The SECO visiting enterprises of Green Credit Trust Fund projects
On November the 23rd, 2012, the representative of the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), Ms. Katrin Ochsenbein, Program Manager of Macroeconomic Support Division, SECO Head Office in Switzerland and Ms. Bruhin Brigitte – Deputy Director of Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SECO/SDC) in Hanoi, together with Vietnam Cleaner Production Center (VNCPC) which is the coordinating body of Green Credit Trust Fund (GCTF) paid a visit to the enterprise with ongoing project supported by GCTF for technological innovation.
Green Credit Trust Fund (GCTF) was established in 2007 in Vietnam under the auspices of SECO to support Vietnamese SMEs to bravely take part in medium- and long- term investments in cleaner technologies in the fields of industrial production and services. There have been dozens of Vietnamese SMEs who applied for GCTF up to now and some of them were received reimbursement.
Under the framework of this time SECO headquarters’ mission, the delegation took a trip to Dao Van Tung Household Enterprise which specialized in producing plastic net for the use in agriculture and construction. This enterprise involved in the GCTF in 2012 to change the production line with the main objective of reducing the amount of water consumption in production. The achieved results were very impressed with the rate of water consumption reduced by over 90%, the electricity consumption reduced by 30% and together with the increase in daily production capacity by 8%. In addition, the safety conditions in production were also improved
Ms. Nguyen Le Hang, the coordinator of GCTF in Vietnam, was discussing with Ms. Bruhin and Ms. Katrin
In the current difficult economic situation, the SMEs are in need of the capital support for their production investment activities, the GCTF is a helpful solution not only regarding the immediate capital source for businesses but also the changes in technology which help them to improve the long-term production costs as well as protect the business and community environment
The SECO delegation, after the trip, was very satisfied with the changes in the enterprise’s production technology. Ms. Bruhin also encouraged the enterprises to participate in the Better Work project (the project on improvement of working conditions and cooperation among the employers and employees). When participating in this project, the enterprises will be received technical support to protect the employees from occupational diseases and the unsafe risks at work (e.g.: ear protection for workers standing nearby the machines, mask and labor protection in dusty and toxic chemicals environments).
The Green Credit Trust Fund (GCTF) has been a bridge between the SMEs and advanced and optimized production technologies which move the enterprise toward more sustainable development. Ms. Nguyen Le Hang (VNCPC), the coordinator of GCTF in Vietnam, said: “In the near future, the GCTF will continue to be more widely deployed with the expectation to get more businesses involved”. Besides, VNCPC will also seek the opportunities to, along with the support from SECO; continue to implement more new projects in the near future with a view to helping the enterprises develop more sustainable.
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