Binh Dinh (VNA) – The Meet Vietnam Association,the Loyola University Chicago and the International Geographical Union held aninternational symposium in the central province of Binh Dinh on August 19 onreducing ocean plastic waste: education model for educationalists.

Speaking at the event, Chairman of the association TranThanh Van said Binh Dinh is the first province nationwide to be chosen to pilotthe project, adding that waste pollution from the use of disposable plasticitems is one of the urgent issues at present.

Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Vo TuanNhan said the Vietnamese government has actively proposed global partnershipmechanisms to reduce plastic wastes, adding that socio-economy and environmentare three pillars for Vietnam’s sustainable development.

According to him, the government is fine-tuning mechanismsand policies to control environment pollution caused by plastic wastes.

In particular, the Ministry of Natural Resources andEnvironment and the Ministry of Education and Training signed a cooperationprogramme on environmental protection for the 2019 – 2025 period.

The Prime Minister has called on local authorities,businesses and the entire society to join hands to prevent plastic wastes, hesaid.

As part of the event, scientists and environmentalists fromUS universities offered an environment training course for teachers from 10local high schools, including environment science and sustainable development,human impacts on sea environment, impacts of plastic wastes on environment andeconomic development, reuse of plastic wastes, environment pollution managementpolicies in Vietnam, and education’s importance to environmental protection.

Such knowledge will be taught in schools to raise student’sawareness of the effort.

The model will be later piloted in other cities andprovinces.-VNA