Economic Assessment of Sanitation Interventions in Vietnam - WSP

Economic Assessment of Sanitation Interventions in Vietnam | National Benefits of Improved Sanitation and Hygiene5.2 BUSINESS AND FOREIGN DIRECTINVESTMENTThe business surveys were conducted by sending surveyquestionnaires to 22 companies working in different fieldsincluding: hotel, food, brewery and drinks, green buildingconsultancy, civil engineering consultancy, pharmacy,aviation, real estates and insurance. The questionnaires wereprepared in both Vietnamese and English and sent out byboth regular post and email to senior contact points in thefirms, and later followed up by telephone. However, the responseto the survey forms was very limited (7 from 22) (seeTable 43). Possible reasons for such a low response include:(1) no direct relevance of a water and sanitation issue totheir business; (2) not enough time for the firms to work onthe forms; (3) limited responsibility and understanding ofthe firm leaders/staff regarding the issues; (4) complexity ofthe survey form.Figure 38 indicates very different responses in terms ofevaluating the importance of environmental sanitation inselecting a location for the firm, depending on their typeof business. The hotel business placed most importanceon environmental sanitation conditions, giving the highestranking scored for all criteria.Firms working in other fields such as brewing consider thequality of water resources as the most important criteriafor selecting a location, since the quality of beverage productsvery much depend on water sources. Polluted sourceswould increase treatment expenses significantly, affect productiontechnology, and reduce customer loyalty, thus reducingmarket competitiveness.Firms working in the consumer goods business have selectedVietnam for doing business because of the populationsize, the current and potential size of market for theirproducts, and the GDP growth. An important factor forcompanies to select the specific location of their businessis reliability of water source. Besides, some other firms referto other criteria such as local population density andaccess to main roads and ports.Consulting firms prefer to select a location where their staffcan experience a pleasant environment, which should increasecompetitiveness. This may explain why the environmentscores highest with these firms, above water qualityand health.These firms base their location decision on market opportunity.As with beverage firms, the firm manufacturing pumps andwastewater equipment in workshops gave higher scores for‘workforce health’, ‘water quality’, and ‘land quality’.TABLE 43: SAMPLE SIZE OF BUSINESS SURVEY, BY MAIN SECTORS OF LOCAL AND FOREIGN FIRMSMain business of firm Local business Foreign firm Number sent Number replied IdentifierHotel 1 1 2 1 Firm 1Aviation 2 2 0 -Real estate 1 1 0 -Food and drink producer 7 7 2 Firm 2, 3Pharmacy 2 2 0 -Tourism 2 2 0 -Soap and domestic goods 1 1 0 -Green civil engineering andarchitectureDevelopment and cooperationconsultancy1 1 1 Firm 42 2 2 Firm 5, 6Life, health and other insurance 1 1 0 -Pump and wastewater equipment 1 1 1 Firm 7Total 22 7 -70Economic Assessment of Sanitation Interventions