The Law on Environmental Protection of Vietnam has several crucial changes concerning the industrial construction sector, procedures for environmental impact assessment, application for environmental permits, environmental monitoring and periodical reports…
Changing criteria for classification of investment projects
The Law on Environmental Protection 2020, in effect since January 1, 2022, has brought about a transformation in the management and classification of investment projects based on environmental factors: project scale, production capacity, and environmental sensitivity.
As a result, investment projects are categorized into four main groups:
- Group I investment projects have large scale and production capacity, are sensitive to the environment and have a high risk of adverse impacts on the environment.
- Group II investment projects have medium scale and production capacity, or projects with small capacity but sensitive to the environment
- Group III investment projects have small capacity, low risk of adverse impacts on the environment;
- Group IV investment projects have no risk of adverse impacts on the environment.
According to the new regulations of the law, projects classified under Group I and some projects with potential adverse environmental impacts classified under Group II will be required to undergo environmental impact assessment (EIA) procedures. This change of the Law on Environmental Protection will save investors a considerable amount of time and procedural costs.
See more: Amended Investment Law 2020 and things investors need to know
Changing the procedure for applying for an environmental permit
Procedures for environmental impact assessment
Appraisal agencies:
- Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment
- Provincial People’s Committee
Application processing time:
- Group I: Up to 45 days
- Group II: Up to 30 days
Procedures for applying for an environmental permit
Appraisal agencies:
- Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment
- Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Public Security
- Provincial People’s Committee
- District People’s Committee
Application processing time:
- Ministerial level: no more than 60 days;
- Provincial and district level: 35 – 40 days
Environmental registration procedures
Implementation time:
- Projects require EIA: registration before official operation;
- Projects not require EIA:
In case the project must have a construction permit: carry out environmental registration procedures before obtaining a construction permit
In case the project does not have a construction permit: carry out environmental registration procedures before official operation
- Production, business and service establishments operating before January 1, 2022, that generate waste but are not required to have an environmental permit: must register for the environment permit within 24 months from the date of January 1, 2022.
Receiving agency:
- Commune People’s Committee
The Law on Environmental Protection 2020 has reformed administrative procedures, integrated environmental permits and licenses such as wastewater discharge, exhaust gasses discharge, hazardous waste treatment, etc. into one environmental permit, creating favorable conditions for investors and businesses.
The amended and supplemented Environmental Protection Law has had a great impact on enterprises, production facilities and industrial factories.
Requirements for waste treatment systems in industrial factories
Trial operation of waste treatment system
Depending on the type and capacity of the project and the regulations of each industrial park, the project may or may not require a waste treatment facility.
- Projects that contract and connect to a centralized wastewater treatment system do not need a wastewater treatment system and do not need to operate a trial operation.
- For projects with wastewater treatment system, trial operation must be carried out before official operation. Output wastewater standards depend on the regulations of each industrial park, each province, the common regulation is that the output wastewater must meet Class B standards according to TCVN.
Time of trial operation: 3 – 6 months.
Periodic monitoring and reporting on environmental protection
According to the Law on Environmental Protection 2020, when enterprises complete the construction and put the factory into operation, they do not need to make separate environmental monitoring reports that are fully integrated in the periodic environmental protection report. In which, waste objects required to be monitored include wastewater, exhaust gases, industrial dust.
Enterprises need to submit the environmental protection report once a year to the environmental permit-granting agency or environmental registration-receiving agency, before January 15 of the following year. If the enterprise does not make periodic reports, enterprises may be fined from 15-20 million VND if the project is under the authority of the Provincial People’s Committee, 20-30 million VND if the project is under the authority of The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment..
The environmental treatment system includes: paint dust treatment system, paint odor treatment system at DAINESE Vietnam factory, by DELCO as the design – build contractor of the MEP system and provide smart factory solutions.
The Law on Environmental Protection 2020 has many significant changes related to industrial construction. With years of experience as a design – build contractor for industrial factories, constantly updating information on new regulations and policies, DELCO is always ready to consult and support investors on legal requirements of the environmental protection procedures throughout the process of consulting – designing the factory.
For more: Some projects on wastewater, exhaust gases treatment of the factory implemented by Delco
Source of information: Environmental Economics Magazine
See more: 4 mandatory regulations applied when building factories in Vietnam
