Many cities and provinces in Vietnam have been racing to build industrial parks (IPs), ignoring land use and environmental issues.

This was one of the problems raised at a conference held by the National Assembly Economic Committee to seek the opinions of ministries and agencies concerning land use, through the year 2015 and planning through 2020.

In 2010, 93,000ha of land were allocated for IP construction, compared to just 44,000ha approved by the National Assembly.

In a number of areas, average IP occupancy rates are below 50 per cent, yet officials continued to approve the construction of more.

Land waste, fiscal waste

According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, by the end of December 2010, Vietnam set up 260 IPs. Nearly $9 billion has been poured into infrastructure development for the parks.

Despite contributing 20 per cent to the country’s total annual export value and generating more than 3.2 million jobs, industrial parks also take up a lot of land, causing land use issues.

Dang Kim Son, Head of Institute of Strategy and Policy for Agriculture and Rural Development under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said there has been a decrease in agricultural land. Currently the country does not have a problem with food supply, but it may become a problem during natural disasters, which are becoming more likely due to climate change, he said.

He suggested that the allocation of agricultural land must be closely watched.

To date, IPs across the country have licensed around 4,400 domestically-invested projects totaling $16.2 billion, but only 40.5 per cent of this has been disbursed.

As many as 4,000 foreign companies have invested in IPs with a total investment capital of $53.6 billion, of which, a mere 32 per cent has been disbursed.

Former Deputy Head of the National Assembly Economic Committee Le Quoc Dung, said localities should carefully select projects before allocating land, adding that priority should be given to those projects which use the least amount of land, have high economic efficiency and use clean-technology.

The outdated technology at many IPs also lead to environmental problems. According to Sai Gon Giai Phong Newspaper, the Mekong Delta region has 111 industrial parks, many of them discharging untreated waste water.