Despite the promotion of Cleaner Production (CP) by government, academia and research institutions in the past few years, only a small number of Vietnamese industries have adopted it. This paper explores why CP has not been widely adopted by industry through an examination of the root causes preventing effective CP implementation in Vietnam. The paper concludes with possible directions for improving the effectiveness and sustainability of CP programs in Vietnam through training and education. 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Trang 1Beyond barriers: examining root causes behind commonly
cited Cleaner Production barriers in Vietnam
Carrie L Mitchell * Department of Geography and Programme in Planning, University of Toronto, 100 St George St., Toronto, ON M5S 3G3, Canada
Received 4 August 2004; accepted 22 April 2005 Available online 23 June 2005
Abstract
Despite the promotion of Cleaner Production (CP) by government, academia and research institutions in the past few years, only
a small number of Vietnamese industries have adopted it This paper explores why CP has not been widely adopted by industry through an examination of the root causes preventing effective CP implementation in Vietnam The paper concludes with possible directions for improving the effectiveness and sustainability of CP programs in Vietnam through training and education
Ó 2005 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved
Keywords: Vietnam; Cleaner Production; Barriers; Industry; Training; Education
1 Introduction
Many Southeast Asian countries have experienced
rapid growth in recent years, and Vietnam is no
exception The transition from a centralized, planned
economy towards a more market-based economy, under
the Doi Moi economic reform package of 1986, has
enabled Vietnam to grow at rapid rates, with impressive
results However, Vietnam’s national strategy of
pro-moting industrialization and modernization has caused
serious problems for the natural environment These
problems are compounded by the limited financial and
human capacity of environmental agencies to enforce
environmental management standards[1] The situation
is especially problematic in Ho Chi Minh City where
industry constitutes a major economic sector,
contrib-uting 30% of the nation’s total industrial production[2]
Direct regulation, combined with monitoring and
enforcement, has been the traditional policy tool used
for industrial waste management in developing countries
However, as Vietnam has experienced, this type of control is difficult to balance with an economy focused
on growth and lacking the regulatory and financial power to enforce legislation As a result, government institutions and national and international research organizations in Vietnam are seeking simpler (and hence more cost effective) environmental measures for the industrial sector e one of the most popular being Cleaner Production (CP) e so that companies can survive financially, while at the same time reducing their negative environmental impacts As a result, research has been conducted on the feasibility of introducing
CP concepts, which are defined by the United Nations Environment Programme as the ‘‘continuous application of an integrated preventative environmental strategy applied to processes, products and services in order to increase eco-efficiency and reduce risks to humans and the environment’’ [3], to industries throughout the country In 1998 the Vietnam National Cleaner Production Centre was established in Hanoi, with the aim of providing CP training and assistance to clients throughout Vietnam Additionally, the Government of Vietnam listed CP as one of its key strategies for
* Tel.: C1 416 978 3375; fax: C1 416 946 3886.
