Hanoi has established a plan to increase production in its building material industry by 2020.

Under the plan, the industry will grow by five times between now and 2015 and six times by 2020, accounting for 6 percent of the capital's total industries and providing jobs for 12,000 labourers.

According to the municipal People's Committee, a number of activities will be undertaken to achieve the project objectives. To start, the capital would invest in improving clay burnt bricks technology while discontinuing the operation of all old manual brick kilns next year.

In addition, non-burnt brick production units will be constructed in an effort to boost brick production by 40 percent for an annual capacity of more than 3 million bricks by 2015.

Safer and more efficient materials such as composite and insulating materials that do not contain asbestos will be used to develop 26.7 million square metres of ceramic and decorative tiles per year.

The plan also targets investment in modern stone processing technologies and the use of recycled materials to reduce environmental pollution.

Companies exploiting sand in the Hong (Red), Da, Ca Lo, Cong and Cau rivers will be rearranged to meet the new material demands

The plan aims to meet the capital's demand for quality building materials while also creating an excess to sell to other provinces and export markets and improving local living standards./.