Taiwanese polluter unexpectedly ups their offer

August 3rd, 2010

Seasoning powder producer Vedan Vietnam on July 28 proposed to increase compensation for farmers in three southern provinces from 56 to 130 billion dong ($2.95-6.84 million).

Vedan will pay Ba Ria Vung Tau farmers 40 billion dong instead of 10 billion dong, Dong Nai from 30 to 60 billion and HCM City from 16 to 30 billion dong.

They wants to pay the compensation in two installments. The first will be paid within seven days and the second from January 10-14 2011.

According to Vedan, the firm wants end the case to avoid causing more trouble. “We have made troubles for many agencies. We will try better in business and production in the hopes of partly contributing to the development of Vietnam as our reciprocation,” Vedan General Director Yang Kun Hsiang wrote in a dispatch sent to Vietnamese agencies.

Tran Van Cuong, chief of the group that calculated losses caused by Vedan in Ba Ria Vung Tau province, noted that the province must ask the 1255 related families about Vedan’s proposal. Around 200 families on July 28 lodged their complaints against Vedan in court.

In HCM City, lawyer Nguyen Van Hau, representative for HCM City Farmers’ Association, complained that Vedan couldn’t make bargains like this. It raised compensation from 1.7 billion dong to 7 billion, 12 billion, 16 billion and now 30 billion dong.

Hau added that Vedan hasn’t shown its goodwill, so the HCM City Farmers’ Association will submit complaints to the court next week.

In Hanoi, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE) met with related agencies on August 28 to consider the lawsuit against Vedan. Participants were representatives of the Government Office, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Justice, the Supreme People’s Procuracy, the Vietnam Farmers’ Association Central Committee and three provinces of Dong Nai, Ba Ria Vung Tau and HCM City.

Minister Pham Khoi Nguyen agreed to lend money from the Fund for Environmental Protection to pay legal cost for farmers from three provinces.

All related ministries and agencies agreed to bring the case to court. The MoNRE will send its experts to three provinces to make environment assessments and help farmers at the court.

VNN