E-mail address: carrie.mitchell@utoronto.ca
0959-6526/$ - see front matter Ó 2005 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2005.04.010
www.elsevier.com/locate/jclepro
Trang 2sustainability by signing the International Declaration on
Cleaner Productionin 1999 and developing the National
Action Plan of Cleaner Production(2001e2005)[4]
These studies and initiatives have shown that CP can
be a successful pollution prevention tool in Vietnam,
and that the Government of Vietnam is supportive of
CP, both politically and financially However, the reality
is that despite the promotion of CP by government,
academia and research institutions in the past few years,
only a small number of companies have adopted it[5]
In this paper I explore why CP practices have not been
widely adopted by examining how the commonly cited
barriers to CP implementation have neglected to target
the root causes that inhibit effective CP implementation
in Vietnamese industry.1
The outline for the remainder of this paper is
straightforward In the next section I provide a brief
background of the industrial sector in Vietnam and its
broader institutional context, particularly after the
introduction of Doi Moi reforms in the 1980s Following
this introduction I discuss some of the root causes for
each of the commonly cited CP barriers, and the impact
of these root causes on sustainable CP uptake in
Vietnam In the final section I suggest possible directions
for improving the effectiveness and sustainability of CP
programs in Vietnam through training and education
2 Background e the industrial sector in Vietnam
Historically, the planned economy was the centerpiece
of the Vietnamese Government and, as a result, the
Government controlled much of the industrial sector
From the early 1960s to the mid-1980s the Vietnamese
Government focused primarily on heavy industry,
including iron and steel, chemicals and fertilizers,
cement, coal, vehicle manufacture, machinery
produc-tion, as well as ‘light industries’ such as foodstuffs and
textiles Typically, resource inputs, such as water, were
considered ‘free’ goods This resulted in ‘‘inefficient use
of resources and ineffective production methods’’ [6]
Additionally, the state did not regularly reinvest in its
production lines, which has left industry in Vietnam with
old and often obsolete manufacturing technologies[6]
In 1986 the Doi Moi reform package was formally
adopted at the Sixth Congress of the Communist Party
of Vietnam Its aim was to ‘‘end the period of economic
stagnation that had existed in Vietnam, and introduce
a new era of rapid growth’’ [7] The reform process
comprised macro-economic stabilization, market
re-forms and a gradual shift from central planning to
a more ‘‘open-door policy’’ with respect to international trade and investment [8]
One of the major results of Doi Moi reforms has been the transformation of the institutional framework un-derlying economic activity in Vietnam The Doi Moi reform package has gradually introduced institutional, legal and regulatory shifts towards a market-based economy In the early 1990s, the Vietnamese Govern-ment began to institute a number of reforms to key areas including trade, public expenditure management, public administration, law, and banking [9] This included reforms in state enterprises, the 1993 Land Law, and tax reforms, which enabled assets to be transferred from the public to the private sector[6] The Doi Moi reforms also liberalized international trade and investment by way
of the Foreign Investment Law (1987) and included additional measures to improve the climate for enter-prises in Vietnam [9] As a result of Doi Moi, more privately owned firms have emerged as well as ‘joint ventures’ with Vietnamese and foreign interests Between
1996 and 2000, for example, the private sector, including joint ventures (JVs), created more than three times as many jobs as state-owned enterprises (SOEs)[9] The economic results of the Doi Moi reforms are, on the whole, impressive It is reported that the economy of Vietnam has grown at an annual average rate of 7.6% over the last decade; GDP has grown at a 2.5 times higher rate in 2000 than was reported in 1985 [10] However, this growth is not without problems, particu-larly for the natural environment The growth in industrial activities in the country has required more extraction of natural resources, increases in energy consumption, and higher dependence on transportation and other infrastructure, which have all resulted in more wastes and pollution [6] As such, there is an increasing emphasis on concurrent economic growth and environmental protection by both the Vietnamese Government and international donor agencies working
in the country
3 Barriers to successful implementation of CP
in industry Despite the ‘common sense’ approach of CP and the economic benefits associated with its implementation, CP remains a hard sell to industry, particularly in developing countries such as Vietnam As a result, an extensive literature base has developed outlining the ‘‘barriers’’ to pollution prevention Industry’s inaction towards pro-active environmental behaviour is often generalized within one (or more) of the following categories: economic, information, technological, and regulatory
The most common constraint, and typically the first
to be mentioned when citing why firms lag behind in CP innovation, is economic It is commonly argued amongst
1
As one anonymous reviewer highlighted, this problem is not
unique to Vietnam Many countries face problems with sustainable
uptake of CP, which have yet to be rectified through a ‘barriers’
approach to problem solving.
