As one of the country’s industrially developed provinces, how does Vinh Phuc consider the CP role in its economic development?

Sustainable economic development trends coupled with environmental protection have interested many developed and developing countries. Therefore, solutions such as clean technologies, cleaner production, and eco-friendly technology are receiving due attention from these countries, especially large groups.

Vinh Phuc has recorded quite rapid pace of industrial development, associated with a significant impact on the environment. Therefore, CP solutions will play an important role in corporate development, bring a lot of benefits to businesses and the community, improve local environmental conditions via reducing overall costs; waste generation; consumption of raw materials, energy and water; costs of environmental protection and waste disposal, while increasing productivity, and corporate competitiveness.

This year is the third year of implementation of the provincial 2011-2015 Cleaner Production in Industry (CPI) Action Plan. What do you think about Vinh Phuc’s current CPI achievements?

Vinh Phuc already put CP content into training programs offered to 31 local companies and 10 officers from industry promotion centers when deploying the “Raising Awareness of Environmental Protection in Industry” Project in 2008. In addition, Vinh Phuc also conducted investigations and surveys in 25 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in sectors such as construction materials, machinery engineering and manufacturing, food processing, paper making and packaging, and picked out two eligible companies for applying the CPI model with provincial support.

For example, after replacing the conventional stamping technology with the advanced CNC bending technology, the Cosmos Co. Ltd. has reduced 9.744 tonnes of scrap steel and saved 148 536 kWh of power annually; the Anh Duc Production and Trade Private Enterprise has invested in a number of modern equipment and construction items including pulp recovered line, paper flange, heat pipes, fuel depots and workshops and can each year save VND627.6 million, reduce the use of coal by 10 percent and reduce about 15 tonnes of sewage and sludge discharged into the environment.

In addition, Vinh Phuc’s Industry Promotion and Development Consultancy Center organized classes to raise CP awareness for provincial industrial enterprises and conducted financial support for local industrial facilities to innovated production machinery and equipment in order to reduce costs, improve product competitiveness, and minimize environmental pollution. In the 2011-2012 period, there were 34 local industrial production facilities supported,with total amount of VND1.445 billion. Last year, Vinh Phuc Province’s Department of Industry and Trade conducted a project to support 50 provincial industrial enterprises in terms of CP application.

Vinh Phuc has initially achieved encouraging results in CP application in recent time via widely disseminating CP concepts and practices to provincial industrial businesses and manufacturing facilities.

What are the advantages and difficulties that Vinh Phuc encountered in CP implementation?

Last year, the government created a legal framework for CP through the issuance of Decree 45/2012/ND-CP dated May 21, 2012 where CP was one of the key industrial promotion contents. Through the survey, Vinh Phuc discovered that most local businesses had CP potential, especially for SMEs.

However, Vinh Phuc still encountered difficulties during CP implementation due to several shortcomings including a lack of documents guiding CP procedures, implementation and support levels; limited funding for CP implementation; and less and unqualified CP staff. Notably, the majority of enterprises in the province, despite having perceived CP benefits, has yet invested in CP models on account of a lack of capital, technology and experience.

How does Vinh Phuc promote CP in the coming time?

To maintain and promote CP in the coming time, Vinh Phuc Province’s Department of Industry and Trade will continue to coordinate with the provincial People’s Committee in issuance of CP support policies; promote the dissemination of CP concepts among the local community; use national and provincial industry promotion to support CP activities; propose and implement CP technical demonstration models; and support local businesses in terms of CP application. In addition, Vinh Phuc Province’s Department of Industry and Trade will regularly exchange CP information with relevant agencies inside and outside the province to better improve CP solutions and technologies./.