CASE 1
ETHICS IN FOREIGN POLICIES
"In the present study of China and the case of Darfur, it is clear that in the beginning of this issue that
China was determined to stay removed and aloof from the crisis occurring in Darfur and this is for
several reasons. The first reason is that China has traditionally and historically stayed aloof from such
international events and crises and therefore was following the tradition in the country for addressing
such problems. The second reason is obviously economic and political reasons due to their close
friendship and business relationship with the country of Sudan in which the Darfur region is located.
China is greatly dependent upon petroleum purchases that the country of China makes from the country
of Sudan and as well China has a great deal of investment tied up in the country of Sudan in energy
projects such as the investment that China has made in Sudan's energy producing dams. The fact is that
China in actuality has watered down each attempt made by UN resolutions to address this problem in
Sudan and has quite emphatically insisted that the permission of the Sudanese government must be
gained prior to introducing UN peace keeping forces into the country. Because of this insistence on the
part of China, many of the UN resolutions made to deal with the problem in Darfur were rendered null
and void. However, pressure from the international community and most specifically as related to the
upcoming 2008 Olympics has forced China to remove itself from its traditional stance in this situation
and China stepped out and attempted to persuade the government of Sudan to allow peace keeping
forces from the United Nations to enter their country, but to no avail. While economic interest had
indeed played a great role in the stance of China on the situation in Darfur, simultaneously the country
of China has attempted to gratuitously adhere to the wishes of the public throughout the international
world."
SAMPLE POLICIES
To General Public
•Public Health Issues. What to do about inherently dangerous products such as alcohol,
tobacco, vaccines, and steroids
•Protecting the Environment. Using resources efficiently, minimizing pollution.
•Recycling. Reprocessing used materials for reuse
•Developing the Quality of the Workforce. Enhancing quality of the overall workforce through
education and diversity initiatives
•Corporate Philanthropy. Cash contributions, donations of equipment and products, and
supporting the volunteer efforts of company employees.
To Customers
•The Right to Be Safe.Safe operation of products, avoiding product liability.
•The Right to Be Informed. Avoiding false or misleading advertising and providing
effective customer service
•The Right to Choose. Ability of consumers to choose the products and services they
want
•The Right to Be Heard.Ability of consumers to
express legitimate complaints to the appropriate parties
To Employees
•Workplace Safety. Monitored by Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
•Quality-of-Life Issues. Balancing work and family through flexible work schedules,
subsidized child care, and regulation such as the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993
•Ensuring Equal Opportunity on the Job. Providing equal opportunities to all
employees without discrimination; many aspects regulated by law
•Age Discrimination. Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1968 protects workers
age 40 or older
•Gender Discrimination. Equal pay for equal work without regard to gender.
To Investors
•Obligation to make profits for shareholders
•Expectation of ethical and moral behavior.
•Investors protected by regulation by the
Securities and Exchange Commission and state regulations.
With real case stories, Wells and Ahmed bring to life both the hopes for and the failures of
international guarantees of property rights for investors in the developing world. Their cases focus on
infrastructure projects, but the lessons apply equally to many other investments. In the 1990's
inexperienced firms from rich countries jumped directly into huge projects in some of the world's least
developed countries. Their investments reflected almost unbridled enthusiasm for emerging markets
and trust in new international guarantees. Yet within a few years the business pages of the world press
were reporting an exploding number of serious disputes between foreign investors and governments. As
the expected bonanzas proved elusive and the protections weaker than anticipated, many foreign
investors became disenchanted with emerging markets. So bad were the outcomes in some cases that a
few notable infrastructure firms came close to bankruptcy; several others hurriedly fled poor countries
as projects soured.
In this book, Louis Wells and Rafiq Ahmed show why disputes developed, point out how investments
and disputes have changed over time, explore why various firms responded differently to crises, and
question the basic wisdom of some of the enthusiasm for privatization. The authors tell how firms,
countries, and multilateral development organizations can build a conflict-management system that
balances the legitimate economic and social concerns of the host countries and those of investors.
