‘Green’ growth for sustainable development

Update: 04-12-2017 | 09:21:46

Up to now, the province has 28 industrial parks and more than 33,000 enterprises. For sustainable development, Binh Duong has always paid attention to environmental protection. Particularly, the province recently focused on green growth.

To gradually improve environment

Apart from the impacts from the industrialization process, the labor force outside the province also creates many challenges for Binh Duong when implementing the green growth strategy. However, it can be said that Binh Duong has done very well the green growth strategy set out by the government. Specifically, in 2010-2015, the province has invested more than VND 3,300 billion in works for environmental protection and more than VND 13,300 billion in 2015-2020 improve the environment quality. This shows that Binh Duong has increasingly attached importance to shaping socio-economic development towards sustainable and environmentally-friendly.

Binh Duong is promoting green growth for sustainable development. In this photo: Maple Tree Business Park Industrial Park is a high-tech and environment-friendly industrial park in Binh Duong New City. Photo: Quoc Chien

According to the Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DONRE), all levels, sectors, people and enterprises in Binh Duong have made great efforts to achieve many important targets on environmental protection set out by the government. It is important that awareness, responsibility and actions on environmental protection have changed in the political system, the business community and the population. On that basis, investment in selected industrial zones and clusters is encouraged in the province, contributing to preventing, remedying and limiting pollution for environment improvement and gradual pollution control.

Pham Danh, Director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, said that the effectiveness and efficiency of state management of environmental protection in recent years have been increasingly raised. The professional capacity of environmental managers has also been strengthened. Meanwhile, the concentrated, synchronous and effective investment in environmental projects has solved urgent problems; water quality in canals has been improved; environmentally-friendly facilities are being handled and relocated in a timely manner. However, there are still some shortcomings that agencies, departments and agencies are working on to improve the environment.

According to the Department of Construction, the total green area of the province is nearly 1,700 ha. Survey shows that green areas in urban areas in the province are lacking, especially along the roads and streets. To ensure urban development and improvement life quality, the province will soon increase ‘green’ coverage in urban areas to contribute to improving the living environment.

Nguyen Hong Nguyen, Deputy Director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, according to monitoring results, the quality of air environment in the province in the past time is in the acceptable standard of less volatile. The collection of solid waste is nearly 90%. In the near future, the department will increase the rate of collection of solid waste, limiting the incineration process which is not controlled and can easily generate toxic gases.

Binh Duong is strategically building a smart city in parallel with industrialization. Certainly, the concept of sustainable development and green growth will not be unfamiliar to the people and businesses. Smart city will not be separated from green growth and, vice versa, green growth will help Binh Duong become a civilized city worth living in.

‘Green’ growth for sustainable development

Vietnam is implementing the 2011-2020 Socio-Economic Development Strategy with many challenges for macroeconomic stability, environmental quality assurance and social security in an international context that is unfavorable and bearable by many negative impacts due to low growth and debt crisis in many countries and climate change. In order to successfully achieve the set development goals, in September 2012, the Prime Minister approved the National Strategy on Green Growth.

According to experts, green growth in Vietnam is a model based on the process of changing and restructuring the economy to maximize competitive advantage, economic efficiency and competitiveness through researches and application of advanced technologies and development of modern infrastructures to effectively utilize natural resources, reduce greenhouse gases, respond to climate change, and contribute to reducing poverty and creating a driving force for sustainable economic growth.

For Binh Duong, the provincial People's Committee has promulgated a list of occupations, regions and places of environmental pollution and environmental incidents in the province and solutions for prevention and treatment. Accordingly, 12 industries are listed as environmental pollution and incident risks, 7 areas of surface water pollution risks in Bau Bang, Ben Cat, Di An, Tan Uyen, Thuan An and Thu Dau Mot, 3 areas and places of groundwater pollution risks in the communes of Tan Uyen, Ben Cat and Thuan An, 2 regions and places of air pollution risks in the districts of Bac Tan Uyen and Phu Giao, and 13 areas and places of environmental incidents in districts of Bau Bang, Bac Tan Uyen, Di An, Ben Cat, Thuan An and Thu Dau Mot.

With thousands of enterprises operating in industrial parks, Binh Duong always attaches great importance to environmental factors to ensure sustainable development. The Department of Natural Resources and Environment has also warned that some areas and locations in the province are at risk of environmental pollution in order to limit the production facilities and factories operating in the areas.

According to Vuong Sieu Tin, Director of Phuoc Du Long Ceramic Company in Tan Uyen Town, limiting the list of industries and banning the production of polluting industries in residential areas is necessary. Binh Duong is the center of large industrial production in the South, it is worth mentioning that the selection of investment attraction of the province is very logic and selective. In fact, the province has repeatedly denied the investment projects up to tens of millions of dollars just because the project has harmful factors to the environment.

In addition, in the face of rapid urbanization, land funds for urban infrastructure development of Binh Duong are more in need. To solve this, factories and processing establishments located in the residential areas in the province are directed to move to industrial zones. This is the determination of the Party, government and people in the province on the way to make Binh Duong a green - clean - beautiful city worth living in and in the future a smart city. Therefore, the issuance of the list of limited industries to attract investment and warning the environmentally vulnerable areas are supported by the people in the province.

Reported by Phung Hieu – Translated by Vi Bao

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‘Green’ growth for sustainable development

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