Recently, many clean industrial parks have been invested and established in some localities such as Hanoi, Hung Yen… This is a good sign for sustainable industrial development in Vietnam, however, up to now, Vietnam does not have any standards or legal corridors that specifically stipulate the criteria for clean industrial parks.
Policies have not kept up with development needs
According to statistics from the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the country currently has 370 established industrial parks, of which 284 industrial parks are in operation, 86 industrial parks are in the process of basic construction. However, the development of industrial parks in recent times has faced many limitations, especially environmental challenges due to waste discharge activities, causing serious pollution. The above reality requires that the construction of industrial parks in Vietnam needs to change dramatically in quality.
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After nearly two decades of implementing the “cleaner production” program, Vietnam has achieved certain achievements. However, from “cleaner production” to “clean industrial parks”, all aim at a single goal of sustainable, environmentally friendly development. Thus, sooner or later, clean industrial parks are an inevitable direction of development, even towards 100% industrial parks need to be clean.
Based on the above requirements, recently, a number of businesses have started implementing the clean industrial park model. The proof is that in just the first half of 2021, the Prime Minister issued many decisions on investment policies in clean industrial park projects with a total investment of trillions of VND, such as: Soc Son clean industrial park (Soc Son district, Hanoi). Noi); Clean industrial parks in Hong Tien commune, Khoai Chau district and Xuan Truc commune (An Thi district, Hung Yen province). The goal is to form new industrial parks with synchronous infrastructure, ensuring reasonable production, use of technical infrastructure systems and participation in environmental protection. However, clean industrial zones are still a new concept, not yet included in the law or related guiding documents. This is worrying!
Need to clarify the concept
Currently, Vietnam only has the concept of ecological industrial parks given in Decree 82/2018/ND-CP regulating the management of industrial parks and economic zones. According to Prof. Dr. Dang Thi Kim Chi – former Deputy Director of the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, clean industrial parks are no different from ecological industrial parks, because enterprises in those industrial parks must be linked together to ensure environmental criteria, reusing waste and operating according to clean production mechanisms. A clean industrial park must be an industrial park that does not generate waste and is part of an ecological industrial park. According to the law, eco-industrial parks are industrial parks in which there are enterprises participating in cleaner production activities and efficient use of resources, with production cooperation links to carry out symbiotic activities. to improve the economic, environmental and social efficiency of businesses.
Lawyer Truong Thanh Duc – Chairman of BASICO Law Firm – said that in the legal regulations there is only the concept of eco-industrial park and one of the elements to constitute an eco-industrial park is “clean”. So why not use the concept of ecological industrial parks to license projects but instead use “clean industrial parks” – a concept that does not have any reference system.
The draft Circular guiding the construction of eco-industrial parks and eco-enterprises is being consulted by the Ministry of Planning and Investment, clearly stating the criteria for determining eco-industrial parks including: Confirming that enterprises are aware of and applying solutions solutions for efficient use of resources and cleaner production; Circulation solutions and product changes…
