Institute of Regional Sustainable Development is a research organization belonged to Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences and established according to the Decree no. 109/2012/NĐ-CP in December 26th 2012 issued by Prime Minister. Its predecessor is Institute of Sustainable Development for the North which was established in 1st April 2005. After 4 years, Institute was upgraded to Institute of Regional Sustainable Development according to Decision No. 2201/QĐ-TTg in December 29th 2009 issued by Prime Minister.
The Institute of Regional Sustainable Development has the functions of conducting theoretically and practically basic research on regional sustainable development; providing scientific base for setting up strategies and making policies of rapid and sustainable development for regions. It also undertakes the function of providing consultancy and training in the field of sustainable development and taking part in developing the potential of social sciences of the whole country.
The establishment and development of Institute of Regional Sustainable Development have met practical demand of the national socio – economic growth, but also requested a development of a new scientific faculty which focused on sustainable growth. The Institute has become one of specialized institutes in the new sciences today and Institute of Regional Sustainable Development is the only institution which is conducting the researches on sustainable growth across the country.
MAJOR CONTRIBUTIONS
1. Major scientific contributions in researches
Institute of Regional Sustainable Development was assigned to conduct theoretically scientific researches so that they could build orientations of a new science – Sustainable Development Sciences. The research topics have absorbed and analyzed opinions about sustainable growth in every fields of countries and regions which have different level of development in the world. It has become the foundation to define which sustainable growth viewpoints are suitable for Vietnamese case as well as issues related to the sustainable development of the North until 2020.
Based on viewpoint of the regional sustainable development, Institute’s research topics are about developing issues of the North so that they can control factors of a sustainable oriented development such as population, resources, technology, education, sex equality, mechanism, and environment. The sustainable growth is a harmonic changes in the relationship between economic growth, social equality and progress, and environmental preservation. Researches have the theoretical orientation which is used for completing the system of concepts and opinions about the regional sustainable growth. Also, these works have been based on the practical researches at a regional scale and in the progress of completing methodologies. .
Results of researches and programs are now accepted and the data of topics including quantitative and qualitative data are stored in Institute. They are used for reports and analyzing as well as comparison as a method to evaluate the developing trend and the sustainable level achieved in specific periods.
From 2006 to 2008, the Institute has had scientific projects at Ministry level as Research on theoretical base for defining the priority of the regional sustainable development; Investigation, evaluation and recommendation for the managing policies of solid waste in the mineral exploration and usage according to the sustainable development for the North; Research on improving the linkage in the regional sustainable development for the North. They are theoretical research topics which can be applicable for studying regional sustainable development.
From 2009 to 2012, the Institute has completed two projects at Ministry level due to the changes of scientific management. They were Basic issues in the sustainable development for the North which have been done in 2 years (2009, 2010) including 5 topics focusing on fundamental matters related to regional sustainable development; Opinions and solution to a rapid and sustainable development for the North in the period of 2011 to 2020, including 5 topics focusing on analyzing the sustainability around key factors as economy, society, culture and environment.
These research topics have analyzed the opinions and various approaching methods about the development. Sustainable development requires not only economic growth but also to ensure the improvement and social equality as well as maintain the cultural characteristics together with environmental conservation. They are the major viewpoints of practical researches and addition to studies linked with Vietnamese’s certain conditions.
In the field of economic sustainable growth, Institute has analyzed the economic growth’s forecasts. It showed the importance of resources for production and how effectively these resources are used. The nature of economic restructuration is the changes with three main trends which have led to the economic and social restructuration with the modern industrial orientation. It is the transition of the economy from manufacture to service and the reason is the appearance of new technology and organization types under the impacts of globalization and industrialization in the world. They also analyzed the economic growth under the aspect of industrialization and urbanization to find out the reasons of unsustainable growth in Vietnam today. They are an effort to recover from the “forced” industrialization and urbanization, and a policy to encourage the exportation at any prices based on using natural resources and financial aid for agriculture so on.
In the field of social sustainable growth, Institute has focused on analyzing factors of development and social changes as population, consumption model, technologic, social mechanism, and culture. These also have influences on the sustainable growth of economy and environment.
The cultural sustainable growth is a recent research field of Institute. It mentioned to the role of networks of meanings, relations, belief and values which have created the relationship between human and the world in the social development and changes. There are also some new viewpoints of public about the sustainable growth in which the society and social capital are linked with the development of public and ecology.
In the environmental sustainable growth, most of research topics analyzed and pointed out the environmental issues. They are not because of only economic growth but also other factors of social structure as population, consumption, and technology, social and cultural values. Therefore, it is necessary to have policies which control and decrease the negative impacts of these factors on environment as a way to protect and develop sustainably. These policies also help to ensure the social and economic sustainability.
Regarding to the field of sustainable development mechanism, some research works have analyzed the role of mechanism and pointed out the synchronization between purposes and social responsibilities in the sustainable development through the package of standards. Hence, the sustainable level of social, economic development and environmental protection are re-evaluated.
Institute has focused on impacts of economic growth, industrialization and globalization on the economic development, population issues, job and environment in urban and rural regions from the perspective of sustainable development.
The theories and practices of sustainable development are categorized into economy, society, environment, mechanism and building the package of standards of sustainable growth so that it can be applied for setting up and evaluating plans at regional level. The analysis of sustainable development requires to define the priorities of socio – economic growth and environment then to review the structure and figure out the factors which are for and against the changes.
As being a new scientific research institution, the research objects of Institute are new too. Hence, Institute has tried its best to have qualified research works published on specialized magazines as well as to participate in writing books and text books about sustainable development. Besides academic research activities, Institute also conducts the advisory and implements scientific research contracts, projects, proposals with local authorities and government on issues related to sustainable growth.
2. International education and collaboration
In the progress of building and development, Institute of Regional Sustainable Development has set up research orientations from the perspective of sustainable growth, and its research activities are linked with staff training and education so that the resources are qualified with both theories and practical implementation. Some young researchers of Institute were assigned to important position and proved their ability. The Institute has also encouraged and facilitated young resources to join in short term training courses as research methodologies’ improvement and scientific seminars as well as official courses. Most of them now have the master degree while some experts of Institute have actively joined in the training jobs of Institute of Social Sciences and universities.
For the international collaboration, Institute of Regional Sustainable Development has had joint programs for research activities such as combining research with training or scientific seminars and workshops... Since its early establishment, Institute has worked with Institute of Urbanization, Culture and Society, University of Quebec – Canada in the period of 2008 to 2010. The Institute’s researchers have had chances to improve their research skills through this project. Also, Institute of Regional Sustainable Development has had many international collaboration as joining international workshops and discussion with global organizations and universities as Kagosima University (Japan) and Institute for Social Studies (Poland)...
3. Library and Journal
The library of Institute of Regional Sustainable Development has had its own system for books, magazines and document management. They also have an online checking system which are efficient for research activities and publish research results of Institute. Institute’s website is being completed and helpful for readers to learn about the events and development of Institute.
The Regional Sustainable Development Journal has published 7 volumes which are about the following topics: general issues of sustainable development, and specialization of sustainable growth in resources and development, rural and urban region, culture, environment, and mechanism. In the following volumes, Institute will focus on topics as sexuality, social security and sustainable growth.
