Cities and provinces tend to gather resources to solve socio-economic problems in their localities and allocate more capital to projects which have direct impact on the local economy, such as transport, irrigation, school, hospital and offices. Only after allocating capital to important projects is the rest of the money spent on environmental works.

The budget for environmental protection has been decreasing so dramatically that MONRE has asked local authorities to ensure at least one percent of the local budget for the sector.

MONRE pointed out that the state’s budget allocated to environmental protection is also modest. Money is given to projects undertaken by 31 ministries and branches. 

Thus, Vietnam cannot gather a lot of resources to solve national problems.

The budget for environmental protection has been decreasing so dramatically that MONRE has asked local authorities to ensure at least one percent of the local budget for the sector.

In 2017, ministries and branches asked for the total budget of VND853 billion for environmental protection activities. However, as the budget is limited, MONRE and MOF decided to allocate VND469 billion, or 55 percent of the suggested amount, to ministries for their state management operations.

The Ministry of Finance (MOF) promises that in 2016-2020, the state budget will maintain spending on environmental protection at 1 percent of total budget spending, and that the proportion will be gradually increasing. 

However, the ministry admitted that the spending level is not proportional to economic growth and the state budget revenue increase.

A report showed that the ratio of spending on revenue has been decreasing in the last five years. 

The revenue from environmental protection tax collections has increased by three times in the last five years to VND38 trillion in 2016. Meanwhile, the spending level has increased inconsiderably, from VND9 trillion to VND12.29 trillion.

Vietnam’s spending on environmental protection projects accounts for 1 percent of total spending. Meanwhile, in China and other ASEAN countries, the investments on similar activities account for 3-4 percent of GDP.

NA deputies, after hearing the MONRE report on October 3, decided that it was necessary to raise investments on environmental protection.

Thai Truong Giang, member of the NA’s Committee for Science, Technology and the Environment, said a bigger budget is needed to treat waste water in urban areas. He said that in many urban areas, there is still no standard waste water treatment system and substandard waste water goes directly to the environment.

Meanwhile, Phung Duc Tien, a NA deputy, said Vietnam needs to spend money on waste treatment, environmental settlement and projects on restoring environment in polluted areas.

MONRE estimates that the spending on environmental protection in 2018 is VND2.38 trillion.

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Kim Chi