Trang 3CP practitioners, researchers and policy makers that
firms lack the capital to finance new technology and this
is the reason for the lack of uptake of CP concepts in
industry [11] Following closely behind economic
barriers are information and technology constraints
Again, it is argued that firms in developing countries are
lacking the basic building blocks for CP, namely
information about what it is and the technology needed
to implement it [12] It is also stated that regulatory
barriers, or in other words, the inability of developing
country governments to effectively regulate firms is one
of the key barriers to successful adoption of CP in industry
[13] Attitudinal barriers, or ‘lack of desire’ on the part
of industry managers to implement CP, are now more
commonly found in the literature and are often cited as
a significant barrier to sustainable CP initiatives[14]
These common barriers were reiterated in Vietnam
during a 2002 Cleaner Production Roundtable attended
by company representatives, government officials and
academics in Hanoi, Vietnam The participants
identi-fied lack of awareness (unaware of how to implement
CP, or in some cases unaware of the concept itself), lack
of capital, limited CP information, few trained technical
experts and poor environmental regulations as the most
significant barriers facing firms in Vietnam In addition
to these findings, one Vietnamese researcher conducted
an analysis of demonstration projects and noted that
operational and administrative factors, such as
man-agement impassivity and lack of follow-up, are also
significant barriers to effective CP implementation[15]
4 CP barriers: examining root causes
If eliminating these barriers were simply a matter of
training more experts or raising awareness, CP training
programs could easily be developed to meet these goals
However, a literature review and fieldwork results from
research conducted in Vietnam in 2002 suggest that
many of the barriers associated with successful CP
implementation in Vietnam are in fact part of systemic
problems of incorporating pollution prevention concepts
into industry Specifically, I conducted 20 key informant
interviews in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City and
administered a questionnaire to 33 CP consultants and
trainers throughout Vietnam Questionnaire respondents
were geographically dispersed (North, including Hanoi:
20; Central, including Danang: 4; and south, including
Ho Chi Minh City: 9) and came from a wide variety
of backgrounds, including academia (11/33), industry
(13/33) and government (9/33) Due to time constraints
and the difficulty of conducting corporate interviews in
Vietnam, a comprehensive empirical study of industry
was beyond the scope of this research Thus, while this
paper may provide new perspectives regarding some of
the root causes to commonly cited barriers, a more
comprehensive empirical study of industry is required to confirm whether these findings also resinate with a representative sample of informants from the industrial sector
In the following sections I will outline the root causes that may lead to barriers for CP adoption
4.1 Root cause number one: Vietnam’s policy environment
One of the main barriers to CP implementation in Vietnamese industry is said to be the poor enforcement
of environmental regulations This is often attributed to
a lack of funds as well as to a lack of trained personnel
in environmental agencies to carry out policy objectives While this is true, the lack of effective regulations appears to also stem from the policy environment in Vietnam While environmental support dates back to the 1980s with the introduction of the National Conservation Strategy (1984), environmental sustain-ability was not introduced in any concrete manner until the release of the National Plan for Environment and Sustainable Development in the early 1990s [15] The national plan enabled a number of policy and legal instruments to be put into effect, including the Law on Environmental Protection (1993), with subsequent air, soil and water standards enacted in 1995, and the 1998 Directive 36/CT-TW concerned with ‘‘strengthening environmental protection in the period of industrializa-tion and modernizaindustrializa-tion of the country’’ [16]
These early directives aided the Government in developing the National Strategy for Environmental Protection (2001e2010), which ‘‘considers pollution prevention to be a guiding principle to be combined with pollution treatment, environmental quality im-provement and natural resource conservation’’ [17] In response to the guiding principle of pollution pre-vention, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment (The Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment is now the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment) and the National Envi-ronment Agency drafted the National Action Plan of Cleaner Production (2001e2005)
However, despite the multitude of national environ-mental plans that have been drafted in the past few years, many of the recommendations of these plans have not been implemented and numerous environmental regulations have effectively been ignored The Vietnam Capacity 21 Project, funded in part by the United Nations Development Programme, conducted an anal-ysis of the national environmental plans in Vietnam, and summarized that:
