The role of the Government
Industry experts agree that the Government plays a critical role in enabling companies in a developing country like Vietnam to follow and achieve green production. “The best support the Government can provide is to offer businesses tax and loan interest incentives as it accompanies them on the path,” says Nguyen A Chau, founder and managing director of OneStep Viet Co. Ltd.
Chau, who has almost 10 years of experiences in social compliance monitoring and sustainability advisory services at manufacturers in Vietnam, China, Laos and Cambodia, says that the business also needed the Government’s assistance with technology and expertise to turn their green production ideas and plans into reality.
Actually, there have existed supporting policies for clean producers and investors of green projects though the concept of green production has been introduced in Vietnam for just several years.
Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Nguyen Thai Lai says that the Government has issued various policies and worked out mechanisms to encourage enterprises to re-orientate their business activities towards environmentally friendly practices.
“Enterprises will enjoy incentives in terms of tax, interest rate, land rental and administrative procedures if they invest in the areas related to environmental protection and make environmentally friendly products,” Lai spoke at the opening session of the “European Green Business Solutions for Vietnam” workshop in Hanoi in September.
Lai says the programs and projects aimed at helping enterprises with clean production solutions and efficient use of energy are now high on the Government’s agenda.
However, Lai points out a number of challenges for Vietnamese enterprises to overcome when they want to pursue a green development strategy because of their scale. He says most of Vietnamese companies are small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME) and have their own problems mainly related to the constraints of capital, human resources and technology. “These constraints cause quite a lot of difficulties to the enterprises when it comes to meet higher and stricter requirements for the domestic and international markets.”
Green production is not always more expensive
Chau of OneStep Viet Co. says that making green products does not always require substantial sources of capital because there are a variety of appropriate ways and technologies for the production of environmentally friendly goods in Vietnam.
The reality has proven when Chau gives an example that many producers of handicrafts have turned to using the rush that can be planted on coastal soil to make quality handicrafts rather than just have the rattan and bamboo harvested in natural forests.
Though Chau acknowledges that prices of green products are often around 30% higher than those of normal ones, he emphasizes that green production is not always expensive. “I believe companies can manufacture products at reasonable prices and then earn profits if they have proper plans to improve management and reduce unnecessary expenses.”
Chau’s view is supported by the Managing Director of AkzoNobel Decorative Paints of South East Asia and Pacific, Jeremy Rowe, who says there are many examples that if businesses make products sustainably they also make them cheaper.
“This does happen in reality. Not everything is more expensive when we apply a sustainable way,” Rowe told the Daily when he was in HCMC in early October to launch the “I Love My City” campaign initiated by AkzoNobel Paints Vietnam as part of the “Step Towards Greener” program.
Jun De Dios, General Director of AkzoNobel Paints Vietnam, shares what the largest decorative paints manufacturer has done to maintain its competitiveness while still investing heavily in green production.
Deputy minister Lai says Vietnam is getting integrated more deeply into the world’s economy and so engagement in the green development is unavoidable for local enterprises.
Going green also brings opportunities to enterprises and Vietnam, Lai says. “Green development is an opportunity for businesses to diversify their product lines as well as create new products and services.”
Lai furthers the fast scientific and technology development brings out favorable conditions for a country like Vietnam to find suitable partners and technology as well as to learn valuable lessons about environmental woes from other nations.
He notes it is not difficult for developing countries including Vietnam to address issues related to the environment in addition to the society and the economy so as to achieve strong and sustainable development.
For a greener Vietnam community
De Dios says the world is grappling with a host of environmental issues and addressing them is not an easy job, as this requires the joint efforts of various parties including companies that initiate and fund environmental programs.
“We must do something to improve the situation from today” De Dios says after the launch of the “Step Towards Greener” Program. As part of the company’s holistic sustainability agenda, the program is to mobilize collaborative efforts to build a greener Vietnam.
The program also includes seminars the company organizes in collaboration with partners for more than 700 architects and construction contractors in HCMC and Hanoi to discuss the solutions to green architecture and the help for launching the green direction for the architects community in order to lay the foundation for green buildings and their development in the future.
“We need a collaborative approach to the environment issue,” De Dios explains. “We are very willing to be the pioneer in this effort, collaborating with the government and the community in the “Go Green” agenda to ensure practices under the program have a real, tangible and positive impact on the environment.”
Industry experts say good businesses are now defined as those which fund and take proactive actions to encourage the public contribution to community development. So, they should embrace responsibility for the impact of their activities on the environment, employees, consumers and stakeholders.
“Integrity and responsibility in our actions is one of the five AkzoNobel values that define what we are and what we aim to be. Investing on green technology embodies one of our major business principles: making impactful and meaningful contributions to the community we operate in, thereby improving their lives and their future,” De Dios says.
In the past, businesses could have made profits and ignored the other parts, but this is no longer acceptable today when increasing environmental pollution and global warming have become matters of great concern. Therefore, the experts say the business has to take actions towards green production to build a green world for them to operate and for the prosperous community they serve.
Deputy minister Lai says green development will become the orientation for economic development in Vietnam and the trend for investment of Vietnamese businesses.
“Always be an agent for change. If we do that, I believe we can change the situation and make the world a better place,” De Dios says.