The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a country in transition from state-run economy to market economy under the control of the Vietnamese Communist Party. After 2008, large-scale projects of bauxite mining and alumina production have been started in the south-central highland of this country, namely Tan Rai in Lam Dong province and Nhan Co in Dak Nong province.
The projects have been initiated by Vietnamese national enterprise, namely TKV (VINACOMIN) in cooperation with a Chinese aluminum company. However, these projects were contrived between the Vietnamese Communist Party and the Chinese Communist Party without discussion in the Vietnamese National Assembly. Vietnamese intellectuals took public issue with the government and pointed out the inadequate preparations of the projects.
In order to learn about the reality of the project sites, and the circumstances of local farming villages in particular, the author has made field researches in the bauxite-mining sites in Nhan Co and Tan Rai in 2012 and 2014. Outcomes of the researches indicated a lack of transparency and accountability of the local governments and the enterprises. The villagers cultivating coffee, tea, nuts or pepper were very little informed about land expropriation or possible environmental influence, while they had been affected by environmental problems such as noise, air and water pollution by bauxite factories as well as by traffic hazards caused by alumina transportation and road repairing coinciding with the projects.
It must be said that good governance with participation of the government, enterprises, specialists and local people including ethnic minorities is necessary for Vietnamese large-scale industrial development. However, government and business authorities are very reluctant to have risk communication with local people as well as discussions with critical intellectuals. In addition, communication networks between urban intellectuals and local villagers about environmental risks are very poor.
This paper points out outstanding risks caused by the bauxite exploitation to consider the possibility of risk management proper for Vietnam as a transitional economy.
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