Workshop on Policy to support the development of non-fired bricks in Viet Nam

Location: Viglacera Building, No.1 Đại lộ Thăng Long, Hà nội

 

Your Excellency, Mr. Bui Pham Khanh, Vice Minister of Construction;

Mr. Nguyen Dinh Hau, National Project Director

Distinguished representatives from agencies, provincial departments, institutions and enterprises;

Ladies and gentlemen;

I am very pleased to be here with you today to discuss policies for development of Non-Fired Brick (NFB) - a type of environment friendly building material.

I would like to Vice Minister Khanh’s note on the benefits of production and use of Non-Fired Bricks that would save agricultural land, utilize millions of tonnes of industrial wastes, and avoid greenhouse gas emission.

Viet Nam’s social-economic development has been outstanding. However, the economic development cannot be at the cost of environmental degradation. In that context, I am pleased to see Viet Nam has been taking various steps to manage green growth.

Viet Nam has agreed to Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development Goals in 2015. It also made commitment to Paris Agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Nationally Determined Contribution, Green Growth Strategy, and has strong determination to enhancing energy efficiency in the Law on Energy Efficiency and Conservation. The Ministry of Construction also adopted its sectoral Green Growth Action Plan in May 2017. Development and utilization of the Non-Fired Bricks is an essential step to achieve targets of these policies to achieve sustainable development in Viet Nam.

I would like congratulate the Government of Viet Nam, especially the Ministry of Construction and Provinces for an impressive progress on the implementation of the National Non-Fired Brick development programme. I am confident that the 30-40% targets by 2020, and the long-term target of 70-80% will be achieved.

Ladies and Gentlemen

Viet Nam has adopted key regulatory and policy framework to promote development and utilization of Non-Fired Brick production, such as the Government Decree 24A in 2016 on management of construction materials. This encourages development of new environmentally friendly materials, including Non-Fired Bricks production. The policy framework have enabled good development and utilization in some large cities such as Ho Chi Minh, Hai Duong, and Bac Ninh cities.

However, the challenges exist in overall market and other cities and in legal framework, including lack of quality standards and low quality of the Non-Fired Bricks by some factories. This leads to lack of confidence among Non-Fired Brick users such as investors, architects, engineers and building developers.

The workshop on revision of the Decree 121 on the sanction of administrative violation in construction activities and Circular 09 on the use of non-fired materials in the construction works, is very timely and important.

Building on success of revision of these Decree and Circular, I would like to encourage to develop and update a package of standards and guidelines for Non-Fired Brick products, including technical requirements, testing methods, and guidelines. Training, retraining and sharing experience is also very important to support all provinces to effectively implement and apply these policies and guidelines.

Ladies and Gentlemen

The draft document to be presented to you today are prepared based on evidence-based policy review and analysis carried out during the 5 years of implementation of the National Non-Fired Bricks Programme.

UNDP is very happy with the partnership between the Ministry of Construction, Ministry of Science and Technology to implement the important project “Promoting the Production and Utilization of National Non-Fired Bricks in Viet Nam” which provide technical support to this revision process. I am confident that under leadership of the Ministry of Construction and contribution of policymakers and experts today, we will be able to produce the effective Decree and Circular.

I look forward to fruitful discussions today and wish you all good health, happiness and success.

Thank you!