Industrial park removal faces standstill

Bien Hoa 1 Industrial Park (IP) photo source Baodongnai

The reason behind Dong Nai province’s proposal was the IP increasingly becoming a threat to Dong Nai river in terms of environmental protection.

The provincial competent agencies’ reports show that each day 105 IP-based businesses discharge more than 7,700cub.m of waste water into the environment. Of this volume, only 1,100cu.m are linked to Bien Hoa 2 IP’s waste water treatment system while the remainder (about 6,600cu.m) runs directly into Dong Nai river after being preliminarily treated by enterprises themselves.

A report from Dong Nai Department of Natural Resources and Environment reveals the Dong Nai river section from Hoa An bridge to Dong Nai bridge in Bien Hoa city contains organic substances, iron and toxic bacteria far exceeding the permitted levels.

Businesses based in Bien Hoa 1 IP could remove to settle down in Giang Dien IP in Dong Nai province’s Trang Bom district, some 20km away from Bien Hoa 1 IP. They could also move to Ong Keo or Long Thanh IPs if they want, according to Tran Van Hai, deputy general director of Sonadezi which was trusted by Dong Nai authorities to work on Bien Hoa 1 IP usage function change project.

Dong Nai provincial People’s Committee deputy chairman Nguyen Thanh Tri said under the project which cost VND15 trillion ($714 million) Bien Hoa 1 IP would be turned into an urban-services and trade complex and enterprises and factories, but not household residents, shall be removed, thereby removal support expenses would be big.

In the recent past, a National Assembly (NA) mission led by chairman of NA’s Science, Technology and Environment Committee Phan Xuan Dung had a working session with Dong Nai authorities on the project.

Dong Nai authorities had now completed the IP usage function change project after factoring on comments from the NA mission which will soon be submitted to the government.

During the process of working on the project, developer Sonadezi took comments from affected businesses. Most of them advocated the removal proposal but still had some following concerns.

Accordingly, representatives from Nhat Nam JSC which makes wooden furniture for sale in domestic and export markets and Bien Hoa Packaging JSC worried of the large capital amounts needed to build factories in the new location.

A source from Bien Hoa Food and Construction Mechanical JSC said the company would face hardships in sourcing quality manpower in the new place as most of the company workers live in Bien Hoa city, thereby traveling a long distance to the new workplace would be challenging for them.

As of this time, except two companies which partly built their factories in the new location (their main factories still operate in Bien Hoa 1 IP), most remaining businesses have yet to take further actions despite a range of incentives from the provincial authorities.