RESEARCH ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT LEVEL: A CASE STUDY OF HAI PHONG AND QUANG NINH

Abstract

The idea of sustainable development emerged several decades ago as a response to growing environmental problems related to inappropriate management of natural resources and increase in extreme weather phenomena, especially in developing countries. Using indicators is one of the best ways to monitor and measure progress towards sustainable development. In this article, we have presented the practical use of the Delphi technique and the Stable Prioritization Towards Ideal Solution (SPOTIS) method to in-depth assess the level of sustainable development of Hai Phong and Quang Ninh in the period 2016 - 2021. The research findings are as follows: First, the research build a sustainable development assessment system including 26 indicators that are compatible and have data available in accordance with the economic, social and environmental characteristics of the study area. Second, Hai Phong and Quang Ninh generally developed in a positive direction with sustainable development index (SDI) continuously increasing with increase of 1.07% and 1.09% respectively from 2016 to 2021. Third, the economic, social, and environmental aspects in both provinces developed unbalanced. The study recommends that it is vital to strengthen the policies to have a simultaneous development on the four dimensions of HDI, economy, society and environment to improve the SDI. Finally, based on research findings, the research indicators and methods can be put forward to assess the sustainable development level in other provinces and specific cases with similar characteristics.