Vietnam Environmental Technologies Export Market Plan

In 1999, the government approved a project to upgrade
Cau Dien Waste Treatment plant with Spanish assistance.
The $400,000 investment will raise the capacity of the
plant to 50,000 tons of waste annually. Another $17
million waste treatment plant, with a capacity of 250,000
tons and producing 66,300 tons of fertilizer a year, is
scheduled to be built in Soc Son district over the next
two years.
7.2—Biomass Projects
Several proposals for building biomass power plants
or waste conversion plants have been submitted to the
government. Most recently, an American-British
consortium of Premier International Trading & Consulting
(U.S.), Enviro-Control Ltd. (U.K.), and AS-C
Materials Handling Ltd (U.K.) have proposed building a
$106 million build-operate-transfer (BOT) power plant
fueled by waste generated in Ho Chi Minh City. The plant
would process waste at $2.00–$2.50 per ton to fire a 12
megawatt power plant. The project sponsors would sell
electricity to Electricity of Vietnam at $0.06 per kilowatt
hour. The plant would also produce 300,000 tons of
fertilizer per year.
Since 1996, Ho Chi Minh City authorities have been
considering a biomass project proposed by Canada-based
Pourslo Systems, Inc. Pourslo has made little progress
since it made its initial proposal to use waste at the Hoc
Mon dumping ground to fire a 100 megawatt power plant.
The $175 million BOT project would burn 1,500 tons of
waste per day at a cost of $1.50 per ton. Pourslo would
then sell electricity to Electricity of Vietnam at a rate of
$0.045 per kilowatt hour. The project is still pending
approval from the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee.
7.3—Market Opportunities and
Competitive Situation
Hampering the development of solid waste treatment
is the Vietnamese government’s reluctance to introduce
or raise waste collection and disposal fees. Without
official charges for these services, foreign invested
projects are not commercially viable. In addition, BOT
projects have proven extremely difficult to implement in
Vietnam because of a weak legal infrastructure.
Vermeer Group of the Netherlands is in the advanced
stages of negotiating an agreement to build a landfill at
Go Cat, near Ho Chi Minh City. The project would be
financed by a grant from the Dutch government. The
agreement has not yet been signed, in part, because the
Netherlands is requesting that waste collection/disposal
fees be introduced as part of the project.
Foreign investors, including several U.S. firms, are
watching the deal closely for the precedent it may set if
the central government agrees to the service charges.
Negotiations for the $106 million Premier wastetreatment
BOT, for example, will likely regain momentum
if the Vermeer deal is completed successfully.
HCMC Environment and Sanitation Improvement
The Asian Development Bank’s Ho Chi Minh City
Environment and Sanitation Improvement project
includes a solid waste component. The total cost for the
solid waste portion of the project is estimated at $63.6
million. The project focuses on improving the efficiency
of primary collection by supplying garbage bins and carts,
garbage trucks, compactors, and containers and by
building new transfer stations. The project will also
finance construction of a new landfill on a 130-hectare
site next to the existing Dong Thanh site. The new site
would be capable of handling disposal needs at Dong
Thanh for at least 10 years.
Three Cities Sanitation Project
The World Bank is financing $80.5 million of a $119.5
million project to upgrade the drainage and sewerage
infrastructure in Danang, Haiphong, and Quang Ninh
(Halong City and Cam Pha). Although prequalification
for bidding on these projects has been completed,
opportunities may exist for suppliers to the project’s
contractors.
The project will upgrade sewerage and sewage
treatment, drainage, and foster administrative reform
within the cities’ sanitation and drainage companies.
There are solid waste components to each project, with
special emphasis placed on administrative reform of
Danang’s solid waste management.
Bilateral Aid Projects
The Netherlands is involved in two solid waste projects
in Ho Chi Minh City. The Go Cat Landfill Project in Hoc
Mon District is being implemented by the Dutch firm
Vermeer Contractors Group and the Ho Chi Minh City
Waste Disposal Company.
Vietnam Export Market Plan
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