Without these changes, multinational corporations will lose profitable opportunities and poor countries
will not gain the contributions that foreign investment can make toward alleviating poverty.
n 1989, the Government of Vietnam embarked on a reform named "doi moi" to guide the country
from a centrally-planned toward a market economy. Vietnam has since opened up its economy
and has entered the process of trade liberalisation. While has been successful in generating
strong economic growth, it has created threats to the country's environment. In order to maximise
the potential positive impacts while at the same time minimising the negative effects of the
modernisation and industrialisation in the country, it is necessary to take measures now to protect
the environment. The ongoing reform process, together with the fact that Vietnam has a unique
opportunity to learn from the experiences of its neighbours, creates a good opportunity for the
development and introduction of effective environmental management policies and instruments.
This paper aims to describe how environmental management is being implemented and how the
policy-making process has been made. Existing investment policies emphasise that
environmental protection and sustainable use of natural resources should be cornerstones of
development in Vietnam. These policies should promote the economic transition, as well as
environmental management for sustainable development.
With these policies in place, there is a need to identify the most important environmental issues,
including problems to be tackled and measures to be taken. The problems are to find appropriate
and effective preventive and treatment measures for pollution, loss of biodiversity, degradation
of marine environment, and of environmental quality in urban, rural and industrial areas. To
solve these problems, the Government has plans to implement a number of measures. They can
be grouped into regulatory (development of institutional and legislative frameworks, capacity-
building, strengthening international cooperation and implication of international treaties),
economic (market-based instruments to be applied in parallel with "command-and-control"
ones), and communicative (awareness raising, training and education, information management).
1. Environmental management instruments in Vietnam
1.1. Regulatory instruments:
The first draft of the Law on Environmental Protection (LEP) was written in 1991 as a result of a
government project which was supported by IUCN Law Center in Bonn (Germany). The LEP
was submitted to the National Assembly by the National Environment Agency (NEA), adopted
on 27 December 1993, and enacted in January 1994 by Decision 29L/CTN of the President of
State. The LEP has 7 chapters and 55 articles. The Law gives the general provision and describes
measures to prevent and remedy environmental pollution and degradation. It describes the
responsibilities and duties with regards to the environmental management of MOSTE at central
level and of the People's Committees at provincial level. The LEP calls for international
collaboration and makes provisions for implementation and for dealing with violation of the law.
Other environmental legal initiatives include government decrees, ordinances, interministerial
circulars, guidelines and other by-law documents. The list of the most important legal documents
is attached in Annex 1.
Other policy documents have continuously been developed as one of the priorities. For example,
the NEA has reviewed the draft of National Conservation Strategy (1985) and has prepared the
proposal for a new NCS. In 1990, the National Plan for Environment and Sustainable
Development (NPESD) was prepared and this plan was approved in 1991. The Plan was to
provide the gradual development of a comprehensive framework for environmental planning and
management and to propose specific actions to address priority areas. Four years later, Vietnam
prepared a draft National Environmental Action Plan (NEAP) which builds on the NPESD. The
NEAP addresses the growing industrial development and urbanisation in the country. Vietnam
ratified the Convention on Biodiversity in 1993. After that the Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP)
for Vietnam was approved by the Government in December 1995. On the international side,
Vietnam is among the countries in the region which hava ratified the largest number of
international environmental treaties (see Annex 2). However, the implementation of these
international treaties needs further improvement and better coordination.
A set of national environmental standards and indicators has gradually been developed. To date
there are 35 standards on water, 20 on air, 11 on soil, and 4 on noise. Effluent standards and the
implementation of ISO 14000 are being prepared. These standards are to be applied nationwide
and to serve as a national guideline for the National Monitoring System. Today the system
consists of 13 stations, including 1 station for ground environment and 6 integrated
environmental monitoring stations. These 7 stations are charged for collecting data in every 3
months and report to NEA, which is responsible for preparation of the annual State of
Environment Report to be submitted to the National Assembly. Others stations are:
1 for the far sea,
2 - soil quality,
1 - acid rain,
1 - toxic and radioactive chemicals, and
1 - environmental analyses lab.
There is a provision to establish 4 more specific stations and 10 provincial stations to be included
in the national system.
With regard to activities in EIA, the Government manages to promulgate legal EIA requirements
for new projects and environmental audit for the old plants which were established before the
LEP. Furthermore, NEA has prepared a number of sectoral EIA guidelines and a guideline for
waste management and pollution control, partly with assistance from the Asian Development
Bank (ADB). Further development of guidelines and methods for pollution control and
inspection, as well as improvement of EIA reviewing procedure are needed.
1.2. Economic instruments: The Government authority for environmental management, NEA, is
committed to promoting market-based instruments in parallel with the traditional administrative
ones.
