Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City is to clear the hard-core of some of the worst polluting companies from its centre over the next two years, according to local reports. The authorities have outlined a plan to relocate an estimated 30,000 companies in the central zones to less residential areas.

The deputy chairman of the city’s People’s Committee Mai Quoc Binh said that 52 companies were now in the government’s "black book" and would be considered a priority for relocation before 2004.

Funds are available for those companies that are forced to relocate, and the government is keen to emphasise the opportunity a move represents for investment in new plant and machinery, and the regeneration of outlying districts.