Up to now, environmental planning in Vietnam has been considered as planning by and for MOSTE, not planning for development of all sectors On the whole
Trang 4‘environmental’ strategies are not taken seriously by the
key resource development sectors and by economic
planners This is not necessarily because there is
a reluctance to implement them, but because, having
not been involved in formulation, they are unclear as to
how to do so[18]
The Vietnamese Government has recognized the
problems associated with inadequate coordination
between their government agencies, industrial sectors
and provinces that have led to difficulty in implementing
effective environmental planning in the country As
a result, the Politburo of the Communist Party issued
the following Directive in 1998:
The Law on Environmental Protection has not been
strictly enforced, due to the fact that the Party and
Government authorities at all levels are not fully aware
of the importance of environmental protection, and
legal documents on environmental protection are
lack-ing, overlapping and not consistent [and] investment in
environmental protection remains low[19]
However, researchers still note the existence of
‘‘highly fragmented and decentralized’’ system of
central control [20] and inequality between
depart-ments [21], which results in ‘‘resistance to cooperate
with other ministries on crosscutting issues’’ [22] A
good example of this type of resistance can be seen in
the formulation of national waste management
poli-cies Since the passage of the National Law on
Environmental Protection in 1993, both the Ministry
of Natural Resources and Environment and the
Ministry of Construction have drafted legislation that
address solid waste management issues, in isolation of
the other Ministry As a result, years after the release
of these drafts there is no consensus on which one
should be consulted for waste management policies
and practices [22]
Overall, the current policy environment is not
conducive to either enforcing environmental regulations
or to effectively promoting pollution prevention tools
There is a significant lack of cooperation and
un-derstanding between government sectors as to how
commitment to social equity and environmental
im-provement should be managed alongside the
govern-ment’s development strategy of ‘‘increased exploitation
of natural resources and the rapid expansion of resource
processing industries’’[23] This dichotomy of objectives
at the state level inevitably leads to confusion at the
industry level, when conflicting mandates are passed
down by government agencies This is an obvious problem
for implementation of pollution prevention policies,
which require the cooperation and coordination of
various sectors and levels of government in order to be
successful and sustainable
4.2 Root cause number two: dependence on outside assistance
Two of the barriers noted above, informational and technological, are often attributed to lack of training and limited information, both at the management and technical levels These problems are significant obstacles
to successful CP implementation, but may have less to
do with the amount of training available than the manner in which it is delivered Therefore, I argue that dependence on outside assistance is a root cause for some of the problems associated with lack of awareness and effective implementation of CP concepts
Since CP is a relatively new concept in Vietnam almost all of its demonstration projects and training programs have been developed and financed by international organizations The amount of interna-tional involvement in Vietnam is typical of CP demonstration projects and dissemination programs
in developing countries, which are primarily carried out with the support of external consultants and CP experts Furthermore, it is characteristic that a consider-able part of the program costs are met by outside, or international, funds [24] However, a major question arises from this trend, namely what happens when foreign financial support leaves? This is a serious issue, since many companies may not implement CP projects unless they are funded by an international organization
[25] This makes economic sense for companies, since demonstration projects often provide free training, and
in some cases, help finance the purchase of new technology
The inevitable outcome of this is ‘donor-dependence’, whereby firms do not take an active role in changing their management and operational behaviours They accept the technology and training provided, but are less likely to make changes that would create a climate for sustainable CP implementation within their companies Hoang noted this attitudinal obstacle in her research on the experience of six of the 13 companies in Vietnam who had received in-plant CP training from the Vietnam Cleaner Production Centre (VNCPC) Specifically, she found that:
The CP assessment methodology and its implemen-tation did not lead to long-term improvement within the studied companies;
There remains a lack of priority on the part of company managers for conducting CP assessments with little encouragement or incentives for pro-moting and implementing ideas; and,
The CP assessment methodology and its imple-mentation did not appear to raise the conscious-ness for environmental compliance within the companies [15]
