Pakse city, Champasak province, Lao PDR, March 30th-31st, 2021, Pakse City, Department of Water Supply and the Public Works and Transport Research Institute (PTRI) under the Ministry of Public Works and Transport together with the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) Lao PDR jointly hosted the Validation and Capacity Building on Green City Action Plan (GCAP) Workshop at Champasak Grand Hotel, Champasak province. The workshop was co-chaired by H.E Mr. Bualy Phetsongkharm, Mayor of Pakse City, and Dr. Jaeseung Lee, Country Representative of GGGI in Lao PDR. Attended by 36 people including 6 women which included representatives from line offices and communities (provincial authorities, university, city offices, villages). The workshop objectives were to validate the SWOT results (challenges and opportunities for GCAP development in Pakse City), to train on topics related to green city (sustainable mobility, sustainable energy, climate change and urban development, public green spaces, and biodiversity), and to set the targets and indicators for GCAP.
The first-day workshop was focused on baseline assessment or SWOT results validation together with participants from different stakeholders and provided the capacity training on sustainable mobility and sustainable energy in cities. The second-day workshop was continuing the capacity building on the topics of climate change and urban development, green space, and urban biodiversity. The participants also identified short-term (2021-2025) and long-term (2026-2030) targets for each area including prioritizing indicators for GCAP in Pakse.
During the workshop, the participants increased their understanding on green cities and validated the key challenges and opportunities. In addition, all participants came up with critical recommendations which will be adopted for further action and contribute to setting up the short and long terms target for the GCAP in Pakse.
Since 2019, GGGI has supported the Ministry of Public Works and Transport and city authorities to improve waste management in Pakse city to achieve green city development. The project consists of three components: (1) developing the vision on green city action plan for Pakse city, (2) developing the strategy on wastewater treatment for Pakse city and (3) improving wastewater treatment facilities in Pakse.