Competent agencies in HCMC are working on plans to relocate around 698 factories in residential and other areas to industrial parks (IP) to minimize negative impacts on local residents, according to the HCMC departments of industry-trade and natural resources-environment.

This year, 17 polluting factories in Dong Hung Thuan Ward in District 12 will have to move to Le Minh Xuan 3 IP, the departments said in reports sent to the Economic and Budgetary Department of the HCMC People’s Council last week.

The IP in the outlying district of Binh Chanh will reserve an area with a concentrated wastewater treatment system for the polluters instead of letting them invest in separate wastewater treatment facilities.

Earlier, representatives of the polluting factories went to Binh Duong, Dong Nai and Tay Ninh provinces to find new places for their production but these localities turned down their relocation plans. They failed to meet conditions of IPs in these localities as they are heavy polluters, use outdated machines, lack finance for investment in new technology and mainly outsource products.

The HCMC government has told the Department of Industry and Trade to review and list polluting factories in residential areas for relocations in the coming years.

Ton Quang Tri, deputy director of the Department of Industry and Trade, said the improper development of urban areas has resulted in more factories located in residential areas.

Tri suggested the city government provide low-interest loans for enterprises to help them accelerate relocation of their factories to IPs. The new places for the factories should not be too far to enable them to save costs and sell their products as these small firms are not financially strong.

The Department of Natural Resources and Environment said many more polluting factories will go to IPs from 2017 as part of a three-phase relocation project, with the first phase centering 177 heavily-polluting factories. 

Around 116 more factories will be relocated in the second phase while the third phase will focus on factories in the areas which are not zoned for manufacturing.