Trang 5Donor support in Vietnam appears to be a catch-22:
without it CP would not exist, but with it companies
inevitably take a passive role in environmental
management A fine line exists between working with
companies and giving them the information needed to
become environmentally self-sufficient and working for
them and creating solutions that unavoidably repress
innovation and creativity at the firm level Currently,
there are efforts under way to establish a National CP
Network and it is argued that this is necessary to the
continued development of CP in Vietnam [26]
However, it appears that few donor-funded projects
are tackling the sustainability of CP in Vietnam The
VietnameCanada Environment Project is working to
strengthen some provincial environmental agencies
(known as DONREs) throughout the country, so as
to increase their environmental knowledge and
capac-ity; the Vietnam Cleaner Production Centre is planning
to strengthen the demand for CP consultant services
However, the majority of projects are still highly
reliant on the financial support provided from donor
organizations
4.3 Root cause number three: traditional
corporate culture
Company officials have been faulted for lacking the
necessary knowledge concerning CP and the economic
benefits they could yield from its implementation
However, it may be that many company officials are
unaware of CP, and its profit maximizing potential,
because of the corporate culture of businesses in
Vietnam Little has been written about corporate
culture in Vietnam, and as a result, few researchers
have studied the effect of corporate culture’s influence
in the adoption of pollution prevention tools at the
firm level However, research undertaken in New
Zealand suggests understanding ‘‘human dimensions’’
and the role these factors play in sustainable CP
uptake is essential for creating successful programs
[27] Specifically, Stone suggests that in order to
understand the link between ‘‘human dimensions’’
and their relevance for successful CP uptake it is
necessary to understand how people behave in
organ-izations, the reasons for their particular behaviour,
specific factors that contribute to change, and the
methods that bring about this change
In general, Vietnamese corporate culture can be
defined as static, due to the former system of control
over industry in the country Until very recently, the
Vietnamese Government made almost all decisions
concerning large-scale industrial activities
Product mixes and quantities of outputs, as well as the
specifics of technological and resource inputs into
production were determined by the Ministry of Industry Capital allocations were proposed by the Ministries of Industry and approved by the Ministry of Finance [6]
The Company Law was passed in 1990 to initiate the privatization of firms However, in 2000 the state sector still accounted for the largest percentage of GDP [28] This type of management structure suppresses long-term environmental planning initiatives since top manage-ment is typically extremely bureaucratic, and because profits accrued are directed back to the state, they are less responsive to incentives found in pollution pre-vention methods Compounded with these attitudinal barriers is the historical insignificance of environmental considerations within state-owned enterprises ‘‘Re-source inputs were priced through planning decisions
or considered ‘free’ goods, resulting in a general atmosphere of inefficient use of resources and ineffective production methods’’[6] In a 1999 study conducted on private firms in Vietnam, it was found that 50% came from management positions in state-owned enterprises
[29] Thus, the corporate culture within private firms may share some of the same characteristics as those of state-owned enterprises, since managers come from the state system, and will most likely transfer their style of administration to their new companies[29]
In contrast, for small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) research suggests that corporate culture may actually facilitate the uptake of pollution prevention concepts The culture of improvisation, innovation and imitation is in large part how SMEs survive in
a competitive economic climate This type of embedded corporate culture could arguably support the develop-ment of ideas, technologies and products that support pollution prevention concepts such as CP[30]
However, due to the overall significance of state-owned enterprises, both in their continued contribution
to GDP and to the extension of their management control in private firms, a static type of management style continues to be dominant in Vietnam The result is that a majority of the industrial sector may be resistant
to change, undervalue the environment, and have little incentive to alter practices based purely on profit motivation In fact, the traditional corporate culture dictates that funds are best spent in the short-term, often on added production lines rather than on CP improvements often requiring capital investments that realize financial gains over a longer time horizon[25]
It is clear that there is a connection between corporate culture and sustainable uptake of CP However, further research on how change and learning occur in Vietnam-ese firms, particularly related to how they institutionalize