During the last decade, the Government has been providing grants for a large number of R&D
projects, education and awareness raising programs. Several environment-oriented taxation
programs have recently been considered for application (eg. tax reduction for import and/or
installation of clean technology, taxes on forest and mineral resources etc.), while the many
subsidies on chemical fertilisers and pesticides have been removed.
There are several specific funds which have some similar features with an environmental fund,
such as funds for reforestation, proposed funds for coal mining and oil spill contingency. NEA is
now moving towards the establishment of a National Reserve Fund and is also preparing itself to
be ready for guiding sectoral and provincial environmental funds.
The question of setting up, collecting, and using environmental fees and charges is still under
discussion as there are many difficult technical issues which need to be resolved.
NEA and most of provincial Departments of Science, Technology and Environment (DOSTEs)
have achieved first results in imposing penalties for violations against environmental law and
regulations. Since the Government Decree 26/CP on environmental fines was enacted in April
1996, NEA and DOSTEs have imposed fines amounting to about US$ 50,000 throughout the
country.
The problem of defining property rights as an incentive for long-term and sustainable use of the
environment and natural resources still needs more attention and further development.
The need for introduction of economic instruments is reflected in the LEP, which requires that
organisations using the environment "contribute financially to environmental protection". In
order to achieve this task, three criteria have been proposed to the GOV for choosing economic
instruments, namely, selection of priority polluting industries, compatibility with regulatory
instruments, and institutional capacity and administrative feasibility.
1.3. Communicative instruments
Raising public awareness and improvement of quality of environmental education and training
have long been among the highest priorities of the GOV. Nevertheless, this should be designed
and implemented in a more efficient way than it is now. Public participation and the involvement
of NGOs are not active enough to carry out the supervising and monitoring functions on behalf
of the society.
Although the mass media has recently been successful in providing the public with a lot of useful
environmental information, the problem of wider dissemination and free exchange of
information is still a crucial problem to be addressed. Today, a national environmental
information system in the form of an electronic network, which has the provision for connection
with the Internet and UNEPNet, is being developed intensively.
The mechanism of voluntary agreements with the involvement of NGOs, the victims and the
polluters is a new concept to Vietnam and needs to be introduced.
2. Environmental Policy making in Vietnam
2.1. The Institutional Framework for environmental management in Vietnam
A special report of UNDP "Incorporating Environmental Considerations into Investment
Decision-making in Vietnam" (UNDP, 1995) clearly describes the existing institutional
framework in the country, including the linkages between national, provincial, and local
governments. The authority for national environmental management is the Ministry of Science,
Technology and Environment (MOSTE) through its operational unit as the National
Environment Agency (NEA). The mandate of NEA is as follows:
* Studying and formulating policies, strategies, bills and legislative documents on environmental
protection and sustainable development for the GOV to consider and approve. Inspecting the
implementation of laws and regulations on environmental protection;
* Taking environmental protection measures in order to maintain environmental health;
* Appraising and assessing the environmental impacts of projects;
* Controlling pollutants; managing domestic, industrial, agricultural and other wastes;
* Setting up and managing the base monitoring system for the whole country;
* Organising and guiding public activities on environmental protection, participating in
education and training, and enhancing the environmental awareness of the general public.
Within Governmental ministries are Departments of Science, Technology and Environment
(DOSTE) or a similar designation (DST), which are responsible for environmental affairs.
Each of the 61 Provincial People Committees also has a DOSTE, which is responsible for local
level management of the environment.
(Annex 3. The organisation chart of the relations between ministries and DOSTEs)
Although the administrative structure for environmental management is in place, there is still a
need for a clearer definition of responsibilities and division of roles.
2.2. Specific features of the Environmental Policy making process
Today, Vietnam faces many environmental problems which it has in common with other
developing countries. However, it also experiences some advantages as well as disadvantages
arising from its political situation as a socialist country. Some of the common problems are as
follows:
* Weak administrative and institutional capacities;
* Poor regulatory enforcement, and moreover, the system tends to be highly centralised;
* Lack of financial resources to support a suitable and sufficient monitoring system;
* Enormous rate of industrialisation and capital accumulation with economic incentives for
private firms to invest in integrated process technologies;
* Urgency for the problems of resource utilisation and sanitary services for unprecedented
population growth.
