People go for a swim by the beaches of Đà Nẵng City. — VNA/VNS Photo

The 5 provinces and cities with the highest overall scores in the Index are the central city Đà Nẵng (73.33 points), followed by three northern provinces – Bắc Kạn (70.29), Lạng Sơn (65.62), and Bắc Ninh (65.29), along with the Mekong Delta province of Tiền Giang (65.22).

With these results Đà Nẵng maintains its position at the top for the second consecutive time among all 63 provinces and cities in terms of implementing the environmental indicators.

On the other hand, the 5 provinces with the lowest overall scores in the Index are the provinces of Bạc Liêu (47.04 points), Đắk Lắk (49.05), Yên Bái (49.76), Vĩnh Phúc (50.12) and Bình Thuận (51.63)

According to the ranking, the capital city Hà Nội is at the 46th position with a score of 55.70, while the country's biggest city, HCM City, is ranked 19th with a score of 60.80.

The PEPI 2022 aims to evaluate the results of implementing environmental protection goals and tasks, as well as the satisfaction of residents regarding the living environment quality in localities in the country. It serves as a tool to assess the effectiveness of state management in environmental protection, raising awareness and responsibility, and encouraging efforts of state management agencies and the public in environmental protection.

Based on the results of the PEPI 2022, the Chairpersons of the people's committees of provinces and cities are urged to thoroughly review and implement solutions to enhance the effectiveness of environmental protection efforts and improve the results of the index for the upcoming years.

The PEPI is structured into two groups: Group 1 evaluates the results of implementing goals and tasks related to environmental protection through the assessment of 22 component indices. Group 2 evaluates the satisfaction of residents regarding the quality of the living environment, consisting of 8 criteria/issues directly related to the daily lives of the people.

Đà Nẵng has been a pioneer in building an environmentally friendly city since 2008. In 2021, the coastal city announced the project "Building Đà Nẵng - an Environmental City" for the 2021-30 period with a total budget of VNĐ15.546 trillion (over US$637 million).

After more than 10 years of pursuing the goal of constructing an environment-friendly city, Đà Nẵng has attained 7 out of 10 targets, and is actively implementing the second phase of the project.

At the end of 2023, the urban planning for Đà Nẵng for the period 2021-30, with a vision towards 2050, was approved by the Government. It envisions transforming Đà Nẵng into an ecological, modern and smart urban area — a city worth living in. — VNS