CP concepts, would aid this discussion and provide insight into an under-explored area of inquiry in industrial pollution management in Vietnam
Trang 64.4 Root cause number four: weak internal
auditing and accounting systems
Lack of capital to finance CP projects is one of the
most commonly stated barriers to successful CP adoption
in Vietnam However, lack of capital is actually a
symp-tom of a larger problem, namely the weak accounting and
internal auditing systems within companies
Very few companies in Vietnam have data on the
volume of waste generated or the points in their
production process where waste is produced As a result,
the true costs of inefficient material and production
patterns are not clearly understood and firms often do
not recognize the potential savings that could be accrued
from CP implementation[31] This was one of the major
obstacles to sustaining CP noted by Hoang in her
assessment of VNCPC’s demonstration companies She
found that generally companies had a poor awareness of
the relationship between trade and the environment and
were often unable to account for all their inputs and
outputs in the production process[15]
At the CP Roundtable in Hanoi (2002) it was stated
that most companies in Vietnam do not have the
financial capacity to implement new technologies or the
time to allow employees to develop CP ideas It was also
argued that there is an overall lack of funds to support
CP initiatives, and as a result, foreign donor technology
and training ‘giveaways’ are necessary However, it is
a popular misconception that there is a lack of financial
capital available for CP projects In fact, both Hanoi
and Ho Chi Minh City have environmental funds, which
offer low interest loans to companies Yet, as of 2002 only
two companies in Hanoi had utilized the fund and
over-all the funds have met with little success[32] For some
state-owned companies funds exist as well, however,
capital is often only available for companies that can
demonstrate short-term returns on their investments[19]
Financial capacity is often weak, despite the
avail-ability of low interest loans, because of the limited
accounting procedures in place within companies Poor
record keeping and a lack of collateral make it difficult
for companies to conform to the loan structure set out in
the environmental funds As a result, most companies
are reluctant to go through the process associated with
acquiring a loan, choosing instead to use their own
capital or waiting for a financed demonstration project,
if they do implement CP[25]
Financing of CP in Vietnam is hampered by two major
problems While there are funds available to finance new
projects, the money is not utilized because companies are
often not aware of the potential financial benefits from the
implementation of CP due to their weak auditing systems
Additionally, accounting procedures in place in many
companies are not adequately developed for the formal
banking system As a result, many companies find it
difficult to acquire a loan for implementing CP
4.5 Root cause number five: relevance of Cleaner Production in Vietnam?
Finally, it is important to question the concept of
CP itself and its applicability in developing countries such as Vietnam While rarely discussed at CP work-shops or in consultancy documents, there is a growing debate in ecological modernization literature over the validity of transferring models of ecological reform, such as CP, from industrialized to developing countries
[33e35] Critics of ecological modernization have suggested that the theory is based entirely on Western industrial experience and may prove unsustainable in other countries, particularly in the global ‘South’ [36] Further, some authors suggest that ecological modern-ization’s success should be attributed to specific political and economic conditions in the late 20th century, rather than to its inherent usefulness as a tool for sustainable environmental development Hajer, for example, argues that ecological modernization served
to legitimate states’ claims for deregulation and
a reduction of its involvement in environmental management, which was in line with neoliberal strategies that dominated government policy-making during the 1980s [37; also see38,39] As a result, by the end of the 1990s ‘‘to be considered a legitimate voice
in environmental policy-making it was necessary to make use, at least to some extent, of the ‘winewin’ type language’’ [40]
However, when empirical work from non-European Union countries began to be conducted on ‘winewin’ solutions to environmental problems studies led to
‘‘mixed conclusions on the relevance of this theoretical framework for understanding the processes of environ-mental reform’’ [41] Further research to explore whether ecological modernization principles are in fact applicable in Southeast Asia, and if so, what are the particular political, economic and social conditions under which these principles may be adopted is thus necessary and timely
5 Possible directions for improving the effectiveness and sustainability of CP programs
