr. Trinh Tu Anh - Director of the Institute for Smart Cities and Management of UEH – stated: "Universities have a plan to inspire and empower students so that they can actively implement their own solutions and ‘master the program’. The UEH Zero Waste Campus project has been implemented with the aim of educating students' awareness, with the ultimate goal of ‘zero-waste’ through communication campaigns and raising awareness among staff and students of the school. UEH also plans to build a “UEH Zero Waste Station” - a Zero Waste Station for the collection of recyclable materials on campus and a “living lab” which will also provide an opportunity for students to explore materials commonly found in waste.”

The program also introduced to the community the second winner of the “Zero-waste City Challenge” Contest - Veca, a startup in Ho Chi Minh City with the plan to ‘digitize the scrap industry’. According to WasteAid, the foundation has awarded Veca funding to expand the service to 12 districts in HCMC and increase recycling collection to 40 tons. Therefore, the startup was able to expand its services including the collection of Tetrapak packaging. The project has proven that, through the use of its application, waste collectors can significantly increase their income.

At the same time, within the framework of the program, there was a seminar chaired by Zoë Lenkiewicz - Senior Technical Advisor and Head of Department of Communications at WasteAid. The workshop received many comments from this industry’s experts discussing how to promote the circular economy in Ho Chi Minh City in particular and society in general. At the program, experts emphasized that the Government can support and encourage small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to work for the circular economy through the promulgation of relevant laws and fiscal measures. Besides, the workshop also mentioned the importance of stakeholders in the value chain of connecting and working together. For example, designing packaging to make recycling easier and more cost-effective.

The event attracted a variety of stakeholders listed as USAID-IPSC, Bitis, IKEA, Coca Cola, ProVietnam, Pizza 4P's, and the program’s sponsor Huhtamaki.

Ms. Trang Ha - Human Resources Director of Huhtamaki Vietnam - confirmed: "We had an opportunity to meet a lot of people, especially young entrepreneurs, who have new and creative ideas to support the circular economy and reduce plastic waste in Vietnam. Thank you so much WasteAid for bringing us together."

Advisor Zoë Lenkiewicz added: “Building a circular economy in Ho Chi Minh will conserve resources and protect the natural environment on which we all depend. The ingenuity of entrepreneurs and innovators in the circular economy in Ho Chi Minh City is certainly worth honoring! They are leading an important change and creating valuable job opportunities in this process.”

News, photos: UEH Department of Marketing and Communication