Waste-to-Energy Businesses in Vietnam Face Difficulties in Policy

The activities of enterprises in waste-to-energy sector are facing many difficulties in term of policy, said Dr. Nguyen Dinh Trong, chairman of the board of directors of T-Tech Vietnam-a firm with 17 years of operation in field of technology. Particularly, the construction of a modern waste-to-energy plant requires a lot of investments, while the investors in the sector will have to go through complicated and lengthy procedures due to the state’s unclear policy. The investor selection for a domestic waste treatment takes one or two years. The enterprises then have to complete many procedures on design evaluation, fire prevention, and environmental impact assessment, among others. Therefore, the government needs to amend the investment policies and legal documents on urban daily-life waste management, such as regulations on public-private partnership investment, waste-to-energy projects development, among others. It aims to create favorable conditions for businesses to invest in the sector, contributing to forming the environmental industry in the country. Waste-to-energy technology, with the ability to handle a large amount of garbage, has become the first choice of the countries with limited land and energy, including Vietnam. Such projects have emerged in the country since 2004. Notably, the plant of the Singapore-based Keppel Corporation supplied power for the southern metropolis of Ho Chi Minh City by burning 1,000 to 2,000 tons of garbage per day. (Vietnam Plus, Vietnam Plus)