VietNamNet Bridge – The loosened management over the mineral exploitation activities in the last 40 years has made Vietnamese poorer and the living environment worse.

A report by the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment (MONRE) showed that the ministry had granted 79 licenses on mineral exploration since May 2013. Meanwhile, central agencies had granted 503 licenses on mineral exploitation, and local people’s committees granted 4,200 licenses.

Exploiters get richer, people poorer

Mai Xuan Hung, Deputy Chair of the National Assembly’s Economics Committee, said where mining activities occur, the environment there is destroyed, the infrastructure conditions get upgraded and people live in poverty.

Except with the exploitation of coal and oil which can bring high economic efficiency, the mining of other minerals have not brought benefits to people, but have devastated the land and deprived people of their livelihood.

These minerals reportedly make up 5 percent of the total 11 percent that all kinds of natural resources and minerals contribute to the GDP every year.

Pham Gia Tuc, Deputy Chair of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), said he heard from a business trip to the northern province of Tuyen Quang that a mineral exploitation company paid only VND5 billion a year in tax to the state budget, but the road across the mining site was seriously damaged.

As a result, the provincial authorities had to spend VND30 billion to repair the road. This means that the mining activities did not bring the benefits high enough to offset the damages.

Deputy Chair of the Binh Dinh People’s Committee Ho Quoc Dung said the mineral exploitation still cannot bring the harmonized benefits to the state, local people and exploiters.

While exploiters can pocket big money by overexploiting minerals and refusing to compensate for environmental damages, local people are getting poorer because they cannot earn their living in the damaged environment, and the State cannot collect tax.

Dung also noted that mining activities need to bring economic, social and environmental benefits at the same time. However, the goal remains unattainable in Vietnam. While mineral exploiters’ benefits are the highest, their social responsibilities are very low.

According to Lai Hong Thanh from MONRE, only 30-40 percent of institutions and individuals submit regular reports about the mining activities, while others ignore their duties.

As a result, the State fails to know about the actual exploitation output. This means that it does not know about the real situation of the natural resources and minerals – the great resources for the country’s development, and fails to collect tax from the miners.

Management loosened over the last 40 years

Dr. Le Dang Doanh, a well-known economist, said he can see “problems” in licensing mining projects. While the number of licenses granted by MONRE is modest, the licenses granted by local authorities are numerous.

Under the current laws, the exploitation at big mines can only be carried out after the approval by the central agencies. However, local authorities dodged the laws by granting licenses to many parts of the projects.

Le Van Cuong, an economist, pointed out two problems in the mineral exploitation – the lack of a perfect legal framework and the bad supervision work.

The Mineral Law was enacted in 1996. The first amendment was made in 2005 and the second in 2010.

Pham Huyen