The latest draft of a circular that amends Circular No 20/2014, used machine and equipment must have not been used more than 10 years, from the year they were produced to the year they were imported. They should have at least 70 percent of the original quality.

The years of use were lowered after businesses opposed the first Circular 20.

Under that circular, import machines must have been used no more than five years and quality of 80 percent.

Minister of Science and Technology Nguyen Quan reported the rules of the new circular to National Assembly deputies at a question-and-answer session a few weeks ago.

Dr of Science Pham Ngoc Dang, member of the National Sustainable Development Committee, chair of the Vietnam Construction Environment Association, said that MST had to lower the requirements because manufacturers in Vietnam still use low-cost and used equipment due to financial constraints.

However, Dang said the loosening of the rules should be seen as a temporary solution.

“It will be more difficult to implement the task of preventing technology rubbish from entering Vietnam once the regulation, the instrument to implement the task, is loosened.”

An analyst, agreeing with Dang, commented that Vietnam should tighten control over used equipment imports as neighboring China attempts to export outdated technologies to Vietnam.

“China, in its path towards modernization, is trying to replace its out-of-date technologies, and Vietnam is the ideal place for it to bring outdated equipment to. In such circumstances, it is really worrying to ease requirements and loosen control,” Dang said.

Dang went on to say that it is unacceptable to lower the requirements just to please domestic manufacturers, and warned that if Vietnam does not get choosier in importing machines and technologies, it will always lag behind other countries in modernizing production.

Dang recalled stories about the use of blast furnace cement plants in Vietnam, calling it a “bitter experience”.

With out-of-date technology, cement plants consumed too much power and churned out products at high production costs. As a result, the equipment imported which cost millions of dollars has been put in mothballs. 

“I do not agree with the decision on lowering the requirements on used equipment imports,” he said, adding that Vietnam needs to have “doorkeeper” regulation to prevent outdated technologies from entering the country.. 

Dat Viet