On one hand, socialism has an advantage, related to the lack of certain private property rights as
regards to natural resources (eg. land, mineral resources, water, forest), that makes implementing
regulations easier. Another advantage may be the government's power to prevent the production
of various products, which would cause pollution by hazardous wastes. On the other hand, there
are some disadvantages seen as "incentives to pollute". They may include the following:
* Most raw materials have been treated as free or open access goods
* Absence of private ownership leads to the absence of protecting various resources
* Pollution control generally appears to be non-productive, while the existing administrative
system lets local government officials be judged almost entirely by how much they are able to
increase their region's economic growth. Hence, they are sometimes likely to ignore polluters
Another obstacle may be seen in the country's legislative framework and regulatory enforcement.
The Law on Environmental Protection, which was enacted in 1994, and a number of other laws,
government decrees and regulations provide a fairly extensive legal framework for
environmental protection. However, this is not applied in a coherent way due to the lack of
appropriate knowledge and environmental standards, coordination and consistency in
implementing the various legal provisions. This is partly a consequence of the fact that qualified
staff and the necessary facilities and equipment are in short supply. To some extent, the problem
can be solved by increasing public participation in policy-making, monitoring and assessment.
Such participation has been of crucial importance in a market-oriented economy, but is still far
from effective in Vietnam. In addition, lack of information makes it difficult not only for
government officials to make decisions, but also for the public to support the government's
environmental efforts.
Nevertheless, given these constraints the GOV is faced with the challenge to revise a large
number of national environmental standards. It is most likely to apply as many standards as
possible from ISO 14000. It is equally important that environmental policy makers will have to
develop new regulations and various institutional arrangements to ensure the enforcement
accordingly. On the economic front, a major concern for Vietnamese policy makers is that the
transition to the Asian Free Trade Area (AFTA) does not disrupt Vietnam's economic growth nor
its industrialisation and modernisation process.
2.3. An example of making policies with regard to the economic instruments for environmental
management in Vietnam
As mentioned above, the transition to a market-based economy and the expansion of the private
sector are good conditions for applying economic instruments for environmental management.
The first efforts have taken place in introducing the concept to government officials at central
and local levels through a number of awareness raising activities and training courses. A UNDP
funded project entitled "Strengthening National Capacities to Integrate the Environment into
Investment Decision" has also as one of its objectives to explore the use of economic instruments
to achieve sustainable development and environmental goals. This project addresses the need for
implementation of Agenda 21, which calls on countries to assess the environmental effects on
their existing economic policies and to ensure that new policies take into account the full costs of
their implementation.
The GOV has issued some decrees and resolutions regarding environmental taxation, fines and
fees, for example:
* Resolution of the Council of Ministers No.6/HDBT "Detailed Guidelines for the Decree on
Taxation on Natural Resources" (7 January 1991)
* Resolution of the Government No.85/CP on Treatment for Administrative Violations in
Management and Protection of Water Resources (22 November 1993)
* Interministerial Circular No.27/TTLB on Rules for Levy and Management Fees and Other
Expenses for Biological Protection and Control (30 March 1994)
* Government Decree No. 26/CP on "Administrative Fines for Violations Against
Environmental Laws" (26 April 1996).
The problem is that money collected from taxes, fines and fees has not yet been used directly as
an investment in the environment, although the Government Decree No. 175/CP on "Guidelines
for Implementation of the Law on Environmental Protection" stipulates the establishment of a
"National Reserve Fund" for environmental improvement and disaster mitigation. The Ministry
of Science, Technology and Environment (MOSTE) and the Ministry of Finance are charged
with formulating guidelines on the collection and utilisation of fee revenues through the Fund.
However, a draft set of guidelines prepared by MOSTE is still under discussion.
More specifically, a draft Government Resolution concerning Guidance on Financial Collection
and Management in Environmental Protection Activities has been under development since
1995.
Great attention from government environmental management staff, researchers and academic
staff is also given to other economic instruments such as tradeable permits, deposit-refund
schemes and recycling incentives, performance bonds, governmental grants and special rate
credits etc. However, the achievement of these instruments would need not only theoretical
interpretation and understanding, but also the government's readiness to change its institutional
and legal framework accordingly.
The establishment of an environmental fund is under extensive discussion.
