The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE) wants all new factories to meet environmental standards and possess waste-treatment facilities by next year.

The filter lake for the Cua Ong Coal Company is equipped with pressure-filter technology to increase efficiency.

Environment minister Pham Khoi Nguyen said the move would help to alleviate Viet Nam’s chronic pollution problems created by development.

The ministry also expects more than 50 per cent of businesses to meet higher environmental standards.

Last year, the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) launched a road map for environmental protection up to 2020.

According to MoIT, the plan would bring Viet Nam’s environmental protection policies in line with the rest of the region.

Under the plan, enterprises in the fields of environmental services, technology products and natural resource management would be expanded, said Nguyen Van Tai, director of the Viet Nam Institute for Industry Policy and Strategy.

According to the institute’s survey, there are 2,000 environmental enterprises in 20 cities and provinces. As well as urban waste collection, these companies also specialise in pollution reduction.

URENCO, a State enterprise, is one such company working in the field of environmental protection. The company collects and treats waste from all over Viet Nam and has branches in almost every city and province.

Viet Nam has real pollution problems that need to be tackled, while environmental protection regulations are unclear, said Tai. Many of Viet Nam’s industries use low-cost “dirty” technology, particularly in the fields of steel, iron and cement production, he said.

Phan Dang Tuat, former director of the institute, said 80 per cent of enterprises do not consider environmental protection important and use dirty technology.

Tuat said the steel rolling industry uses too much water, energy and land, and harmes workers’ health. At the same time, the Government is encouraging more steel making projects to come to Viet Nam. If the country does not export any steel, Tuat estimated that the steel Viet Nam produces would be enough to last until 2060.

Sectors such as brewing, fisheries, paper, textiles, construction, transport, electricity, mineral exploitation, health, ship building and cement are all heavily polluting, he added.

Not only are environmental protection laws inadequate, penalties for violators are too lenient, said Tuat.

Furthermore, there are not enough Government incentives encouraging firms to be more environmentally aware, said Tuat, adding that there was also a shortage of environmental expertise in the country.

However, Tai said there was enormous potential for investment in environmental protection, which he said was worth around VND124 trillion (US$7.6 billion).

Tai said after Viet Nam’s admission to the WTO, more enterprises have been paying attention to Viet Nam, considering it a “potential market” for waste treatment technology.

MNRE is also working on a project to develop environmental services up to 2012, worth VND6.2 trillion ($365million).

VietNamNet/VNS