How will Formosa's $500 million compensation be used?

Minister and Head of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung affirmed that Formosa Ha Tinh committed to immediately pay compensation of 500 million USD.

At the press conference announcing the cause of the fish deaths in four central provinces on the afternoon of June 30, answering VnExpress, Minister and Head of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung said that the $500 million in compensation that Formosa Ha Tinh pledged to pay to Vietnam will be given priority to the people, especially fishermen in the central provinces who suffered losses due to fish deaths.

Minister and Head of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung: "Formosa commits to immediately transfer the entire amount of 500 million USD to Vietnam."

Formosa Ha Tinh Hung Nghiep Company Limited (FHS) has committed and promised to immediately pay compensation of 500 million USD to the Vietnamese Government. The next task, the Government will assign ministries, branches and localities to develop plans for compensation for damages such as: supporting career transition for people, sustainable environmental treatment...

“In the long term, the Government will review and reconsider licensing procedures, environmental standards... especially the conditions for licensing environmental impact assessment (EIA) reports for investment projects,” Minister Mai Tien Dung emphasized.

To prevent the environmental incident from recurring, Minister of Information and Communications Truong Minh Tuan said that Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has asked ministries and sectors to review environmental protection standards applied to businesses. "The responsibility of civil servants directly involved in the incident, regardless of their level, is to be held legally responsible depending on the level of involvement," Minister Tuan affirmed.

The mass fish deaths occurred on April 6 near the Vung Ang industrial park (Son Duong, Ky Anh, Ha Tinh), then spread to the provinces of Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Thua Thien Hue. About 70 tons of wild fish from the four provinces of Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Thua Thien - Hue died and washed ashore, mainly bottom-dwelling species. Thua Thien - Hue alone had 35 tons of farmed fish die. Fishermen in the four provinces are in trouble because the sea fish cannot be sold, or are sold at low prices, not enough to cover fishing costs.

At the press conference announcing the cause of the mass fish deaths, Minister Mai Tien Dung affirmed that, with objective and accurate scientific evidence, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, together with other ministries, branches, and 4 localities, had worked many times with the Taiwanese Formosa Group, the parent company of Formosa Ha Tinh, and confirmed that the fish deaths were due to toxic waste from the Formosa Ha Tinh factory.

On June 28, Formosa Ha Tinh accepted responsibility for causing the above environmental incident, publicly apologized to the Vietnamese Government and people, and pledged to compensate the people for economic losses and treat the marine environment with an amount of 500 million USD, equivalent to 11,500 billion VND.

Formosa also committed to overcoming the shortcomings and limitations of the waste treatment system, ensuring the thorough treatment of toxic waste before discharging it into the environment; not to let the recent environmental incident recur.

This is the biggest environmental incident to happen in Vietnam. The amount of 500 million USD is also an unprecedented compensation.

Previously, the Government also had a series of direct support measures for fishermen in the provinces to minimize difficulties caused by the fish death disaster.

According to VNE