In the following section I will discuss some possible directions for improving the effectiveness and sus-tainability of CP programs in Vietnam through one avenue e training and education However, it should be noted that there is much room for further empirical research on context-appropriate environmental manage-ment systems, particularly in Vietnam Thus, the discussion that follows is merely a starting point for addressing the lack of CP uptake in Vietnam
Trang 75.1 Addressing Vietnam’s policy environment
There is a lack of awareness at various levels of
government as to the role pollution prevention
gener-ally, and CP specificgener-ally, can play in promoting
economic benefits for industry In order to lessen the
impact of regulatory obstacles in the uptake of CP,
future environmental plans and economic development
initiatives need to be developed in a coordinated effort
One way to accomplish this goal is to develop
targeted CP training for all government officials
in-volved in industrial development and economic
plan-ning as well as for other related ministries Traiplan-ning
courses could provide a more detailed understanding to
participants regarding the usefulness and necessity of
incorporating CP concepts into industrial development
and economic plans In Vietnam, specifically designed
training could be aimed directly at officials in the
Ministries of Industry, Finance, Planning and
Invest-ment and Trade
Specific details regarding the content of these training
programs are beyond the scope of this paper
How-ever, all directed training could positively communicate
the opportunities that could be realized by Ministries
through the incorporation of CP into industrial
de-velopment and economic planning initiatives
Opportu-nities such as increased efficiency, economic profits and
international competitiveness could be detailed; case
studies could be used to show how CP has achieved
these outcomes in other countries This level of directed
training could also strongly promote the advantages of
intra- and inter-governmental cooperation and
commu-nication in order to address the root causes noted
previously in this paper
While training and information dissemination are not
a panacea for the problems inherent in the current
political system, they do initiate a dialogue for
improved communication and understanding amongst
government officials
5.2 Addressing project sustainability issues
Donor agencies should take a hard look at their
project outcomes to determine if they are in fact
achieving sustainable results and adequately addressing
long-term environmental management needs in Vietnam
Projects that give away technology and/or training
should ensure that they are not creating a cycle of
dependence and stifling future environmental progress
One way to do this is to incorporate a sustainability
component into each and every CP project
Sustainability components within projects could
focus on CP marketing via media and television and
other forms of press at the same time as introducing
demonstration projects Another way to build
sustain-ability into programs is to link up with industrial organizations CP concepts could be taught to people who already have the necessary technical knowledge and ideas would be passed on to a wider audience through the support of industry partnerships[42]
A further way to promote sustainability is to focus efforts on the content of university programs, particu-larly in the engineering and other technical based fields Hanoi and Van Lang Universities offer CP as an independent subject and other universities across Vietnam are trying to implement, at the very least,
a component of CP into existing programs However, further development of these programs needs to occur as most courses currently lack a practical link with industry, resulting in students who are not always able
to effectively implement in industry what they have learned in the classroom [42]
International donors could focus some component of their CP projects on skills development in education, with a practicum component in industry Skills de-velopment would increase the overall number of trained experts, while at the same time developing a local knowledge base, who could continue CP efforts after donor financing leaves the country The Vietnam Cleaner Production Centre (VNCPC) has also reported that there is a lack of background material, good teaching materials, and teachers who have in-depth CP knowledge [43] International donors could work with VNCPC to develop teaching materials from demonstra-tion projects they have conducted in industry Teaching materials could include textbooks, case study reports and video modules International donors may also want
to consider financing CP education for Vietnamese professors from non-environmental fields such as economics, engineering and businesses management This may improve the understanding of CP outside of the environmental discipline
Additionally, program cost sharing could be con-sidered Researchers have found that when firms have
to pay for a larger portion of the CP assessment services provided, they may pay more attention to recommendations and thus increase the sustainability
of projects [44]
5.3 Addressing traditional corporate culture Both national and international CP projects should consider training programs, targeting company man-agement in private firms, to specifically address the issues related to traditional state-run management styles Targeting top management is essential, since they appear to be the key to shifting organizational behaviour in Vietnam [19] Tackling corporate culture through training and education means taking a ‘bottom line’ approach Training programs should explicitly
