The Bat Trang Design Company, operating from a ceramic village in Ha Noi’s Gia Lam District, has seen a considerable decrease in pottery production waste while, at the same time, enhancing both the quality and quantity of its products.
Company Director Nguyen Thi Thuy said that they had been chosen as one of the 543 small-and-medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to receive preferential loans from the Promoting Energy Conservation among SMEs (PECSME) program five years ago in order to implement the use of kilns run on liquefied gas.
“Made-in-Viet Nam technology costs half the price of imported technology, while in addition, helping to save considerable amounts of energy and decrease environmental pollution associated with the pottery industry,” Thuy said.
“SMEs have faced difficulties utilising capital and technology for sustainable development,” she said, adding that achieved successes were meaningful to a traditional trade village such as Bat Trang, a popular tourist destination.
The US$28.8 million PECSME project received $5.5 million in funding from the Global Environment Fund, remaining funds received from ministries, businesses and authorities nationwide.
Director of the project management board, Nguyen Ba Vinh, said that the project was set up aimed at saving 136 tonnes of oil equivalent (TOE) and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 534,000 tonnes among five of the largest industrial polluters involved in brick, ceramic, paper, textile and food processing during 2006-10.
“Thus far, all project objectives have been surpassed with total energy savings reaching 232,000 tonnes TOE ($160 million), carbon dioxide reduced by 944,000 tonnes and energy prices decreasing by 24.3 per cent on average,” he said.
Vinh added that the project had helped link and support around 25 cities and provinces in participating in energy saving activities, creating a favourable environment for SMEs to apply new technologies and energy management strategies.
A $1.7 million guarantee fund has helped 51 SMEs obtain loans for investment in new technologies.
“Businesses participating in the project have increased their productivity by 10 to 50 per cent while increasing product quality by 30 per cent,” he said, adding that nearly 10,000 jobs had been created throughout rural areas and trade villages.
“The project has also contributed to building a legal framework for energy conservation, training human resources in energy management and auditing,” according to former Minister of Science and Technology, Tran Quoc Thang,
Thang added that it had helped develop an energy saving network for technology reform.
Ha Bach Dang, director of the northern Hai Duong Province Science and Technology Department, said that the rapid development of industrial sectors had pushed up energy demands and natural resource exploitation, causing environmental pollution.
More than 1,200 provincial brick kilns used to discharge a huge amount of smoke, affecting crops and community health, Dang said.
During the five-year project period, the province had developed 121 vertical shaft brick kilns with a total yearly capacity of 600 million bricks.
The new kilns received VND500 billion ($24.4 million) in investments from their owners and VND1 billion ($48,780) each from project funds in order to transfer technologies. PECSME guaranteed three other businesses to receive VND2 billion ($97,560) loans.
“The provincial brick industry has saved 35,000 to 40,000 tonnes in coal in the 2006-10 period and no longer causes environment pollution,” Dang said.
Director of the HCM City Energy Conservation Centre, Huynh Kim Tuoc, highlighted the importance of supplying SMEs with the appropriate expertise in terms of sustainable development.
“The project has established a series of support programmes aimed at institutional, communication, technical and financial development,” Tuoc said.
He added that participating SMEs still lacked sufficient resources.
“Human resource training and development is essential in ensuring project success,” he said
Pham Thi Nga, a specialist in the energy conservation sector, agreed that brick and ceramic industries had most benefited from the project.
“The decisive factor in making businesses invest in energy saving solutions was to show them the economic effectiveness and benefits of environmental improvement,” she said.
