VietNamNet Bridge – Phan Xuan Dung, chairman of the National Assembly Committee for Science, Technology and Environment,  talks  to  Thời báo kinh tế Việt Nam about the country’s science and technology level.

VietNamNet Bridge - Formosa Ha Tinh has received a tax refund worth VND13 trillion, proof that foreign invested enterprises (FIEs) can enjoy high incentives, experts say.

MONRE says that Formosa is about to begin operating six out of 23 chimneys on a trial basis. Experts have warned that the spread of toxic gas will cause serious pollution if the emissions are not strictly supervised.

VietNamNet Bridge - Despite warnings and punishments, enterprises have been using sophisticated methods to ignore regulations, damaging the environment and putting rivers in the Mekong Delta at risk.

VietNamNet Bridge - The following companies have been found causing serious environmental pollution in Vietnam. Most of them are still operating.

VietNamNet Bridge - Investors' reports on the possible environment impact of their projects are often vague and cursory, but government agencies frequently approve them.

VietNamNet Bridge - Formosa, the Taiwanese investor, which is building a steel complex in Vung Ang Economic Zone in Ha Tinh province, plans to build an oil refinery in the second phase of the project development.

VietNamNet Bridge - Many businesses would rather pay fines for illegally discharging waste water directly into the Hau River than install required waste water treatment systems.

VietNamNet Bridge - None of the waste treatment plants in Ha Tinh province has technology that is advanced enough to treat hazardous industrial waste, according to the Ha Tinh Department of Natural Resources and Environment.

VietNamNet Bridge - Gaps in the law on environmental protection need to be addressed to curb pollution caused by investment projects, said experts and officials at a conference reviewing the environmental situation in the first half of the year.

Over 80,000 labourers in the fishing industry and other marine businesses in Ha Tinh have received assistance in various forms from local authorities following the serious environmental incident that affected four provinces.

Experts believe that environmental problems exist in nearly all coastal industrial zones (IZs), not just in Vung Ang IZ, where a serious environmental incident occurred two months ago, causing mass fish deaths in four central provinces.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung has asked for prompt inspection of reported waste dumping by the Hung Hiep Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Company,

 Director of the Institute of Oceanography, Vo Si Tuan, talks with Tien Phong Newspaper about possible measures to restore the marine ecosystem in four central provinces that have been affected by the mass fish deaths.

According to statistics by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, about 263,000 workers were affected by the mass fish deaths caused by Ha Tinh-based Taiwanese steel company Formosa.

VietNamNet Bridge - Taiwanese Formosa was welcomed warmly when it arrived in Vietnam 15 years ago as a major foreign investor with multi-billion dollar projects. But it has been involved in many scandals.

The government last week released a plan on air quality control, under which at least 70 percent of steel mills, chemicals and fertilizer plants must be equipped with automatic emission monitoring systems by 2020.

VietNamNet Bridge - No legal document specifying which technologies can or cannot not be imported to Vietnam exists. This ambiguity has hindered Vietnam from ‘filtering’ projects that could cause pollution. 

Vietnam has a good legal framework concerning environment pollution, but the environment remains polluted, and forests have been devastated and rivers poisoned with untreated waste water. 

VietNamNet Bridge - Economists have called on the government to be cautious when licensing foreign direct investment (FDI) projects, emphasizing that Vietnam should not attract FDI at any cost.