As a Vietnamese successfully working in the environment, Vietnam Waste Solutions' Chairman of the Board and CEO businessman David Duong decided to contribute to the development of his home country. With that in mind, he decided to establish the Vietnam Waste Solutions Ltd. Co in Ho Chi Minh City. Vietnam Economic News' Cong Hoang and Xuan Bac interviewed him.
What do you think about Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee current policy on privatizing environmental protection projects and related solutions the country is applying during the 2011-2015 period?
As an environmental specialist, I am delighted to see that in recent years, the Vietnamese Government has paid greater attention to environmental protection and Ho Chi Minh City is one of the pioneers, with several environmental projects already underway. In my opinion, privatization of investment in cleaning and protecting the environment will help attract the most advanced technology and techniques into the field of industrial waste treatment. For example, the Da Phuoc Waste Treatment Complex designed, constructed, and operated by the Vietnam Waste Solutions is the first private sector environmental project in Ho Chi Minh City, using the most modern US-acquired technology.
Could you say more about the Da Phuoc Waste Treatment Complex and its products?
The US$120 million Da Phuoc Waste Treatment Complex uses modern US technology acquired including a sorting and recycling plant capable of receiving 3,000 tonnes of garbage per day (approximately 50 percent of the city's total waste per day), two leachate treatment plants with total capacity of 3,000cu.m per day, one organic waste-into-compost processing line, one landfill site, and one gas powered plant which will go into operation by the end of this year.
Waste materials such as paper, plastic bits, bottles, metal pieces will be filtered and recycled into packaging products. However, our current main product is compost and electricity for home use. We chose the food scraps and organic waste from mixed waste input to produce compost, and the remaining garbage production will be dumped by the US-originated landfill technology, then the methane gas collected will be used to produce electricity for the complex itself and for sale.
In addition, we also treat leachate and supply clean water for our workers. Well treated garbage in the landfill site will later become a large volume of soil good for use in filling the wetlands.
How will the Vietnam Waste Solutions develop?
We're focusing all resources on the green-technology waste treatment project in Thu Thua District, Long An Province, on an area of 1,760ha, to be able to receive garbage by the end of 2013. US$700 million will be invested in this project over the next 20 years and it will become one of the largest-scale projects of the kind in the Southeast Asia when completed. This complex will be able to handle all sorts of waste including hazardous waste, medical waste, industrial waste, electronic waste, sewage sludge, contaminated waste water and old tires, meeting the needs for waste treatment from Ho Chi Minh City and the southern key economic zone. This project has great significance for the development of Ho Chi Minh City and its neighboring provinces as well, helping create jobs for thousands of the local employees, technical experts, and engineers.
For the purpose of investment in building an international and economically efficient project, this complex will act as a pioneering private sector actor calling for investment from overseas Vietnamese, who have their heart set on contributing to the country's development, consistent with the Government's policy to encourage overseas Vietnamese investment.
Currently, we're preparing the final legal procedures for marketing our environmentally friendly compost products, which have been produced in the Da Phuoc Waste Treatment Complex.