牺牲环境来发展经济？越南民众开始普遍觉醒！越南领导人可能要动刀，中国大陆和台湾企业首当其冲
本文作者为越南一所大学讲师。
中国人在湄公河建烧煤的发电站，搞大型工程。而越南大量的稻田和人口依赖湄公河的水源。
While waiting to see how Hanoi handles the existing environmental crisis in Ha Tinh province, it’s worth a look southward to see how Vietnam’s government and people are responding to emerging environmental risks posed by a Chinese-owned giant manufacturing complex and supporting coal-fired thermal power plants stationed along major waterways – the only fresh water supplies to paddy fields and crowded cities in the Mekong Delta.
最近几周，社会大众对湄公河环境污染问题的担忧很多，因为湄公河沿岸设立了很多工业园区和出口加工区。
2016年12月，越南媒体热议一个26岁的毕业生，他没有工作经验，但却直接被任命为某市投资促进局副局长。这是一个举足轻重的岗位！招聘和任命都如此不符合常规。
In recent weeks, the public’s deep concerns about the Mekong Delta’s environmental pollution, generated by industrial campuses and export-processing zones surrounding its major rivers, seem to have been overshadowed by the outbreak of a new high-profile case related to state agencies responsible for foreign investment promotion and management. In early December 2016, a debate heated up in Vietnam news media over alleged irregularities concerning the recruitment and placement of a 26-year-old graduate with no work experience, Vu Minh Hoang, into the powerful position of deputy director of Can Tho City’s Investment Promotion Center.
26岁的Hoang被违规任命要职，让人想起Hau Giang省人民委员会副主席，他也是被草率提拔，负责管理省级外国投资。结果给国有资产带来1.46亿美金的损失！
因为裙带关系，他们可以超越另行的招募和晋升程序。这反映了越南公共部门缺乏透明度和高度的腐败，引起公众不满。
Hoang’s controversial employment history recalled the hasty career advancement of Trinh Xuan Thanh, a former vice chairman of Hau Giang Provincial People’s Committee, who was also appointed to manage foreign investments in the province. Thanh now faces an international arrest warrant over massive losses of VND3.3 trillion ($146 million) at a state-owned company he once led. The unusual appointments of Hoang and Thanh shed some light on the privileges they may have enjoyed thanks to relationships and connections. Their leapfrogging all normal recruiting and promoting processes are the root cause of public disapproval, reflecting the lack of transparency and a very high risk of corruption in Vietnam’s public services sector.
鉴于负责工业和国外投资的国有机构的人事安排丑闻，大家就很容易理解为什么那些带来严重污染的外国投资企业能被顺利批准落户越南。尤其是在越南的粮仓和生态脆弱区建立生产基地！
很显然，越南急需人才来发展经济，促进国家整合。但是国家机关的人事关系缺乏透明度，也导致了其他领域也会缺乏透明度。包括发放省级投资许可证。
因此，民众的不满和对执政的共产党越来越缺乏信任，是不可避免的。毕竟，国家的环境安全问题，太重要了！湄公河流域大量良田被毁，不具有可持续性的劣质工地拔地而起。
Given such scandals related to recruitment and appointment in industrial and foreign investment-related state agencies, some may understand why and how foreign-owned highly polluting producers have been smoothly approved to operate in eco-agriculturally rich regions in Vietnam, particularly in its most fertile and vulnerable “rice bowl,” the Mekong Delta. Apparently, Vietnam is in dire need of talent to serve the nation’s economic development and integration. However, a common lack of transparency in personnel affairs among the state authorities in turn may lead to a lack of transparency elsewhere, including the process of issuing investment licenses at the provincial level. As such, public disapproval and reduced trust in the ruling Communist Party and its government may be inevitable. After all, the country’s environmental security is at stake.
