• What are the projects subject to environmental impact assessment (“EIA”)?

Pursuant to Clause 1 Article 30 of the Law on Environmental Protection 2020:

“1. Projects subject to EIA include:

a) Group I investment projects mentioned in Clause 3 Article 28 of this Law;

b) Group II investment projects mentioned in Points c, d, dd, and e Clause 4 Article 28 of this Law.

2. If the projects specified in Clause 1 of this Article are urgent public investment projects as prescribed by the Law on Public Investment, they shall not be subject to EIA.”

• What are the contents of the environmental impact assessment report?

Pursuant to Clause 1 Article 32 of the Law on Environmental Protection 2020:

a) Origin of the investment project, project owner, authority approving the project; legal and technical bases; EIA methods and other methods adopted (if any);

b) Conformity of the investment project with the national environmental protection planning, regional planning, provincial planning, regulations of law on environmental protection and other relevant regulations of law;

c) Assessing selected technologies and work items and activities that may result in adverse environmental impacts;

d) Natural, socio-economic and biodiversity conditions; assessment of the state of the environment; identifying affected subjects and sensitive environmental factors at the project location; demonstration of the suitability of the project location;

dd) Identifying, assessing and predicting major environmental impacts and waste generated in the phases of the investment project quantity and nature of waste; impacts on biodiversity, natural heritage sites, historical-cultural sites/monuments and other sensitive factors; impacts caused by land clearance, migration and relocation (if any); identifying and assessing environmental emergencies that are likely to occur;

e) Works and methods for collecting, storing and treating waste;

g) Methods for reducing other adverse environmental impacts of the investment project; environmental improvement and remediation scheme (if any); biodiversity offsets scheme (if any); environmental emergency prevention and response plan;

h) Environmental management and supervision program;

i) Consultation result;

k) Conclusions, propositions and commitments made by the investment project owner.

• What are obliged applicants for the environmental license?

Pursuant to Article 39 of the Law on Environmental Protection 2020:

“Obliged applicants for environmental license include:

1. Group I, II and III projects that generate wastewater, dusts and exhaust gases that must be treated into the environment or generate hazardous waste that must be managed in accordance with regulations on waste management before officially being put into operation.

2. Investment projects, dedicated areas for production, business operation and service provision and industrial clusters operating before the effective date of this Law and applying environmental criteria as the projects mentioned in Clause 1 of this Article.

3. If the projects mentioned in Clause 1 of this Article are urgent public investment projects as prescribed by the Law on Public Investment, they are exempt from the environmental license.”

• To what applicants shall the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment issue the environmental license?

Pursuant to Clause 1 Article 41 of the Law on Environmental Protection 2020, The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment shall issue the environmental license to the following applicants:

- The projects in Article 39 hereof for which the EIAR appraisal result has been approved by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment;

- The projects specified in Article 39 hereof that involve 02 provinces or more or are located within territorial waters to which responsibility of the provincial People’s Committee for administrative management is yet to be assigned; establishments importing scrap from foreign countries as production materials, hazardous waste treatment service providers.

• What obliged applicants shall the Provincial People’s Committees shall issue the environmental license to?

Pursuant to clauses 3, 4, Article 41 of the Law on Environmental Protection 2020, Provincial People’s Committees shall issue the environmental license to the following obliged applicants:

“3. Provincial People’s Committees shall issue the environmental license to the following obliged applicants, except for the cases specified in Clauses 1 and 2 of this Article:

a) Group II investment projects in Article 39 hereof;

b) Group II investment projects in Article 39 hereof that involve 02 districts or more;

c) The investment projects in Clause 2 Article 39 hereof for which the EIAR appraisal result has been approved by the provincial People’s Committee, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, or ministerial agency.

4. District-level People’s Committees shall issue the environmental license to the applicants in Article 39 hereof, which are not subject to the authority of the three above agencies.”

• What are the applications for the issuance of the environmental license?

Pursuant to clause 1 Article 43 of the Law on Environmental Protection 2020, applications for the issuance of the environmental license shall include:

“1. An application for the issuance of an environmental license includes:

a) An application form;

b) A report on the proposal for issuance of the environmental license;

c) Legal and technical documentation of the investment project, business, dedicated area for production, business operation and service provision or industrial cluster.”

• When does the investor submit the application for the issuance of the environmental license?

Pursuant to clause 2 Article 29 of the Decree 08/2022/ND-CP,  the time of submission of the application for issuance of the environmental license is prescribed as follows:

“a) The owner of the investment project not subject to EIA shall submit an application for issuance of environmental license after completing the waste treatment work for the entire project or for each investment phase of the project (if the project is divided into investment phases) or for the independent waste treatment work item of the project;

b) The owner of the investment project not subject to EIA shall decide the time of submission themself after having a sufficient application as prescribed;

c) The investment project owner specified in clause 2 Article 39 of the LEP that is conducting trial operation of the waste treatment work as prescribed by law before the effective date of the LEP shall decide the time of submission of application for issuance of environmental license themself to ensure that an environmental license has to be obtained after the trial operation but at least 45 days if the environmental license is issued by a ministerial agency and 30 days if the environmental license is issued by the provincial People’s Committee or district-level People’s Committee before the date on which the environmental license has to be obtained.

