Hanoi (VNA) – ൩Vietnam holds greatpotential to develop its paper industry and is likely to rake in more than 1billion USD a year from paper exports, heard a seminar in Hanoi on October 16.

The seminar on “Policy Solutions for SustainableDevelopment of the Paper Industry in Vietnam” was co-hosted by the Vietnam Pulpand Paper Association (VPPA) and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry(VCCI), focusing on the importance of the key role of the paper industry in theeconomy, benefits and potential of recycling waster paper and proposingsolutions to manage recycled paper.

Vietnam’s paper demand is forecast to grow at8-10 percent per year in the future and the country annually imports nearly 2 milliontonnes of paper for consumption and manufacturing demand, according to VPPA.

However, Vietnam should have proper managementpolicies on import and treatment of waste paper, experts said.

“About 70 percent of Vietnam’s paper wasproduced from the recycling of scrap paper, only 40 percent of which arecollected locally, the rest must be imported,” said Phan Chi Dung, director ofthe Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Light Industry Department.

“For large and specialised enterprises such asforeign-invested enterprises, they need a paper material source that is safeand clean, thus they have to import scrap materials for production because ofdomestic shortage in materials,” Dung said.

“Any paper business, whether they use scrap orother materials, whether they import materials or procure them domestically,they can potentially cause environmental pollution if they don’thave tight management measures for their production process,” he said.

“That is not to mention the concerns that theimport of scrap can turn Vietnam into a landfill. However, this will becometrue only if the imported raw materials are not treated properly. Once thematerial is important and traded globally, we should carefully consider whetherto ban the item.”

"Waste paper or paper scrap is anirreplaceable source in the paper industry," said VPPA Vice Chairman HoangTrung Son.

“In many developed countries like Japan, the USand China, recycling scrap paper has been encouraged and has become a trend,even becoming a green industry that contributes to environmental protection,creating more economic value,” Son said.

Recyclable paper should not be considered as“waste” but more like “a source of raw materials for the paper manufacturingindustry, Son said, adding that to increase efficiency in the collection,treatment and recycling of waste paper, it is necessary to strengthenpost-inspection at paper manufacturing plants, which Thailand, Indonesia,Malaysia and India is exercising right now.

At the workshop, participants also discussed thedraft amending the Decision No. 73/2014/QD-TTg stipulating the list of scrapsallowed to be imported for production materials. Most of them agreed thatthe management of scrap must be tighter as some enterprises have takenadvantage of loopholes in policies to import “waste” into Vietnam, pollutingthe environment.

However, many types of scrap paper, such ascomposite paper, are still an important raw material for the recyclingindustry. But this item is considered to be removed from the list of imports inthe near future, leading to many problems for businesses.

Pham Dinh Thuong, a policy analyst, said theGovernment’s sudden tightening the paper material management had madeenterprises fall into a passive mode because their factories have had to haltoperations for the lack of materials, causing stagnate production. Thiswould also cause spillover effects to many other industries such as thepackaging industry, the export industry, Thưởng said.

Dau Anh Tuan, head of VCCI’s Legal Department,said that Vietnam should consult the import paper management policy of other countriesto develop policies in line with domestic demand situation and internationalpractices.

🦩 “It is absolutely necessary for the relevantState bodies to consult enterprises in order to have a more objective view togradually formulate and perfect this legal framework,” Tuan said.-VNA