The HCM City Department of Natural Resources and Environment has given 21 manufacturing facilities in District 12 until year-end to move out of the city.

Most of them are in paper, packaging or textile production or dyeing, and cause severe pollution because of their backward technologies, according to the department.

Failure to move to outlying areas by year-end would see them closed down, Nguyen Toan Thang, the director of the department, warned.

The department would collaborate with law enforcement agencies to deal with those that fail to move, he said.

The city People’s Committee announced the plan to move these facilities out at the beginning of this year, Cao Tung Son, deputy head of the department’s environment protection division, said.

The city administration has called on Sai Gon VRG Investment Corporation, to offer these facilities subsidised rent of US$80 per square metre at its Le Minh Xuan 3 Industrial Park instead of the $150 it usually charges.

It has also allowed the facilities to change their lands from manufacturing to residential, Sơn said.

Some had sought time until the end of next year but the department rejected the demand, he said.

Three of the plants have promised to switch to non-polluting sectors while two others have submitted plans to move to outlying areas.

The remaining 16 have agreed to move to Le Minh Xuan 3 Industrial Park in Binh Chanh District.

Similar action against polluting plants in other districts will soon be speeded up.

The department will submit to the People’s Committee plans to move 27 other polluting facilities to outlying areas. 

VNS