Implementation of Circular Economy and Sustainable Development in Vietnam

This paper contributes to the growing literature on implementation of circular economy and sustainable development in Vietnam. The research employs the Sankey diagram and material taxonomy of the European Union to construct a representative material flow database for Vietnam. Within the scope of this study, we exclusively focus on two pivotal indicators, namely Domestic Material Consumption (DMC) and Resource Productivity, for our material flow analysis. Accordingly, we have endeavored to gather data that elucidate the flow of selective key materials, including wood (representing biomass), iron and steel (representing metallic minerals), coal and crude oil (symbolizing fossil energy), and cement clinker (representing non-metallic minerals). Our results delineate an upward trend in the DMC index for all flow of materials from 2016 to 2022, concurrently with a diminishing trend observed in the Resource Productivity index over the same duration. This serves as evidence indicating that Vietnam has ineffectively implemented the circular economy model. Nevertheless, there is a positive signal suggesting the commencement of Vietnam's initial strides toward a circular economy, notably following the enactment of Decision 687 and the revision of the Law on Environmental Protection (LEP) by the Vietnamese government in 2022.