Achievements of the first International Connection virtual fair 2022

On Thursday, 24 March 2022, we had successfully hosted the first online discussion in the water supply and drainage sector between Finland and Vietnam. This is the first virtual event hosted by us, Gemus Nordic Consulting, and also the first event after two years being postponed due to the pandemic. We have not yet been able to host the offline event, however, an online discussion is supported by Google’s Women Techmakers program and the Vietnamese ministries are such a “dream comes true” thing for our team.

Here are summaries of the events that we would like to share with you:

In total, we sold 48 tickets via Eventbrite. That was a great number of audiences who are interested in getting to know about the situation of Vietnam after two years of closing the border. We are also glad to know that some of the audiences are from elsewhere, who are interested in Finnish water as well.

Eight people represented eight organizations in Vietnam and Finland had shared their knowledge, strengths, and expectations for the international collaboration between two countries in the water sector. Every presentation delivered different proposals, however, all of them are needed to help Vietnam tackle climate change.

In our presentation, we shared our concerns about the situation of processing SDG 6 in Vietnam, as well as, the gender equality in the water sector in Vietnam. At the end of our Lead presentation, we had successfully delivered the information about the open funding opportunities in Finland in the water sector.

Presentation of the Vietnamese Ministry of Natural Resources & Environment (MONRE), who responds to water resources management, mentioned problems related to (i) wastewater management and treatment problems in Vietnam, (ii) Water governance issues, (iii) Further solutions are needed to increase the short of water storage, (iv) Further training for employees are urgently needed in all aspects, (v) change in water law in 2023, and (iv) sharing the responsibilities for different stakeholders.

Ministry of Construction (MOC) responses for constructing water supply and drainage infrastructure, and water treatment process management mentioned that even in the urban area, still there are 8% of citizens are lacking clean water. The water leaking rate is still high (17,5%) which may need a monitoring system to further improve the water system management. Moreover, sharing the same problems as MONRE, the MOC representative mentioned that Vietnamese water projects are mostly funded by the Vietnamese government and ODA loans, while the other stakeholders are not yet being involved. Thus, the sharing agreement in terms of using water and responsibilities would be the next target that the Vietnamese government would like to work out first.

HAPUCO was one out of two wastewater companies in Vietnam to participate and looking for Finnish partners for their upcoming projects of (i) constructing a new WWTP and renovating wastewater system for some districts in Hai Phong City, (ii) renovating a detention basin to increase the efficiency of water storage.

SADCO was another wastewater company from Hai Phong city. They had been granted two funding projects with Finland before. This time, they participated in this discussion and proposed four new wastewater projects that they would like to collaborate with Finnish partners. While three projects related to constructing new WWTPs, renovating wastewater system, and a pumping station, they want to implement technology in wastewater management and flood prediction.

Fluidit Oy was the only partner from Finland taking part in this discussion. They introduced the real case study of their wastewater management system for the City of Helsinki, which, in our opinion, would be a great match with SADCO.

IESEM& HAU, represented by two Associate Professors, joined the discussion to talk about the problems in water and the environment in Vietnam. IESEM mentioned the problem of the Mekong river delta, and they want to collaborate in researching and/or training to find out solutions for the Mekong River Delta. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Son Tran from HAU highlighted skills that graduate students in the water sector will need to immerse in the international job market of the water sector. Thus, both of them referred to the collaboration in training and research collaboration.

Last but not least, Reisa, a start-up mentor and a Community Manager from Google Japan had joined us as the representative of one of the sponsors for our online discussion. She had shared her recommendation to everyone, especially soon graduate students to “progress” and don’t wait for “perfection”, the theme of Google’s Women Techmakers program this year.

Are you interested in getting to know more about opportunities in Vietnam? Follow our social media channels or keep an eye on this page https://gemusnordic.com/projects-for-finland/ to get to know more information. You can also answer this feedback form to be matched with the potential partners.

You can also watch a record and presentation here. Please be aware that our event is held in both English and Vietnamese.

Thank you once again for your participation!

We will host the next discussion at the end of this year. If you want to organize the event with us, don’t hesitate to reach out.