这在2016年初变得明显，因为一家台湾有用的大型钢铁厂直接排放大量有毒化学物质进入沿海省份的近海，导致了越南历史上最大的环境灾难。原因是政府长期对沿海的大量死鱼现象熟视无睹！
这家巨型钢铁厂驻越南河内的代表说：你们是想要鱼还是钢铁厂？请自己选择！
That became obvious in early 2016, when a Taiwanese-owned Formosa steel mill in Vietnam stealthily discharged toxic chemicals into deep-water seas in along the north-central coastal provinces, causing one of the largest environmental disasters in Vietnam’s history. Compounding the problem, Formosa was forced to apologize for an official’s tone-deaf remarks on the mass fish deaths that resulted from the spill. In April 2016, Chou Chunfan, chief of the Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Company (FHS) representative office in Hanoi, told reporters, “You want the fish or the steel plant? You have to choose!”
他这种挑衅的说法立即引起主要城市公众不满和抗议。国家的发展要三方面协调好：经济、环境和社会和谐。
虽然政府承诺要做到绿色增长，但显然他们优先考虑的还是经济。
His off-hand remark immediately resulted in public uproar and protests in major cities. The country grew disenchanted about what is referred to as the “three pillar approach” to national development — economic, environmental, and social pillars — prescribed in its Strategic Orientation for Sustainable Development. While the government commits to green growth, the first priority is the economy.
台湾企业带来的污染问题还没解决，湄公河流域的越南人民又要担忧中国大陆的造纸厂和火电厂带来的环境破坏了。据说这些厂已经取得了土地使用证，但压根没进行严格的环境评估。一个56岁的越南农民说，看来我们这要成为越南的下一个癌症村了。
While the environmental crisis posed by FHS remains unsettled, familiar dangers have been exposed in the Mekong Delta. Hundreds of thousands of hectares of eco-agricultural land have been revoked and replaced by non-sustainable industrial projects, particularly Chinese-owned Lee & Man Paper pulp mill and thermal power plants located along vital waterways in the Delta, such as the Hau River and Tien River. The Lee & Man project is believed to have received land use permits without conducting any serious full-scale environmental impact assessment to meet Vietnam’s environment regulations. Having seen how badly their counterparts in Ha Tinh are suffering from a Taiwanese-owned company, environmentalists and farmers living around the Lee & Man manufacturing campus have been deeply concerned that this project will soon pollute the environment in the Delta, making their villages “next cancer villages in Vietnam,” in the words of Nguyen Huu Hiep, a 56-year-old farmer in Hau Giang province.
为了安抚大众的愤怒，同时吸引外国投资来维持经济增长，下一任越南总理反复强调：我们会建立一个建设性的、没有腐败的政府，为了人民的利益和经济增长。我们绝不会牺牲环境来换经济增长。
现在越南的中央和地方媒体都在反复强调这种论调。为了让这种承诺显得像模像样，河内当局已经设立了很多官方机构与地方当局一起调查这些投资项目，看他们是否符合各种环保法规。可惜，几个月过去了，还没有下文。
To calm down the public fears while attracting more foreign investors to maintain economic growth, new Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has repeatedly revealed his ambitions and efforts to build a constructive, incorruptible government, which should act aggressively to serve the people and develop the nation sustainably. The government will “not accept [a deal] to exchange environment in return for economic growth,” he has repeatedly promised. Such a pledge is now quoted frequently in remarks by leaders from the central to local level in Vietnamese media. To add substance to the promise, Hanoi has authorized many relevant agencies to join forces with local authorities to investigate the Lee & Man project’s licensing process, environmental impact assessment reports, wastewater treatment technologies, and its compliance with national construction rules and environmental standards. However, months have passed since the case of this firm first stirred public debate in mid-2016, yet the inspections have not been made available despite the growing public concerns.
