Under Decision No. 567/QD-TTg of Prime Minister dated April 28, 2010, the target of developing and using non-baked construction materials replacing baked ones is to save up agriculture soil, to contribute to national food security, and to reduce greenhouse gas emission for protection of human health while assuring general economic proficiency of the society. For such benefits, non-baked construction materials have been taken consideration of. Various benefits Dr. Tran Van Huynh, Chair of Vietnam Association of Construction Materials informed of the fact that the production of 140 billion clay baked brick had taken away 210 million cubic meters of clay. If averagely 1 square meter of land is taken 2 cubic meters of clay for brick, the above amount is equivalent to 105 million square meters have been affected. The premium apartments here in Phu Thinh Villa Zone of Phu Tho Ward in Thu Dau Mot City makes use of non-baked construction materials. Photo by P.An. Under specialist calculation, to produce 400 billion bricks from now to 2020, 60 million tons of coal shall vanish. Thus, the unrecoverable minerals shall deplete while the brick kiln emit a tremendous amount of 220 million tons of CO2 and SO2 in 10 years affecting the ecosystem, human life, and plant yields. Meantime, the non-baked materials do not make use of clay but cinder of coal thermo-electrical power plants, metallurgical furnace, stone dust, and red mud of bauxite processing. Specialists also make their calculation that from 2015 to 2020 we could discard from 50 to 60 tons of such waste which could be used to produce 40 billion non-baked bricks every year without touching any clay. Besides, the non-baked material has not emission and only costs 70-80% of energy compared to baked clay. Dr. Tran Hong Mai of Economic Construction Institution of Ministry of Construction put that the non-baked materials could be various in forms, free of bending and price flexible in the market. The non-baked materials are suitable for highly industrial machinery construction and time-saving needs. Market expansion The program of development non-baked construction materials until 2020 of the Prime Minister has targeted for production development and use of such materials substituting baked clay bricks by 20 to 25% by 2015 and 30 to 40% by 2020. Carrying out the program in those years, state-own enterprises have actively do researches and create equipment to produce non-baked construction materials. Up to date, thousands of such pieces of equipment have been accounted for 2 to 50 million bricks an year. Meantime, 12 plants of air-compressed concrete bricks with capacity of 100,000 to 300,000 cubic meters a year each and 30 factories of foam concrete with total capacity of 473,000 cubic meters a year have been established. In Binh Duong Province, the implementation of Decision 567/QD-TTg has been put into practice by Directive No. 05/2013/CT-UBND regarding the promotion of non-baked construction materials and limitation of baked clay bricks in the province as the basis to develop non-baked materials in the market. Mr. Tran Quoc Dung, Head of Economy – Construction Material of Binh Duong Provincial Department of Construction informed that Hung Khang Non-baked Construction Material Producer has been established at Thanh Phuoc Ward, Tan Uyen Town with a modern German production line. Meantime, HIDICO in Dong Thap Province has just open a branch in Binh Duong Province. Thus, the supply of non-baked construction materials shall be tremendous, assuring the full supply of the products to the market. An unnamed representative of Department of Construction informed that the department, for the time to come, shall coordinate with related sectors and departments to organize workshops and information dissemination about the products of non-baked construction materials and their effectiveness. On the other hand, the Department shall construct regulations on management of and investment into the development of such materials with guidance to producers under pricing norms of Ministry of Construction. Currently, the production of non-baked construction materials is offered with preferential policies including EIT exemption. However, enterprises still face challenges in accessing such products. Thus, it is required that the State should issue standards and specifications related to the production and use of non-baked construction materials to apply harmonious application and create preferential conditions for enterprises to put those products into use. Reported by Phuong An – Translated by Vi Bao