Yang Kun Hsiang, general director of Vedan (Vietnam) Enterprise Corp., Ltd, said its wastewater treatment system sends monitoring results every five minutes to the Dong Nai Department of Natural Resources and Environment. — VNS Photo

Taiwanese-owned Vedan (Vietnam) Enterprise Corp., Ltd has set itself a target of growing revenues by more than 15 per cent this year.

Yang Kun Hsiang, the company’s general director, said last year its revenues had topped over US$300 million, 46.7 per cent of it from exports, mainly of monosodium glutamate, food flavour enhancers, animal feed, fertilisers, and modified starch.

Speaking to journalists who visited the company last week on the occasion of the company’s 25th anniversary, he said he was sorry about the 2008 environmental pollution incident, saying “the company accepted responsibility and once again sincerely apologised to the Vietnamese.”

Since then the company has invested $33 million in building new wastewater treatment facilities, he said.

They now handle 6,000 cubic metres of wastewater a day, or around two thirds of their designed capacity of 9,500-9,600 cubic metres, he said.

The system sends monitoring results every five minutes to the Dong Nai Department of Natural Resources and Environment.

The company achieved ISO14001 certification for environmental protection, OHSAS 18001 for labour safety and ISO 50001 for energy management.

Ko Chung Chih, deputy general director in charge of external affairs of Vedan, said: “We will open the door to publicise information to the media so that Vietnamese can understand Vedan’s efforts to … protect the environment.”

He claimed the company had not actively shared with the media and Vietnamese public information about its efforts to protect the environment in the last eight years.

Vedan has so far invested over $580 million in Viet Nam. — VNS