Information-poor environments: Asian tigers - Environmental Reform in the Information Age - page 253

disclose important environmental information to the public. The rule
will take effect in May 2008 and is part of the wider Regulations on
Open Government Information recently issued by the State Council to
open up access to government information for ensuring greater official
transparency nationwide.
Based on a similar idea of informational governance, HCMC envi-
ronmental authorities in Vietnam have for several years used various
blacklists and green lists, which mention the most polluting and the
most environmentally sound companies, respectively. 31 Local author-
ities in HCMC and some other industrial centres try to use public
disclosure of these blacklists to pressure the most severe industrial pol-
luters, with very limited impact (Phung Thuy Phuong, 2002; Le Van
Khoa, 2006 ). Green lists show equally limited incentives and pressure
for environmental improvements. Authorities in the cities of HaNoi
and DaNang have experimented with rating systems for polluting and
green companies, be it with limited disclosure of poor performing com-
pany names to the public (Faucher, 2006 ). These list and rating sys-
tems are strongly pushed by bilateral and multilateral donor projects,
and sometimes show major discontinuities. In addition, local envi-
ronmental authorities are increasingly active to report in local and
national newspapers on heavily polluting enterprises, building public
and political pressure on these companies. 32 However, compared to
the widespread, diverse and partly institutionalised Chinese initiatives,
Vietnam's environmental disclosure programs and practices look rather
marginal and bleak.
Both in China and in Vietnam, information disclosure by companies
is strongly related to governmental pressure. Environmental authorities

31

In 1994, the HCMC government produced its first blacklist of companies, in
1997 its second, together listing eighty-seven heavy polluting companies. A
survey of these eighty-seven companies in 2001 (MPI, 2001) revealed that
90 percent of these companies did not see any impacts of these lists on their
business (e.g., on sales, credit facilities), and 39 percent even believed that it
was advantageous to be on the blacklist as it opened governmental and
international donor support programs. The Green Book listed nineteen
companies, which overall believed that the listing positively affected their
profitability, reputation and future environmental performance (MPI, 2001).

32

HEPA in HCMC has an agreement with one of the major local newspapers,
Saigon Giai Phong ,tofill one page a week, disclosing all kinds of information
on major polluters, environmental problems around infrastructures and so on.
Media reporting on poor performing companies in DaNang and HaNoi seems
less frequent.