Việt Nam’s building material industry should invest in the production of environmentally friendly building materials, according to Deputy Prime Minister Trịnh Đình Dũng.— Photo VGP

HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam’s building material industry should invest in the production of environmentally friendly building materials, according to Deputy Prime Minister Trịnh Đình Dũng.

Dũng said building materials accounted for 70 per cent of the value of a construction. In past years, investment in building materials had developed strongly, basically meeting the domestic demand. 

However, he said investment in producing theseg materials had achieved many results, but the sector still lacked new materials, friendly-environmental building materials at a cheap price, and high-grade building materials.

Investment in the sector was done spontaneously, not according to plan, leading to overproduction, illegal exploitation of materials or exploitation with licences but damaging the environment.

The Deputy Prime Minister requested state management and businesses should co-ordinate more to improve efficiency, invest in the production of environmental-friendly building materials and select new materials instead of traditional.

Construction materials must be developed to meet demand for use at home and abroad, Dũng said. At the same time, the sector should gradually renovate production technologies, save energy and promote the use of unburnt building materials to replace baked materials.

Dũng asked the Ministry of Construction to co-ordinate with other ministries and localities to update plans on building-material production.

The ministry will review factories causing environmental pollution and control the exploitation of stones, gravel and sand.

At the conference, minister of construction Phạm Hồng Hà said production of construction material had improved significantl to reach regional and world standards. 

Before 2010, Việt Nam had to import some key building materials, such as cement, construction glass and ceramic tiles. Since then, the building-material industry had developed strongly by adopting many regional and world advanced technologies, Hà said.

Many experts claim the production of traditional building materials had used large amounts of raw materials and energy, contributing to environmental pollution.

Te Ministry of Construction will urge its agencies to continue researching and renovating technologies to create green, clean and effective products and sustainable development. — VNS