越南的水、空气和土壤污染正越来越严重，尤其从中国进口了大量低质量的工业设备后。为了维持经济增长和应对激烈国际竞争，越南不得不牺牲环境，鼓励那些出口加工和劳动密集型产业。那些外国投资者，往往把对环境不友好，高耗能和消耗自然资源的产业转移到越南。
水电厂、热电厂在很多省份开工建设，公民的忧虑却得不到重视。这样的现状导致了国家环境退化。
Water, air, and land pollution have become more serious over the years in Vietnam, particularly at industrial complexes that are often equipped with low-quality technologies imported from China. The pressure to maintain economic growth and compete internationally has gradually made the country a facile investment environment that encourages export-processing and labor-intensive industries and requires more and more agricultural lands to be revoked for industrial projects. To meet great demand from those foreign investors — who tend to devote their capital flows to sectors that consume huge amount of energy and natural resources, but are not environmentally friendly — the exploitation of minerals and natural resources and construction of hydropower and thermal power plants have been approved hastily in many provinces without available avenues for concerned citizens to raise their voices on issues of national importance. This situation further contributes to the country’s environmental degradation and proves the substantial trade-off between economic development and environmental protection.
在湄公河流域，超过1700万越南人完全依赖合理的鱼和大米维持生计。这么多年的工业化和经济增长，已经引起了当地民众生活恶化，导致社会失序。
In the Mekong Delta, where more than 17 million inhabitants completely rely on the waterways’ fish resources and rice production for their subsistence, pollution has gotten much worse over many years of rapid industrialization and economic growth, affecting the living conditions of local people and causing social disorder.
Pham Thi Thu, 41, a high school teacher in Chau Thanh district, Hau Giang province, tells how her family and neighbors have been suffering from the water and air pollution emitted by an industrial zone next to her village: “The groundwater is no longer usable and the air is heavily polluted. We always have to keep the doors closed. Most of us have to buy fresh water from a local water plant using water from the same river which the factories are allowed to discharged wastewater into,” she said.
还有其他一些忧虑。工厂和外来工人，尤其是中国人，扰乱了当地村民的生活方式。由于修建了新的道路和城市化，我们的生活标准是改善了，但城市化也同时导致了更严重的污染，并带来严重的社会问题，比如犯罪和文化荒漠化。
There are other concerns as well. She added that “factories and guest workers, especially the Chinese, have disturbed and changed the lifestyle in this village. Our living standards are now more improved thanks to new roads opened and urbanization that followed, but urbanization has at the same time resulted in heavy pollution and increased such social problems as crimes and cultural degradation.”
Since the historic environmental disaster in Ha Tinh, the government has made remarkable progress in reducing the negative effects posed by industrial complexes while fostering administrative reforms and transparency in the public services sector. Some 2,000 under-construction projects, including those in the Mekong Delta, have been urgently required to re-make environment impact assessment reports in consultation with prestigious institutes and experts, Tran Hong Ha, minister of natural resources and environment, explained when asked by state media.
显然，政府和民众都渴望可持续发展，但目前的方法和政府机构存在问题。
Apparently, the government and the people of Vietnam both want sustainable development, but the current approach and existing institutions remain problematic and palliative. Scientists at Can Tho University say they are deeply concerned about the increasing environmental pollution posed by a series of industrial projects have been building around the Mekong Delta. Tri and Lan, agricultural specialists at Can Tho University, argue that the Delta has long been famous for its diverse agricultural strength rather than as an ideal place for industrial activities. “The clearer impacts by upstream dams in the Mekong River coupled with the proliferation of factories and other potential polluters in the Delta will pose more threats to its agricultural output,” they argued.
Dr. Le Anh Tuan, deputy director of the Research Institute for Climate Change at Can Tho University, points to the unique concerns raised by the paper mill. “Available wood supply for papermaking in the Mekong Delta is quite limited due to nature reserves. Thus, most of materials for the paper mill must come from waste paper and pulp imported from outside to recycle. As a result, the paper-processing project will increase more potential risks of pollution in the Delta.”
工业化在湄公河流域也许是必要的，并能改进当地的经济收入，缩小湄公河流域跟其他主要经济区域的差距。不可持续性的工业化可能最终导致了经济增长，但这不是经济发展！
劳动密集型的工业部门增长强劲，但这跟当地基于农业的经济却缺乏联系，只能导致长远的环境和社会问题。
Industrialization may be necessary in the Mekong Delta, as it has potential to improve local economic revenue and narrow the development gap between the Delta and other leading economic regions in Vietnam. However, non-sustainable industrialization in the Delta may eventually result in economic growth, but not economic development — the labor-intensive industrial sector may be growing strongly but it has no linkages with the rest of the local agriculture-based economy, while generating environmental and social unrests in the long run.
