The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) is working on three draft decrees on environmental protection, in a bid to get ready for the implementation of the Law on Environmental Protection from January next year.
Of these, the first details a number of articles of the Law on Environmental Protection, the second deals with waste and scrap management, and the last provides environmental protection planning, strategic environmental assessment, environmental impact assessment and environmental protection plans.
In the 57-article draft decree detailing the Law on Environmental Protection, the MONRE introduces many specific regulations on control of soil pollution, protection of the environment in craft villages, environmental protection in production, business and service activities and public involvement in environmental protection. The ministry also proposes incentives and supports for environmental protection.
Under the draft, incentives and supports in terms of infrastructure, land, capital, tax and charge would be given to entities that have investment projects to build environmental protection facilities; manufacture of or trade in environmental protection equipment and eco-friendly products; or research, apply and transfer pollution treatment technologies.
Specifically, those engaged in waste treatment and research and application of pollution treatment technologies would be entitled to borrow concessional loans equal up to 70 percent of their total investment from the Vietnam Development Bank or the Vietnam Environmental Protection Fund.
Biodegradable products, recycled products, substitutes for natural materials and energy generated from waste disposal would be exempted from export duty. Meanwhile, machinery, equipment, special-use vehicles and supplies used in waste collection, storage, transportation, recycling and treatment; environmental observation and analysis devices as well as machinery and equipment used for their manufacture; equipment used for generating clean and renewable energy, manufacturing pollution treatment equipment, and environmental incident response equipment may be imported free of duty.
Waste and scrap management, an urgent issue in the environmental sector, would be regulated by another draft decree.
Designed along the line of considering the prevention of environmental pollution and deterioration as the main task, the draft, with 60 articles arranged in 10 chapters, stipulates in detail the management of hazardous wastes, household wastes, wastewater and dusts and gas emissions. It also provides the investment in and costs of waste management and payment of deposits as security for waste import.
The draft requires all organizations, households and production, business and service establishments that discharge wastewater into the environment to pay environmental protection charges in accordance with current law.
Particularly, those that discharge a large volume of wastewater containing harmful substances would have to set up an automatic observation systems and transmit recorded data to competent authorities.
The three draft decrees are now available at www.monre.gov.vn.-
