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Roundup: Vietnam facing continuous environmental incidents

Xinhua, July 19, 2016 Adjust font size:

Vietnam has reported continuous environmental incidents in operation of foreign direct investment (FDI) firms during recent months, which cause worry and draw great attention among local citizens.

Since putting into operation since 2010, a FDI company based in Vietnam's southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau province has been sealed for seven times due to illegal waste discharge, reported local Tien Phong (Pioneer) online newspaper on Tuesday.

In a related move, local people in Phu Thu town in northern Hai Duong province are calling for help as their surrounding environment is seriously polluted due to two FDI companies.

Recently, on last Monday and last Thursday, police and relevant agencies in central Ha Tinh province, some 350 km south of capital Hanoi, detected hundreds of tons of waste with bad smell being buried in Ha Tinh's Ky Anh town and Cam Xuyen district.

The waste is said to have been transported from Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corporation (FHS) to be discharged in Ky Anh, reported Vietnam's state-run news agency VNA.

In late June, the FHS has admitted that they are responsible for causing mass fish deaths in central coastal Vietnam. The company put forward five commitments, including paying economic compensation worth around 500 million U.S. dollars, supporting in occupational changes for local people, as well as dealing and restoring marine environment in the four Vietnam central coastal provinces.

A research by Vietnam's Central Institute for Economic Management showed that some 67 percent of foreign direct investment (FDI) firms in Vietnam belong to low added value sectors.

Another survey by the Hanoi-based Vietnam National University's University of Economics and Business stated that among 150 surveyed FDI firms, some 45 percent of them did not apply low-emission production processes. Some 69 percent of firms said they will not implement such processes unless they are compulsory while 57.7 percent cited high cost as reason.

Luu Bich Ho, former head of Development Strategy Institute under the Ministry of Planning and Investment, was quoted by local media as saying that it's time for Vietnam to lure selected FDI. The management of FDI projects in Vietnam needs to be further tightened following set environmental standards.

According to Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, the mass fish death incident in central Vietnam caused by the FHS is a lesson for FDI attraction in Vietnam.

"I propose that leaders of ministries, localities must be responsible in front of the government, the state and people if a coming environmental disaster happens," Phuc said. Endit