Vietnam Environmental Technologies Export Market Plan

The main industrial air pollutant is smoke from fuel
oil and coal. Most plants use fuel oil for energy. Gas
exhausts from steel plants and dust particulates from
cement plants are other leading causes of air pollution.
The Center for Environmental Science and Technology
(CEFINEA) is a leading air pollution research institution
in Ho Chi Minh City and also sells air treatment
equipment to domestic companies. CEFINEA has
installed air treatment facilities at major steel manufacturing
plants, such as POSVINA (Ho Chi Minh City)
and Phuong Nam Steel Plate Co. (in Bien Hoa I industrial
zone).
CEFINEA has conducted studies of air pollution,
primarily in the industrialized south. It found that most
plants use old equipment without any air treatment
systems. Those that use treatment systems tend to use
wet-filter systems supplied locally. Some local firms, such
as the Bien Hoa and Thu Duc Steel factories, have
installed treatment systems from abroad which use dust
filtering and carbon monoxide treatment systems.
While new cement plants, or those built with foreign
investment have installed modern air treatment systems
(capable of filtering more than 90 percent of dust
volumes), numerous local plants in the south (Ha Tien,
Binh Dien, and Quan Khu 7 Cement companies) have
not yet installed dust-filtration systems.
CEFINEA has found that leading chemical and
detergent producers (Thu Duc Chemicals, Tan Binh
Chemicals, Bien Hoa Chemicals, Daso Detergent, Tico
Detergent) are primary sources of gas exhausts (SO 2
, Cl,
HCL). With the exception of some foreign-built plants
(CP Group, Cargill), few food processing and animal feed
companies have installed modern dust treatment lines.
Instead of requiring firms to install pollutionabatement
equipment, the government’s primary solution
to air pollution in urban areas appears to be moving
companies from urban to less-populated areas or
industrial parks. In June 1998, the Hanoi People’s
Committee issued Instruction 36/CT-TW, allowing city
authorities to force polluters to move from population
centers. Sixty companies were targeted for relocation
immediately, and 67 others were told to move by 2020.
None of the companies have moved, and the bureaucracy
and cost involved with shifting companies from one
location to another has delayed the plans indefinitely.
9.2—Market Opportunities and
Competitive Situation
There have been few major initiatives to reduce air
pollution overall. In general, it is only the large foreigninvested
enterprises that have invested in modern
pollution-control equipment, such as filters and scrubbers
for cement mills. Some domestic enterprises may be fitted
with filters or, less frequently, scrubbers, but these
systems tend to be old and inefficient for reducing dust
particulates.
To date, there has been limited ODA funding for air
pollution abatement efforts. Most of the ODA efforts have
been directed toward building air-monitoring stations as
a first step toward reducing air pollution. Current methods
of checking air pollution levels are uncoordinated. In Ho
Chi Minh City, for example, four different local
companies have been contracted to measure air quality
at different locations using mobile stations. Each
company uses different, incompatible equipment, so an
accurate and consistent data base has yet to be compiled.
The Asian Development Bank’s Ho Chi Minh City
Environment Improvement project includes an air-quality
monitoring component. The bank intends to identify key
air pollution sources and develop an air pollution tracking
database. The results of the studies will be used to develop
air quality legislation and action plans for reducing air
emissions.
The Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation
(NORAD) will provide co-financing of $1.8 million for
equipment and training of local personnel. Six air
monitoring stations are to be introduced:
• Urban background station for the Ho Chi Minh City
area (one station)
• Urban background stations in new residential areas
(two stations)
• Roadside stations to monitor the results of traffic
management (two stations); and
• Mobile station (one station)
The United Nations Development Program (UNDP)
initiated the first air-quality monitoring project in Ho Chi
Minh City as part of its $2.3 million environmental
management project (VIE/96/023). The project will
measure ambient air, urban background, and residential
and industrial air pollution levels.
The project includes co-financing from Denmark,
valued at $700,000, for the installation of four airmonitoring
systems. Instrumatics A/S of Denmark won
the tender for supplying the monitoring stations, which
will be capable of monitoring:
• meteorological data;
• particulates;
• nitrogen oxides;
• sulfur dioxide;
• ozone;
• carbon monoxide;
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