On Monday, the Vice Chairman of the Da Nang People’s Committee, Mr Phung Tan Viet, played host to the Chief Technical Advisor and Project Manager of the Environmentally and Climate-friendly Urban Development in Da Nang (ECUD) project, Mr Erik Schweikhardt. 

Funded by the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ), the project ran from January 2010 to early August 2014 at a cost of over 2.6 million euros.  Of this, 2.5 million euros was from official development assistance (ODA) capital and the remainder was funded from the city’s budget. 

Mr Schweikhardt (left) and Vice Chairman Viet

The project focused on building strategies for environmental development and establishing a network for monitoring and assessing climate change adaptation, as well as proposing positive ways to mitigate the negative impacts of climate change.

Also at the event, Vice Chairman Viet expressed his appreciation of the positive results from the ECUD project.  The GIZ had given the city the opportunity to conduct theoretical research into climate change and environmental protection locally.  In addition, it had helped to improve the management capacity of those involved in natural resources and the environment.  In particular, the organisation had enabled Da Nang to form an institutional framework for creating an environmentally-friendly city, as well as to set up a database system for improving the local digital environmental management.  Under the project, the city implemented the piloting of a digital map and the application of a geographic information system (GIS) in Da Nang’s Hai Chau District.  Moreover, the GIZ had donated an optical microscope and an ion chromatography device to the management board of the ECUD project in the city.  This had helped Da Nang to effectively implement missions inventorying and environmental monitoring.