In case of failure to submit the application for issuance of environmental license within the time limit specified in this point, the investment project owner shall send a notification of extension of trial operation duration as prescribed in point c clause 6 Article 31 of this Decree to obtain the environmental license after the end of the trial operation;

d) Owner of a business, dedicated area for production, business operation and service provision or industrial cluster shall decide the time of submission of the application for issuance of environmental license themself to ensure that an environmental license has to be obtained as prescribed by the LEP and this Decree but at least 45 days if the environmental license is issued by a ministerial agency and 30 days if the environmental license is issued by the provincial People’s Committee or district-level People’s Committee before the date on which the environmental license has to be obtained.”

• What are the procedures for issuing environmental licenses?

Pursuant to Article 43 Law on Environmental Protection and Article 29 Decree 08/2022/ND-CP, the procedures for issuing environmental licenses are as follows:

Step 1: Access the Danang City Administrative Procedures Information System, and select the administrative procedure you need to perform, then log in to your account and complete the application according to the instructions (in case not having an account, please register an account to log in).

Step 2: The owner of the investment project or business shall submit an application for issuance of the environmental license to the authority issuing the environmental license (hereinafter referred to as “licensing authority”) and pay fees for application appraisal as prescribed.

Step 3:  Within 05 working days from the receipt of a sufficient application (except for the case specified in clause 8 of this Article), the licensing authority shall:

a) Publicize contents of the report on the proposal for issuance of environmental license on the website of the licensing authority or authorized authority, except for information classified as state secrets or enterprise’s secrets as prescribed by law

b) Send an enquiry to relevant competent agencies for their opinions.

Step 4:  The appraisal of the application for issuance of the environmental license shall be carried out.

Step 5: According to the appraisal result of the appraisal council and appraisal team or result of the inspectorate or site inspection result, the licensing authority shall consider issuing an environmental license to the investment project or business in case of eligibility to be issued with the environmental license or send a notification of return of application to the project or business owner specifying reasons for ineligibility to be issued with the environmental license.

Please refer to the Danang City Administrative Procedures Information System website for more details.

• How long is the deadline for issuing the environmental license from the date of receiving the valid application?

Pursuant to Clause 4 Article 43 of the Law on Environmental Protection 2020, the time limit for licensing begins on the date of receiving a valid application and is as follows:

“a) Not exceeding 45 days if the environmental license is issued by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Ministry of National Defense and Ministry of Public Security;

b) Not exceeding 30 days if the environmental license is issued by a provincial or district-level People’s Committee;

c) The licensing authority may impose a time limit shorter than that specified in Points a and b of this Clause according to the type, scale and nature of the investment project, business, dedicated area for production, business operation and service provision or industrial cluster.”

• What are subjects obliged to implement environmental registration?

Pursuant to clause 1 Article 49 Law on Environmental Protection 2020, Obliged registrants include:

“1. Obliged registrants:

a) Waste-generating investment projects not required to obtain an environmental license;

b) Waste-generating businesses operating before the effective date of this Law are not required to obtain an environmental license.”

• What does the application for environmental registration contain?

Pursuant to Article 22 of the Circular 02/2022/TT-BTNMT regulating application and procedures for environmental registration:

- Environmental registration document of the owner of the investment project or establishment (Form no. 46 Appendix II of the Circular 02/2022/TT-BTNMT);

- A copy of the decision on approval for the environmental impact assessment report appraisal result of the investment project or establishment (if any).

• How to carry out environmental registration?

Pursuant to Article 23 of Circular 02/2022/TT-BTNMT, the Investor send the application for environmental registration to the People's Committee of the commune by:

- In-person;

- Post;

- Electronically through the online public service system.

For investment projects and establishments in areas with 02 or more commune-level administrative units, the investment project owner and establishment have the right to choose the commune-level People's Committee for environmental registration.

• When does the investor implement environmental registration?

Pursuant to Clause 6 Article 49 of the Law on Environmental Protection 2020, the time for environmental registration is as follows:

- Waste-generating investment projects not required to obtain an environmental license and subject to EIA shall be subject to implement environmental registration before being put into official operation;

- Waste-generating investment projects not required to obtain an environmental license but not subject to EIA shall be subject to environmental registration before the competent authority issues the construction permit if a construction permit is required in accordance with regulations of law on construction or before waste is discharged into the environment if a construction permit is not required in accordance with regulations of law on construction;

- Waste-generating businesses operating before 01/01/2022 are not required to obtain an environmental license shall be subject to environmental registration within 24 as of 01/01/2022.