Binh Chanh badly polluted due to poor management, planning

HCM CITY — Binh Chanh District in HCM City is badly polluted because of poor management of solid and liquid waste and the lack of a master plan, city officials have said.

Waste water from the district’s Le Minh Xuan Industrial Park had polluted 66 out of its 226 canals, which could no longer supply water for people’s daily use and irrigation, said Nguyen Thi Du, chief inspector at the Department of Natural Resources and Environment.

Du told city agencies at a meeting last Friday that her inspection team found 27 facilities in the industrial park releasing untreated waste water into the environment though the park authority had reported only two of them.

The team also discovered waste water dumped in seven of nine ditches in the park used to collect rainwater for drainage.

“Some facilities in the district’s Vinh Loc Industrial Park are licensed to produce glue but are in reality recycling harmful solvents,”said Ngo Thanh Duc, deputy head of the department’s Solid Waste Division, adding that they then released the effluents untreated into the environment.

Duc warned that the district had become a destination for many unregistered facilities who set up temporary bases to recycle solid waste after being driven away from other districts.

Nguyen Van Tuoi, deputy chairman of the district, admitted this, saying:”Most polluters from the city have come to the district and worsened the pollution here.”

City officials told the meeting that they feared the district’s canals would soon be unable to support life – just like those in District 8 – unless authorities took timely measures.

Municipal authorities last Wednesday met officials at the district’s Da Phuoc Solid Waste Treatment Complex following public complaints about the seepage of water from the complex’s landfill and called for quickly finishing construction of the complex.

Also last week the city People’s Committee ordered the environment department to investigate pollution caused by some small factories in Da Phuoc Commune.

Tran Trong Tuan, the district chairman, said his administration was determined to root out polluters setting up shop in the district even if it meant a loss of tax revenue.

Huynh Cong Hung, deputy head of the People’s Council’s Economics and Budget Committee, said the tardiness in planning, which had caused uncontrolled urbanisation, has led to the pollution problems.

Commitee head Pham Van Dong admitted that the district had submitted its master plan as long ago as last year to the committee’s Department of Planning and Architecture and was awaiting for approval.

Nguyen Dinh Luan of the architecture department promised to complete appraisal of the plan and submit it to the city People’s Committee for approval in November. —

Source: vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn

Denmark helps Vietnam develop event management skills

Hanoi (VNA) – The Danish Embassy, in conjunction with the Ho Chi Minh City Conservatory of Music are to host a Music Management training course from December 1-12 in a bid to help Vietnamese art managers to further their management skills in art development.

The course is part of the Vietnam – Denmark Development Cooperation in Culture Programme 2006 – 2010, according to a statement made by the Danish Embassy in Vietnam on November 17.

Participants in the course will receive an introduction to creative business design, planning and a host of decision-making tools necessary for event management. They will also become familiar with a range of analytical methodologies, the development of business plans, marketing and financial management, and tools for the quantitative evaluation of events.

The training course will feature course input from teachers and coordinators from the Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus, Denmark (RAMA) Denmark’s support to cultural development in Vietnam is based on strategy set out in the Danish Strategy for Development Cooperation 2006-2010 with Vietnam.

The strategy is aimed at promoting increased creativity, people’s access and participation as well as diversity in the Vietnamese society.-

Vietnam studies Germany’s public management models

Berlin (VNA) – A delegation of the Ho Chi Minh National Political and Administrative Academy (NPA) paid a visit to Germany from November 12-18 to study its management structures and policies and to seek opportunities for cooperation.

The delegation, led by NPA Director Le Huu Nghia, visited Germany’s leading universities in the field of administrative management, namely the University of Potsdam (UoP) and the University of Administrative Sciences Speyer.

While meeting with the NPA delegation, the Director of UoP’s Potsdam Centre for Policy and Management (PCPM) , Werner Jann, proposed that the two sides cooperate in public management training, post-graduate and doctorate studies, the exchange of teachers and the organisation of short-term training courses.

UoP President Sabine Kunst said that her university has enjoyed established relations with Vietnamese partners for years, with their cooperation focusing on teacher training. She affirmed that UoP would relish establishing a long-term relationship with its Vietnamese partners in training and research activities.

NPA Director Nghia spoke highly of the proposals made by the German partners, saying that the NPA is going to send its officials to Germany to study state administration and management along with working with German partners in conducting scientific research, organising scientific seminars regarding issues of mutual concern and exchanging lecturing staff.-

Experts talk internet resources management

Hanoi (VNA) – An international conference on the management of internet resources and technology trends opened in Hanoi on August 26, drawing the participation of experts and policymakers from Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, the Republic of Korea and Vietnam.

The two-day conference is expected to provide the participants, including nearly 200 delegates from Vietnam’s internet community, with opportunities to share experiences in developing the internet and information technology, setting up e-government and promoting the internet technologies for mobile phone networks.

The participants are set to focus their discussions on internet development strategies and policies, e-government formulation, internet resources management, software industry and security technology development, and internet technologies for mobile phone networks.

The event is co-hosted by the Vietnam Internet Network Information Centre (VNNIC) and the National Internet Development Agency of Korea (NIDA).-

Germany, VN discuss urban waste management

Vietnamese and German scientists joined a seminar on urban waste management held in Hanoi on August 19.

The seminar is part of a joint project between the two countries to seek effective and suitable solutions for the management of liquid and solid waste in Vietnam’s urban areas, especially in Hanoi.

According to Head of the project, Doctor Professor Peter Cornel, Hanoi and other Vietnam’s urban areas are lacking in water waste collection and treatment systems.

The project hopes to find out suitable waste management solutions in the firction of combining the existing infrastructure system with new waste treatment systems in new urban areas in the expanded Hanoi.-

Survey guides future management policy

Hanoi has a total of 147,000 economic units and administrative agencies, which account for 3.56 percent of the country’s figure, according to statistics released by the municipal People’s Committee last week.

The statistics, borne from a survey conducted on July 1 last year, will be used to help the city’s leadership build, supplement and adjust management policies as well as draw up plans for infrastructure development, human resource training and administrative reforms.

Of the 147,000 economic units and administrative agencies registered during the survey, 25,000 were enterprises, 117,000 were private business households, more than 5,000 were administrative units and associations and religious units.

Figures were updated from a 2002 survey and the updated numbers show the significant growth that has taken place. The amount of businesses increased by 31.2 percent from 2002 to 2007. Sectors which have the most businesses include industry: 18,000; trade: 73,000 and hospitality services: 20,000. These three sectors account for 75 percent of the capital’s total number of businesses.

In comparison with the country’s increase rate, which is about 43 percent, Hanoi’s rate is lower, in fact, even lower than that of other areas.