Most enterprises in Vietnam, both foreign and domestic ones, are ignoring the government’s environmental protection regulations due to lax management and lenient fines on violators, as showed in a recent survey. The Ministry of Planning and Investment’s survey on environmental protection was conducted on more than 333 enterprises, covering private firms (55%), foreign enterprise (35.4%) and public ones (6.9%) in late 2012. The enterprises were all based in the two provinces of Phu Tho and Binh Duong, and Danang City. They operate in the sectors of textiles and garments, paper and packaging, metal, electronics, plastic and chemicals. More than half of the respondents said they had no staff in charge of analyzing environmental information, while just over 30% of them had their own sections in charge of processing environmental information. Under the government’s rules, enterprises must periodically submit their environmental reports to local authorities. However, only 30% of the surveyed enterprises abided by the regulation, said Doan Hai Yen, head of the survey. Notably, 42% of the surveyed enterprises said they had never publicized their environmental protection information to the public. Ms. Yen said only 13% of these surveyed enterprises have applied the international standard of ISO 14001 for environmental management that many companies worldwide are using. Minister Bui Quang Vinh said that Vietnam’s economic growth over the past years has caused serious environmental pollution. Many enterprises, including foreign firms, had failed to invest in environmental protection. “We cannot sacrifice environmental protection for any price. It’s high time the government built its green economy for sustainable development,” he noted. Last year, nearly 10,000 environmental violation cases were uncovered in Vietnam, up 27% on year, with 284 cases and 423 people prosecuted. Many of the worst polluters were foreign-invested firms, according to the Ministry of Public Security’s Environmental Crime Prevention and Fighting Police Department. (vir.com.vn July 11)
