I have more than 15 years’ experience working on sustainable financing mechanism, starting from microfinance for the AusAID funded Quang Ngai Rural Development Program (RUDEP) in Vietnam in 2001. I was responsible for designing and implementing the Village Savings and Credit Facility (VSCF) to be implemented in 12 districts of Quang Ngai with more than 13,000 clients. This VSCF has been increasing and still is operating until currently. I enhanced my financial inclusion field when working for the Sustainable Forest and Rural Development Project (SUFORD) co-funded by the World Bank- Government of Finland in Lao PDR. We set up the Village Development Fund to benefit more than 30,000 clients in 723 villages of 36 districts in nine provinces in Lao PDR. I led the Payments for Environmental/Forestry Services (PES/PFES) initiated in China PRC, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and especially Vietnam in collaboration with the colleagues at GMS-CEP and partners in MONRE of five countries. Under this GMS-CEP, we also initiated Natural Capital Business Forum to advocate for realizing the importance of natural capital for all related stakeholders. This initiative was fully supported by the leadership at Asian Development Bank. “If we don’t consider natural capital as important as financial capital, then we will definitely bankrupt”. This statement was delivered by the Vice President of ADB when he participated in the event of the GMS Economic Cooperation Program. We then came up with different mechanisms for finance leverage. The following Figure is an example. In addition, I also strengthened my knowledge on sustainable financing mechanism by producing my PhD Dissertation on Payments for Environmental Forest Services and published a paper in the respective international journal.
(Source: Adapted from Credit Suisse, WWF (2014); ADB- Wong & Do, 2015)