Vietnam strives to fight violations in land use, especially rampant mineral exploitation that causes losses to the country's state budget and environmental pollution, Vietnamese Government Inspector General Huynh Phong Tranh said here Tuesday.
Tranh made the appeal in a conference held by Vietnam's Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) in Hanoi on implementing tasks for 2014.
Besides accomplishments of the sector, participants at the conference discussed inadequacies in the work of managing natural resources and environment in localities including unsolved land claims remaining complicated in many localities, problems in mining licensing and a gap between mineral exploitation and environment preservation, said the e-portal of Vietnamese government Tuesday.
Speaking at the conference, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung suggested that amid challenges of exploitation and use of natural resources, environmental pollution as well as climate change, the sector should set priorities on building institutional policies and completing five decrees guiding the implementation of the revised Land Law that will come into force from July 1, 2014.
The e-portal of Vietnamese government quoted Dung as proposing that the ministry step by step solve problems of environmental pollution in river basins, industrial parks and villages as well as closely cooperate with environmental crime prevention police in investigation and criminal prosecution for some typical cases of environmental pollution to create general deterrence and prevention among the whole society.
Earlier, Vietnam's MONRE cited statistics by the country's environmental crime prevention police showing that during 2010- 2013 period, over 25,000 violations of environmental laws were discovered and processed.
In 2013 alone, 13,386 cases were discovered, up 34 percent year- on-year. Endi