New factories must meet environmental standards

March 18, 2013 | 15:01

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Only production plants which have environmental impact assessments should be allowed to be located in HCMC industrial parks, says a proposal by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

Ho Chi Minh city illustration photo

According to the ministry, the evaluation and approval of environmental impact assessment reports by investment projects in HCMC have not been effective over the years. Assessments have been of low quality and supervisions irregular.

Therefore, enterprises have seen no urge to spend on environmental protection.

The inspection of environmental impact assessments is poor, resulting from loose supervision, poor assessment and unawareness of investors.

Besides, the approval process of environmental impact assessments is complicated and time-consuming.

HCMC currently has 14 operational export processing zones and industrial parks, and the number will increase to 20 by 2020 with a total area of around 6,130 hectares. Besides, the city will have 30 industrial zones by 2020 with 1,900 hectares.

Among 49 facilities and industrial parks in HCMC inspected by the ministry last October, there were eight projects failing to conduct environmental impact assessments, nine facilities violating the approved assessments, 27 facilities and industrial parks infringing regulations on harmful waste management and 12 facilities and industrial parks discharging improperly treated wastewater.

After the inspections, 25 violating facilities were fined a combined VND2 billion.

SGT

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