Trang 8express why CP should be implemented and how it
could add economic benefits to the company
An effective way to reach a large number of top
management would be to promote CP training
pro-grams through industry associations or to incorporate
CP training into already established organizations, such
as the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry
Linkages with industry associations for CP promotion
in other Southeast Asian countries have not had a great
deal of success because industry associations were found
to have neither the interest nor the skills to take on this
role [45] However, in Vietnam, a linkage with the
Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry may be
more successful because this association, which has local
branches and representatives in eight locations
through-out Vietnam, already provides extensive training services
to businesses[46]
Under certain circumstances, industry associations
can be effective disseminators and promoters of CP
experiences Stevenson cites the example of the pulp and
paper industry associations in Indonesia and the
Philippines, which represent firms operating in a very
competitive international market [14] In this market
environment, improvements in technological efficiency
are critical for maintaining or increasing market share
Therefore, it may be best to target selective industry
associations for CP promotion in Vietnam, such as pulp
and paper, and industry associations for other
in-ternationally competitive industries, such as seafood
processing
5.4 Addressing the companies’ weak internal
auditing accounting systems
Despite the current popularity of CP, most firms in
Vietnam do not have the internal capacity to effectively
implement and sustain CP on their own While the
Vietnamese Government and international donors may
be more enthusiastic about seeing impressive results
from CP demonstration projects, a more pressing
objective of environment programs should be to
increase firms’ internal management capacity This
could include improving weak internal auditing and
accounting systems or, additionally, may require
changes at the level of strategic management While
this may slow environmental progress in the short-run,
it could help build a foundation for long-term
sustain-able environmental management in the industrial
sector Additionally, it may be helpful to introduce
the concept of waste audits, whereby a factory
quantifies and characterizes all waste from their
pro-duction process, early in the CP implementation
process to ensure adequate awareness of materials lost
in the production process
6 Concluding remarks Increasing urbanization and industrialization have caused pollution to reach an all-time high in Vietnam Cleaner Production (CP), a strategy companies can use
to improve their economic and environmental perfor-mance at the same time, has recently gained appeal in developing countries However, CP has yet to be widely accepted and implemented by industry in Vietnam, despite its promotion by government, research and academic institutions
Through a literature review and fieldwork in Vietnam
I determined that barriers to CP implementation are part of systemic problems related to Vietnam’s overall policy environment, the growing dependence of firms
on outside financial and technical assistance, the tradi-tional corporate culture and the internal management and accounting systems in companies A few possible directions for improving the effectiveness and sustain-ability of CP programs in Vietnam are discussed and preliminary suggestions are put forward More specifi-cally, developing courses aimed at government officials
to promote greater awareness of CP and to foster greater intra- and inter-governmental cooperation and communication; creating courses directed at top man-agement to transform traditional state-run manman-agement styles; developing a sustainability component in all future training, such as introducing more CP courses in universities, to avoid dependence on outside assistance; and, initiating pre-training courses to strengthen internal auditing and accounting practices within companies
It is essential that CP practitioners in Vietnam begin
to look beyond simple barriers to CP and start focusing
on the systemic root causes that are at the core of industrial environmental behaviour Without a clear understanding of the institutional and organizational dynamics behind decision-making processes, it will be difficult to offer any sustainable solution to industrial pollution in Vietnam
Acknowledgments Special thanks must be given to the Canadian International Development Agency’s Award Program for Canadians and the Dr David Chu Scholarship in Asia-Pacific Studies for providing funds to support the fieldwork for this paper I would like to gratefully acknowledge the support and guidance I received from
Dr Virginia Maclaren and the Waste-Econ Programme
I also wish to express my sincere appreciation to
Dr Nguyen Danh Son, Dr Huynh Kim Quang, Caroline Hellman, and two anonymous reviewers All errors and omissions remain my own
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