Vietnam is at a favorable spot for green development: Former Indian Minister
WVR - Mr. Suresh Prabhu, former Minister for Industry, Trade and Commerce of India, shared with The World & Vietnam Report on the potentials, opportunity for green development on the sideline of Ho Chi Minh City Economic Forum recently.
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| Mr. Suresh Prabhu, former Indian Minister, shared his perpsective on potentials of cooperation in green development berween India and Vietnam, as well as HCMC. (Photo: Ben Thanh) |
May you introduce a little bit about yourself?
My name is Suresh Prabhu. I was in Federal Parliament for 6 times. I handled 10 cabinet position in the government of India, the federal level.
I was a Minister of Energy, Minister of Environment and Forest, Minister for Industry, Trade and Commerce, Minister for Heavy Industry, Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizer, Minister of Aviation and Minister of Railways.
I also handled G20 and G7 for the government of India.
You have held various Ministerial posts in the Government of India. More importantly, it seemed that those posts were relevant to development in general and green development, specifically. Could you share some of your experiences on how you have promoted India’s green development?
I was a Minister of Environment and Forest way back in 1998. Even then, we prepared India’s first environmental policy in term of what should be done in the next two decades. 25 years ago, a good idea was to develop a vision for making sustainable growth reality. Therefore, we built up a plan, taking account in all economic sectors along with consultation with various ministry did that.
When I became the Minister of Railways, I started building green railway. We started generating solar power on the railway land. We started using solar power on the top of the train to run a train. We start working on many ideas like that.
When I was a Minister of Commerce and Industry, I said we must have industries ready to tackle challenges like climate change.
Therefore, I think we have done multiple thing to change India in a way that it will become sustainable as a part of the growth of the country.
It seems that you have a lot of experience in promoting green initiatives in India. What do you think about Vietnam in general and HCMC’s green development in particular? What can India do to further such development?
Both Vietnam and India still are emerging, developing economies. Moreover, much of the infrastructure that still needed in the two countries are yet to be built.
Therefore, Vietnam has an opportunity. It is not locked into the situation where changes are no longer possible. As a result, you can actually implement the right policy to promote the establishment of critical infrastructure, economic activities and change people’s mind to make environment the top concern in their heads. As a result, I think this is the opportunity for Vietnam and India to work together.
You said that there are rooms for cooperation between Vietnam and India in green development. What experiences that India can share with Vietnam and HCMC in green development?
Right now, we are at the time when the world’s energy usage is changing. We are adopting to the newer fueler, whether it is hydrogen or something else. India is going to mass manufacture hydrogen. Therefore, we should try to use this opportunity to cooperate in having green fuel for transport.
When I was a Minister of Aviation, we started the first Vietnam-India aviation agreement. We started a first flight using green fuel. Therefore, I think this opportunity will change the market of fuel, bring in new idea for transportation and make sure that we have a green transport, way of life for people in Vietnam.
What do you think about recent development in G20 India on green development?
Actually, I was dealing with G20 and G7 for several years. Since then, we have already insisted that the world have no future if there is no green development.
One of the key components of our future is green. Even in G20, this very important component displayed itself very well and I think the whole world has agreed. I really thanks all the countries who participate in the G20 process for endorsing this idea and therefore I think, it is time we move forward with this.
