Hanoi (VNA) - Organisations, enterprises and individuals who wishto use environmental data provided by the Ministry of Natural Resources andEnvironment many have to pay up to 2.8 million VND (123 USD) in the future.

This was part of the draft decree on collecting fees for the exploitation anduse of natural resources and environment data, which was recently proposed theministry’s Environmental Administration.

Per the proposal, those who wish to use data on maps would have to pay between608,000 VND (27 USD) and 2.8 million USD (123 USD).

The cost of meteorological data automatically measured at a station would be720,000 VND (32 USD) per month. The cost of environmental monitoring data measuredperiodically would be 100,000 VND (4.4 USD) per station per year. Fees forreports, records and environmental documents would be 2,000 VND (0.08 USD) eachpage.

At a conference on the issue, experts said that previously, the State keptoriginal materials for State management purposes, but now many organisationsand individuals wished to use this information.

Thus, the draft decree is necessary and timely, they said.

Do Van Hien, Deputy Director of the Centre for Information Technology and Dataon Natural Resources and Environment, suggested the results of inspectingenvironmental data should be added to the final documents to ensure that thematerials had been inspected beforehand.

He also said that the content of the environmental documents should be shortand clear. The supply of online environmental information should beimplemented.

He suggested that the Vietnam Environmental Administration study and issue alist of restricted-use documents to ensure the legality of the use of data. Theadministration needs specific guidance on procedures on accessing informationfor those who in need, he added.-VNA