其实五年前，就有台湾企业给越南当地带来了严重污染。可惜情况并没改观，如今发生了更严重的环境灾难。越南的环境保护法案让位于经济考虑！
In order to make growth more inclusive, in recent years Vietnam has expanded investments in rural areas and promoted foreign-invested labor-intensive manufacturing. Such a move seems to meet the need to reduce the high rate of unemployment in the Mekong Delta in the short term. However, the “serious lessons” that Vietnam has learned from the 2016 fish die-off in its four central coastal provinces appear to warn the Delta’s inhabitants of the predictable costs of industrial development by all means. The 2016 mass fish death incident, or environmental disaster, caused by Taiwanese-owned Formosa after only five years of development is no doubt a major set-back in decision-making and highly visible evidence of carelessness in government preparation for foreign-invested projects in Ha Tinh Province. The negative consequences will be far-reaching in the decades to come due to heavily contaminated seawater and substantial losses in seafood catches.
It is worth observing that Ha Tinh is not the only province in Vietnam that has suffered from Taiwanese-owned companies’ systematic efforts to elude Vietnam’s environmental regulations. Looking back a few years ago, there was another environmental incident very similar to the current situation in Ha Tinh when the Thi Vai River was polluted by Taiwanese-owned Vedan company in 2008. At that time, many believed that Vietnam would be awakened after the case of the dying Thi Vai River. But the repeat of an environmental disaster in Ha Tinh, with much larger scale of pollution and more severe impacts, reveals that a legacy of simultaneous environmental neglect is becoming glaringly evident. Vietnam’s environmental protection law remains overwhelmed by economic considerations.
湄公河流域的民众抗议并不常见。90%的人口从事农业和渔业，民众习惯了沉默，传统观念就这样，我们接受着国家的领导，所有人都要听话。但现在情况变化了，大众开始发声。
当前的环境灾难刺激了民众，让他们觉醒。国家的发展要把广阔的民众利益考虑在内。
基于此，河内新任领导班子需要更加透明和公正，来避免2016年绝大环境灾难的重演，并恢复大众对共产党领导的政府的信任。
Public protests are uncommon in the Mekong Delta. With almost 90 percent of its population engaged in agriculture and fishery, the public tends to be quiescent, given the traditional notion that the state leads and all should follow. But the recent flurry of public interest shows that ordinary people are becoming more vocal and underscores the popular fury over the dangers threatening the eco-agriculturally rich Delta. Not only does this demonstrate that recent environment incidents have greatly improved the Delta’s public awareness of and attention to environmental protection, but such civil disobedience is likely to turn into worse actions if the state authorities fail to thoroughly address public concerns as well as connect citizen interests to a broader view of the country’s development process. For this reason, the new leadership in Hanoi will need to be more transparent and fair, both to prevent a repeat of the 2016 environmental disaster and to regain public trust in the Communist Party-led government.
如果越南的长远战略是一个繁荣的湄公河区域，经济可持续发展，生态多样化，民众和谐安康，政府需要实现自己绿色增长的承诺。这可能影响到国外直接投资，尤其是来自中国大陆和台湾的投资。
这样的选择对河内的领导人不容易。
If Vietnam’s long-term strategic goal is for a flourishing Mekong Delta characterized by sustainable economic development, biodiversity, and ongoing civil obedience, the government will need to realize its commitment to green growth and transparency improvement, which may affect the flow of foreign direct investment, especially from China and Taiwan. While such a choice won’t be easy for Vietnamese leaders, Hanoi needs to evaluate whether the short-term gains in industrializing Mekong Delta really serve its long-term socio-economic goals.
Nguyen Minh Quang is a lecturer and writer on conflict studies and politics based at Can Tho University. He has a Master degree in Southeast Asian Studies. He is now pursuing a Polish language and culture course at University of Warsaw, Poland.
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