3. Follow-up activities and the road ahead
To respond to the changing regional and local environment, the GOV will continue its economic
reform, improve effectiveness of its policy-making process, particularly for the environmental
policy making to meet the requirements of environmentally sound economic development. As
mentioned above, the Vietnamese economy today is mixed one, having some elements of both a
free market and a centrally planned base. The rules and regulations are still different from other
countries in the region practising market economy. For this reason, instruments of direct
environmental regulation should be developed in the first stage. These should then be adjusted
by economic instruments for environmental management.
One of the first priorities is to require the GOV to formulate its policy and regulations in
accordance with international standards. National environmental standards should have as many
elements as possible of the ISO 14000. The application of the ISO 14000 series should be made
on a voluntary and third party verifiable basis in order to shift the "command-and-control"
approach from governmental environmental authorities to the self-responsibility of producers.
Vietnam should continue its labour management reforms. It should increase investment in human
capital as it is crucial in promoting efficiency of the domestic economic sector and the absorptive
capability of local firms for foreign technology and management skills.
Although Vietnam has already launched a number of initiatives to ensure protection of property
rights, there is a need to promote well-defined administrative procedures to make firms and
individuals feel secure from violation of their property rights. It is clear that business must also
play an important role in meeting the challenge of sustainable development. Thus, a Vietnam
Business Council for Sustainable Development, the establishment of which has been proposed to
the GOV, would be an important tool for building a partnership among corporate investors, the
GOV, international aid agencies, and other concerned entities to achieve long-term benefits of
Vietnam's economy and environment. The GOV therefore will need to consult closely with the
private sector. The environmental policy making process is also expected to move along this line.
A number of environmental policies should be developed and/or revised. These may include
further detailed guidelines for environmental impact assessment, guidelines for environmental
auditing, inspection and enforcement, a national regulation on waste management, better
management regulation for sustainable use of natural resources, and the improvement of the
national system of protected areas.
Definition
Foreign direct investment (FDI) plays an extraordinary and growing role in global business. It can
provide a firm with new markets and marketing channels, cheaper production facilities, access to new
technology, products, skills and financing. For a host country or the foreign firm which receives the
investment, it can provide a source of new technologies, capital, processes, products, organizational
technologies and management skills, and as such can provide a strong impetus to economic
development. Foreign direct investment, in its classic definition, is defined as a company from one
country making a physical investment into building a factory in another country. The direct investment
in buildings, machinery and equipment is in contrast with making a portfolio investment, which is
considered an indirect investment. In recent years, given rapid growth and change in global investment
patterns, the definition has been broadened to include the acquisition of a lasting management interest
in a company or enterprise outside the investing firm’s home country. As such, it may take many forms,
such as a direct acquisition of a foreign firm, construction of a facility, or investment in a joint venture
or strategic alliance with a local firm with attendant input of technology, licensing of intellectual
property, In the past decade, FDI has come to play a major role in the internationalization of business.
Reacting to changes in technology, growing liberalization of the national regulatory framework
governing investment in enterprises, and changes in capital markets profound changes have occurred in
the size, scope and methods of FDI. New information technology systems, decline in global
communication costs have made management of foreign investments far easier than in the past. The
sea change in trade and investment policies and the regulatory environment globally in the past decade,
including trade policy and tariff liberalization, easing of restrictions on foreign investment and
acquisition in many nations, and the deregulation and privitazation of many industries, has probably
been been the most significant catalyst for FDI’s expanded role.
CASE 2
chantale should keep her mouth shut. i prefer the saying (SNITCHES GET STITCHES). i could get over half
of the people i work with fired or arrested for breaking company policy or breaking the law. usually both
at the same time. tell youre friend to consider her job as a way to pay bills and survive until she finds
something better. and by the way i love youre use of imaginary names, it is actually quite intruiging. if
you ever write a novel i would be more than happy to get an autographed copy. and yes i would be
happy to pay extra for it. you really should be a professional writer or novelist. i think you would be
great at writing mysteries.
WHISTLEBLOWING: Disturbance on organization
Punishments
•Fired
•Blacklisted / Murder Possible
•Transfer to Undesirable Location
•Lifestyles, and mental stability questioned
A whistleblower is a person who raises a concern about
wrongdoing occurring in an organization or body of people,
usually this person would be from that same organization.
This misconduct may be classified in many ways; for example,
a violation of a law, rule, regulation and/or a direct threat to
public interest, such as fraud, health/safety violations, and
corruption. Whistleblowers may make their allegations
internally
