Viet Nam has never had so many paper and pulp production projects. Foreign and domestic investments in the paper industry have increased dramatically due to higher demand and paper prices on both the overseas and domestic markets, experts said. Compared with 2001, the world price of pulp has increased by nearly 70 per cent. According to the Ministry of Industry, new foreign-invested paper projects including those under feasibility study have a combined production capacity of about one million tonnes of pulp and nearly 600,000 tonnes of paper per year.
The licensed projects include two of Hong Kong’s LEE&Man Paper Manufacturing Ltd, with capacities of 350,000 tonnes of paper and 150,000 tonnes of pulp per year in Hau Giang Province, and Vina Kraft of Thailand’s Siam Cement Group, which is capable of manufacturing 220,000 tonnes of paper per year in Binh Duong Province. The Japan-based Sojitz Corporation is making a feasibility study to build a 600,000-tonne pulp production factory in the Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands) region.
There are also many new domestically-invested paper projects such as Viet Nam Paper Import and Export Corporation (Vinapimex), Vinh Phu Paper Company, Phu Giang Packing Company and Binh An Paper Company. These new projects have capacities averaging between 50,000 and 250,000 tonnes of paper or pulp. Viet Nam has continued to attract foreign investors because it has plentiful material resources, industry experts said.
Meanwhile, environmental experts expressed their concern about the boom in the number of new paper projects in the country, which, according to them, may cause severe pollution, particularly of natural water resources. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has acknowledged that paper production is one of the industries that causes the most serious environmental damage.
The ministry says that most Vietnamese paper factories are equipped with substandard production technology and machinery, leading to more serious pollution than those in developed countries. The Cau River in the North is a typical example. It is filled with waste water pumped from nearby paper factories including the Hoang Van Thu Paper Factory. This company’s pulp production line was required to stop operation.
Many developed countries have closed or have plans to close their paper companies and move them to other countries in order to better protect their own environment. But Viet Nam wants to develop its paper and pulp industry to meet the market’s demands and to effectively use available material resources created through the government’s five-million hectare afforestation programme.
To prevent the local environment from being destroyed by paper and pulp production activities, the government needs to have regulations to protect water resources. The environment ministry is drafting new regulations to strictly control the treatment of waste water resources near paper factories.
The new policies also cover the use of paper production technology and equipment. Other experts still insist that the government should not encourage the development of the paper industry, which can come at the expense of the quality of life for locals. — VNS (Posted July 23, 2007)