Vietnam will not harm the environment in exchange for economic benefits, while electronic waste is posing risks to the country's environment, said Ho Duc Phoc, auditor general of the State Audit Office of Vietnam (SAV).
Overview of the press meeting. Source: ASOSAI.
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According to Phoc, polluted environment will act as an economic headwind, therefore "Environmental Auditing for Sustainable Development" was chosen to be the symposium of the assembly.
In the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Vietnam has been attracting international projects, for which Phoc expressed concern that much of the world's electronic waste and outdated technologies would end up in Vietnam if there are no appropriate measures available.
This, in turn, would impact Vietnam's effort towards sustainable development, Phoc stressed.
Over the last two years, Vietnamese government agencies have been increasing environmental auditing activities, focusing on natural resources and environmental protection, among others, he added.
However, as environmental auditing is a new area, SAV is working on a general procedure, which will later be open for opinion of ministries and agencies.
Additionally, Phoc also mentioned the necessity to tighten imported scrap, which is a major risk to Vietnam's environment.
The ASOSAI Assembly is held every three years, being a meeting of all leaders of the Supreme Audit Institutions ("SAI") which are ASOSAI's members, to discuss and decide on important issues by majority voting on the documents, regimes and policies needing to be adopted to achieve the objectives and development of the Organization; exchanging opinions and experiences in the field of state audit; electing members of the Governing Board and the ASOSAI Chairman for the next term.
The 14th ASOSAI Assembly, themed as "Environmental Auditing for Sustainable Development", is held in Hanoi, Vietnam for the first time, from September 19 to September 22, 2018.
There will be around 250 delegates from 46 supreme audit institutions in Asia led by representatives at ministerial level or higher; represented by INTOSAI (International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions) and some international organizations as observers.
It is expected that the Hanoi Declaration will be adopted by the Assembly, which serves as an official document summarizing the most important results of the Assembly, affirming the interest, efforts and practical contributions of the ASOSAI community to the pursuit of sustainable development goals of the world in general and addressing the global environmental challenge in particular.
