VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnam has yet to become an industrialized country, but its pollution has already reached serious levels. If it worsens, Vietnam could surpass China in pollution levels.

Answering National Assembly’s inquiries about the $10 billion Ca Na steel project, Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh said Vietnam would not exchange its environment for industrial projects at any cost.

At the same time, the Ministry of Industry and Trade released information about the predicted lack of 15 million tons of raw steel, warning that if Vietnam does not continue developing steel projects, it will have to import more steel, which will increase the trade deficit.

Meanwhile, speaking at a workshop on November 18, Nguyen Mai, chair of the Vietnam Association of Foreign Invested Enterprises (VAFIEs), said: “As long as I can deliver speeches, I will continue showing my strong protest against steel projects.”

“We must change the view for development. One Formosa is more than enough for Vietnam,” he said. “The most important thing for us is to maintain economic growth while protecting the environment. I oppose steel, cement, oil refinery and chemical projects."

Vietnam has yet to become an industrialized country, but its pollution has already reached serious levels. If it worsens, Vietnam could surpass China in pollution levels.

In a memo sent to the workshop, Dr Dinh Duc Truong from the Hanoi Economics University said that Vietnam has yet to become an industrial country, but its pollution has become serious. The damages caused by pollution in Vietnam are as high as 5 percent of GDP. 

The figure is just half of that in China. However, if the current pollution increases continues, Vietnam would surpass China in pollution levels.

A research work by Associate Prof Dinh Duc Truong found that most foreign invested enterprises in Vietnam consider the lax environmental supervision and low environmental standards as deterrents to investment.

When assessing Vietnam’s environment after the Formosa scandal, the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment noted that foreign investors tend to address capital to business fields which consume a lot of energy and natural resources, and in labor-intensive and environmentally unfriendly fields such as metallurgy, textile & garment, footwear, mining, pulp and chemical production.

Answering a query about the paper plant which could to pollute the Hau River with outdated technology, Patrick Chung, general director of Lee & Man Vietnam, said the plant will be environmentally safe. However, he refused to say the origin of the machines and equipment to be used at the plant.

A study from NCIF (National Center for Socio-economic Information and Forecast) showed that in 2016-2020, if pollution and damages caused by natural calamities cannot be restricted, Vietnam would lose 0.6 percent of GDP a year.

Luong Bang