Speech Minister Schultz van Haegen Mekong Delta Plan, Hanoi

Toespraak | 19-12-2013

Your Excellency Deputy Prime Minister,
Dignitaries,
Ladies and gentlemen,

First of all I would like to thank you again for your warm hospitality.
I would also like to thank Professor Stive for his explanation of the Mekong Delta Plan.
I am impressed by what has been achieved in the two years since Vietnamese and Dutch experts started working together on this plan.

Writing the Mekong Delta Plan was not always easy.
Because we sometimes had a different approach to the subject of adaptation to climate change.
I am sure Vice-Minister Lai – who was so actively involved in supervising the writing process – will agree.

Although climate change poses similar challenges for both our countries, the pace of our socio- economic development differs considerably.

And while the Mekong Delta Plan is called a plan, it is not a Master Plan in the way this term is used in Vietnam.
The word ‘plan’ caused some confusion.

In fact, the document presented here today is, as Professor Stive explained, a proposal for a long-term vision.
With a set of recommendations for what to do, what not to do,
and what to prepare for.

The problems we face are complex,
and the same can be said of the necessary solutions.
That is precisely why it is so important that experts from different fields, different cultures
and different countries come together and learn from each other’s experiences.

In my country we have been forced to rethink the way we plan for flood safety and water security.
Over the centuries we have been very successful in arranging our hydrological system.

Past investments in our dykes and dams have made the Netherlands one of the best protected deltas in the world.

But climate change has made us realise that we need to rethink our strategies.

In the long term, if we want to survive as a nation in the centuries to come, we need to do things differently.

So we appointed a committee, chaired by Professor Veerman, whom you know as special adviser to Prime Minister Dung, to give recommendations on dealing with the adverse effects of climate change.

We set up a special long-term programme, called the Delta Programme, to follow up on these recommendations –
a programme that I am politically responsible for.
In the years to come we will be reshaping our hydrological systems.

We will do so in a sustainable way,
supporting our economy,
the ecological diversity of our country and the living environment of our people.
In this way, we will lay the foundations for continued prosperity.

The basic principle at the heart of the Delta Programme is the fact that the future is unknowable.
So we need to keep our options open as much as possible.

We need to work on our country’s resilience and the capacity to deal with climatic stresses.
We will avoid overinvestment, but do what is necessary by using adaptive delta management.

And we have come to realise that it is necessary to compromise, to ensure that solutions are optimal from a national point of view.

To make compromise possible, we needed a few ingredients.

The first ingredient is a common vision on the development of our country.
The second ingredient is a combination of three shared values:

First, solidarity between regions and generations.
Second, flexibility. This means choosing solutions that keep as much options open as possible.
And third, sustainability. This means we will always choose the more sustainable of two options.

In the end, these principles and values will help shape our decisions.

Ladies and gentlemen,

I sincerely hope that the Mekong Delta Plan provides the building blocks we need for a long-term strategy.

It makes recommendations for the sustainable socio-economic long-term development of the Vietnamese Mekong Delta.
These recommendations are widely supported by Dutch and Vietnamese experts alike.
And they take into account the views of regional and national government bodies.

I also hope that these building blocks will be the basis of a shared framework for future cooperation.
A framework that will enable the international community to work with the Vietnamese government in a structured way.
And guide the necessary decisions on investment.
Ms Kwakwa of the World Bank will address this issue in a moment.

I for one am proud of the results we are presenting today.
Because they embrace core values for sound adaptation to climate change, like resilience and flexibility.
Strategies like these have already been adopted in other vulnerable regions in the world.
Like the Mississippi River Valley in the United States,
the Nile River Delta in Egypt,
and the coastal plains of England.

I am confident that the Mekong Delta Plan will help make this river delta safer and make Vietnam more prosperous.
And I hope that it will create new opportunities for our two countries to work together.

Now, it is my pleasure to invite Minister Quang to join me in presenting the first copy of the Mekong Delta Plan to His Excellency the Deputy Prime Minister.

Thank you.