VietNamNet Bridge - Formosa Ha Tinh, a Taiwanese-invested enterprise in Vung Ang Economic Zone (EZ), has equipped its security guards with speed guns and told them to fine speeding drivers in its project area.

 

 

 

The transport infrastructure system in the project area has large roads, traffic lights and security guards. The maximum speed for vehicles is 30 kilometers per hour. Those who drive at 31-51 kilometers per hour will be fined VND2 million. 

The workers of the company will be prevented from entering the factory for one year if violating the regulation. 

Thai Quoc Duong, head of Formosa Ha Tinh’s public relation division, said the regulation was set up with an aim to ensure safe traffic within the project’s area.

“Drivers tend to go too fast, which may cause accidents. Therefore, the company has to set up a rule to ensure safety in the project’s area and protect workers’ lives,” he explained.

When asked if Formosa Ha Tinh got permission from state agencies for setting up the rule, a representative of the company said: “Do you have to ask for someone’s opinion if you set rules within your house?”

Pham Tran De, deputy head of the Ha Tinh provincial EZ Management Board, said the management board had not received any report about the rule, but said that Formosa Ha Tinh can do what it needs to do within the project area if its behavior does not violate Vietnamese laws.

“They (Formosa Ha Tinh) do this just because it wants to ensure traffic safety within the project area,” he said.

Bui Duc Dai, deputy director of the Ha Tinh provincial Transport Department, also thinks that Formosa Ha Tinh only violates the law if it applies the rule in an area outside the project’s fences.

Colonel Vo Trong Hung, head of the provincial Transport Police Unit, said: “We don’t know about the rule. They (Formosa Ha Tinh) did not report to us.”

While local authorities think Formosa Ha Tinh has the right to set rules for the project’s area, lawyers say the Taiwanese investor violates Vietnamese laws.

Lawyer Nguyen Duc Chanh from the HCM City Bar Association said that Formosa Ha Tinh cannot cite traffic safety as the reason to lay down its own rules.

Chanh cited the 2012 Law on handling administrative violations as saying that businesses and businesses’ legal representatives are not agencies, organizations or individuals who have the jurisdiction to impose fines.

Lawyer Khuu Thanh Tam from the HCM City Bar Association also said that under the current laws, only state agencies have the right to impose fines in the field of road transport.

Phap Luat