Opening the summit, the Vietnamese Minister of Environment and Natural Resources Pham Khoi Nguyen said the meeting, initiated by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, aims to realise a joint statement issued at the third East Asia Summit in Singapore in November 2007 through various activities focusing on the environment, climate change and energy, in particular cooperation between nations in developing environmentally sustainable cities in East Asia.
 
The meeting offers an important opportunity for regional countries to establish effective and practical bilateral and multilateral relations, Nguyen said. 
Addressing the function, Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai said that the participants should focus on discussing urgent measures to minimise the negative effects of climate change and environmental degradation, develop clean technologies and energy-saving bio-fuels as well as reasonably exploit natural resources.
He also called on the participating countries to step up forest and bio-diversity protection and share their experiences in industrialisation and urbanisation, thus helping developing countries to gradually build an increasing number of environmentally sustainable cities.
 
The Deputy PM said he hoped the meeting could reach agreements on strengthening bilateral and multi-lateral cooperation between regional countries in addressing the current urgent environmental issues. Vietnam is facing many difficulties and challenges during the course of its national development, including climate change and environmental depression, he said, adding that between 1996-2005, natural disasters killed 800 people annually and caused property losses estimated to account for 1-2 percent of the country’s GDP.
The country has actively implemented many programmes addressing sustainable development, coping with climate change and for effective use of energy sources, as well as taking part in a range of international activities to prevent the harmful effects of climate change and environmental depression, Hai said.

The two-day meeting has attracted environmental ministers from Australia, China, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand and ten Southeast Asian countries.