Domestic and international experience in strengthening transparency andpreventing corruption in the Vietnamese mining industry were discussedat a round-table conference in Hanoi from May 16-17.

The conference, co-organised by the Government Inspectorate and theSwedish Embassy in preparation for the 9 th Corruption PreventionDialogue, said that in the recent three years, although provinces andcities nationwide conducted thousands of examinations and inspections ofmining activities and cleared away many illegal mining sites, mineralexploitation management has seen lot of shortcomings.

Many participants raised concern about the loose management andmassive licensing in the mining industry in Vietnam , affirming thatan important factor that directly affected current mining managementactivities was the weak management apparatus.

Inspection, examination and supervision of mining activities of businesses in localities were still limited, they said.

In order to prevent corruption in State management on mining,participants emphasised the need to complete policies and legalinstitutions on minerals, build mining strategies and improve thefeasibility of mining plans, together with renovating mechanisms toprotect mineral resources and strengthening the inspection, examinationand supervision of mining activities.

It isnecessary to raise the capacity of State management agencies fromcentral to local levels and improve the quality of verification ofdocuments such as mining licences, as well as take measures to reduceoutput of several minerals, they said.

The capacityof corruption prevention forces at all levels and agencies in charge ofcorruption prevention should be improved, conference participants said,adding that the government should amend and supplement several decreesin the direction of raising fines for violations of mineral exploitationand processing./.