The mission of The International Conference on ''Contemporary Issues in Sustainable Development'' 2021 is to create a network among researchers, scholars, experts and policymakers in sustainable development; to create the forum – an annual conference for sharing research results and reviewing the latest issues in sustainable development, as well as building a consensus among the communities towards a sustainable future of human being.

Attending online, VNU Vice President Assoc.Prof.Dr Pham Bao Son said that "Sustainable Development" (SD) has been considered by many organizations and countries as a development model in recent years. Vice President Pham Bao Son believed that CISD2021 would create a valuable forum for all Vietnamese and foreign scientists, researchers and experts to discuss various aspects of sustainable development. He hoped that the conference would create a multidisciplinary platform for academic and research exchange as well as create a valuable opportunity to promote active cooperation between VNU’s researchers and scholars and international researchers, especially Japanese experts.

Prof. Furuta Motoo - Rector of VNU - VJU

Professor Furuta Motoo, Rector of VNU Vietnam Japan University shared that this was an event in the series of scientific research activities of Vietnam Japan University with partners to create motivation and a platform for multidisciplinary science and technology exchange between Vietnam and Japan. Prof. Furuta Motoo believed that, keynote speakers, researchers would give us very attractive and constructive ideas with big hope such as the nature-based solution combined with technologies as well as integration and/or synergy among plural actions for sustainable development

The Plenary session 1 on December 7 morning was chaired by Prof. Jun Nakajima, Director of Institute of Sustainability Science, VNU Vietnam Japan University and Dr. Nguyen Hoang Oanh, Vice Rector, VNU Vietnam Japan University.

Prof. Hoang Anh Tuan - Rector of VNU - USSH

In the first presentation of the plenary session namely "Energy for sustainable development in Anthropocene", Professor Kensuke Fukushi, University of Tokyo showed the limitation of fossil fuels and the advantages of renewable energy. Various technologies need to be developed for the acceleration of renewable energy implementation he said after that. A very attractive and precisely researched case study in Japan was shown to create a scenario of an “energy independent island” by renewable energy that drives new business chances.

Through the presentation "Integration of Mitigation and Adaptation toward Climate Resilient Development", Professor Mimura, Ibaraki University, cleared both mitigation and adaptation are important for climate change measures. Moreover, their integration will be more effective to establish a new development paradigm "climate-resilient development". He started with the ICPP latest knowledge as well as the introduction of the Nobel Prize in Physics 2021 to Dr. Shukuro Manabe. Then he showed the two pillars of climate change measures, mitigation and adaptation and then moved to their integration and the importance of climate-resilient society in a sustainable world.

Professor Mai Trong Nhuan, Program Director of  Master's Program in Climate Change and Development, VNU Vietnam Japan University proposed the importance of challenges for building Low carbon resilient society (LCRS) accompanied with Climate change response (CCR) and Sustainable development (SD) in the presentation subjected "Building Low Carbon, Resilient Society for Better Climate Change Response and Sustainable Development". Along with presenting opportunities for building LCRS by introducing interesting processes such as circular thinking, balance and harmony of socio-, bio- and techno-sphere, etc., Prof. Mai Trong Nhuan explained the effectiveness of synergy creation among three pillars such as EP (environment protection), CCR and SD that has been already realized in Vietnamese policy and laws was explained.

The opening presentation of the afternoon session on December 7th was on the topic "Development of Green Investment Fund – International Experience and Policy Implication for Vietnam" by Mr. Nguyen Hai Nam, Permanent Member of National Assembly's Economics Committee. Mr. Nguyen Hai Nam's presentation emphasized the role of the green financial system, green banks and green funds in promoting green investment and green economy in Vietnam, as well as strong commitment from the highest levels of the Government and the National Assembly of Vietnam on sustainable development and climate change adaptation.

The next presentation was on "Audit of Implementation of SDG at State Audit of Vietnam" by Dr. Vu Van Hoa, Deputy Auditor General, The State Audit Office of Viet Nam. In his presentation, he especially emphasized solutions to achieve the sustainable development goals of the State Audit of Vietnam, in which the solution that strengthens bilateral and multilateral international cooperation activities and promotes research and application of science and technology to develop new methods of collecting audit evidence is emphasized to realize the sustainable development goals.

At the last session, Prof.Dr. Le Ngoc Hung, VNU University of Education, presented "Education in Vietnam: Practical issues and innovation policies". After analyzing the mentioned limitations in the Vietnamese education system, Prof. Hung pointed out the inequality of educational opportunities and the number of workers with no qualifications and higher education. The speaker proposed recommendations to balance interest and investment in education quality, to put inequality of educational opportunities as a priority in the education policy reform agenda, to expand access to higher education and reform fundamentally and comprehensively so that no one is left behind.

On the second day of the Conference, 11 parallel sessions were held online on the Zoom platform. At the VJU and USSH bridgeheads, more than 80 local and foreign authors presented high-quality research results at parallel sessions chaired by eminent scientists from VNU-USSH, VNU-UEB, VNU-IS, VNU-VJU, NEU and VNU-UMP. The parallel sessions were opened all day in the topics: Social sciences & Humanities in Sustainable Development, Sustainable Development Accounting and Environmental Auditing, Green finance & banking, Green Growth and Circular Economy, Human Resource Policies and Strategies for Sustainable Development, Environmental Engineering and Management, Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation, Sustainable Agriculture and Food Safety, Sustainable Materials and Green Processing for Energy Conversion, Biomedical Science and Healthcare, Sustainable research orientations in the impact of Covid 19 pandemic. The conference is a scientific forum, connecting scientists with experts, policymakers and businesses, making important contributions to promoting sustainable development in Vietnam.