On 17-20 October 2007 CAI-Asia Center Delegation chaired by Mr. Cornie Huizenga, the Executive Director of the Center, had a business visit to Vietnam.

Objectives of the visit were:

• To support the Vietnam Environment Protection Agency (VEPA) in elaborating the Chapter 6 of the National SoE Report 2007 on Urban Air Quality Protection and the draft of the National Plan on Urban AQM;
• To participate in the Consultation Workshop on Development of the AQM Plan for Hanoi;
• To support Vietnam Clean Air Partnership in enhancing its activities.
  

The CAI-Asia Center Delegation has discussed with VEPA and Swiss-Vietnamese Clean Air Program (SVCAP) to work out and initialize international consultation activities to support the elaboration of the National SoE Report 2007. According to the plan agreed among three sides, by 15 December 2007 a draft of the Chapter 6 of the Report and a draft of the National Plan on urban AQM will be completed.

On 19 October 2007, in Hanoi, the Delegation participated in the Consultation Workshop on Development of the AQM Plan for Hanoi. Mr. Cornie Huizenga facilitated the discussion, contributed a great deal to the discussion and appreciated a commitment of the experts to complete the final draft of the AQM Plan for Hanoi by December 2007, in line with the completion of the two above mentioned national drafts.

To support VCAP activities, the Delegation had met with executive officers of VCAP to guide, promote and agree on some tasks of the VCAP Coordinator in developing and contributing to the Vietnam Country Page in CAI-Asia Website and the CAI-Asia Listserv. On the occasion of this visit, a Letter of Agreement was signed between CAI-Asia Center and SVCAP for strengthening of VCAP. According to this LOA, SVCAP will recruit and provide office facilities for a person who will act as a local coordinator for VCAP and facilitate the participation and contribution of CAI-Asia Center in the development of the AQM Plan and the Vietnam State of Environment Report 2007 on air quality in Vietnam. The CAI-Asia Center will provide guidance and support to the VCAP coordinator, develop and improve the Vietnam webpage in the CAI-Asia website, continue to support the development of policies relating to AQM in Vietnam, and assist Hanoi and SVCAP in developing an AQM Action Plan up to 2020 for Hanoi.

This is a very fruitful visit of the CAI-Asia Delegation in Vietnam. It has reached a number of effective outcomes in supporting air protection activities in Vietnam and, in particular, promoting VCAP activities. It could be regarded as a good start of a new period of more dynamic and effective activities of VCAP.