I. LEGAL BASIS

• Law on Environmental Protection 2020 and Law No. 146/2025/QH15 (amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Environmental Protection);
• Decree No. 08/2022/ND-CP; Decree No. 05/2025/ND-CP; and Decree No. 48/2026/ND-CP;
• Circular No. 02/2022/TT-BTNMT; Circular No. 07/2025/TT-BTNMT; and Circular No. 09/2026/TT-BNNMT.

II. IMPLEMENTATION CONTENT

1. Entities subject to Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)

(Articles 29 and 30 of the Law on Environmental Protection)

• Entities required to conduct preliminary EIA: Group I investment projects;
• Entities required to conduct EIA: Group I projects and certain Group II projects involving land use, water surface use, marine areas, mineral extraction, water resources exploitation, land-use conversion, population relocation, and resettlement;
• Entities not required to conduct EIA: emergency public investment projects; projects exempted from EIA under laws or resolutions of the National Assembly.

2. Contents of the EIA Report

(Article 32 of the Law on Environmental Protection)

• Project origin; project owner; approving authority; legal and technical bases; EIA methodologies;
• Consistency of the project with environmental protection planning;
• Assessment of selected technologies, project components, and activities;
• Natural, economic, and social conditions; biodiversity; current environmental status; identification of affected receptors; justification of project location;
• Identification, assessment, and forecasting of key environmental impacts and waste generation across project phases; characteristics and scale of waste; identification and assessment of potential environmental incidents;
• Waste collection, storage, and treatment facilities and measures;
• Measures to mitigate adverse environmental impacts; environmental incident prevention and response plans;
• Environmental management and monitoring program;
• Public consultation results;
• Conclusions, recommendations, and commitments of the project owner.

3. Authority for Appraisal of EIA Reports

(Article 35 of the Law on Environmental Protection)

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) shall appraise EIA reports for:

• Group I projects and certain Group II projects located in two or more provinces or in marine areas without defined administrative management responsibility, and falling into one of the following cases:
  • Projects approved for investment policy by the National Assembly or the Prime Minister, except where authority is assigned to a provincial People’s Committee;
  • Projects under MONRE’s licensing authority for mineral extraction, water resource exploitation, marine dumping, or allocation of sea areas;
  • Projects for construction and operation of infrastructure of centralized production, business, and service zones;
  • Projects with large land or water surface use, except certain infrastructure or agricultural projects;
  • Projects located in industrial zones or clusters involving hazardous waste treatment, use of imported scrap, or wastewater discharge subject to periodic monitoring or higher;
  • Projects outside industrial zones with large-scale pollution risk (except livestock farming and slaughterhouse projects).

Provincial People’s Committee Chairpersons shall appraise EIA reports for remaining projects within their jurisdiction.

Decentralization (Article 7 of Decree No. 48/2026/ND-CP):
MONRE may delegate appraisal and environmental permitting authority to provincial-level authorities for certain projects, including:

• Projects not subject to approval by the National Assembly or Prime Minister (except solid waste treatment/recycling projects);
• Projects involving land-use conversion in environmentally sensitive areas but not under central authority;
• Hydropower projects not under central authority;
• Crude oil and natural gas extraction projects.

4. Public Consultation in EIA

(Article 26 of Decree No. 08/2022/ND-CP as amended by Decree No. 05/2025/ND-CP and Articles 13a, 13b, 13c of Circular No. 09/2026/TT-BNNMT)

Consulted entities:

• Communities and individuals directly affected by the project;
• Relevant agencies and organizations directly related to the project.

Consultation methods:

• Disclosure on official websites;
• Public meetings;
• Written consultation.

Time limits for EIA appraisal:

• Not exceeding 30 days for Group I projects;
• Not exceeding 20 days for Group II projects;
• Not exceeding 10 days for urgent public investment projects.

III. TYPICAL PROJECTS REQUIRED TO PREPARE EIA

Including investment projects in sectors typically having large scale or environmentally sensitive characteristics, generating significant emissions, wastewater, or hazardous waste, such as:

• Mineral processing;
• Glass manufacturing;
• Metal production;
• Pulp and paper production;
• Inorganic chemical production;
• Textile and garment manufacturing;
• Leather processing and tanning;
• Oil refining, petrochemicals, crude oil and natural gas extraction;
• Coal-fired power plants, coke production, coal gasification;
• Waste recycling and treatment services (municipal, industrial, hazardous waste), ship dismantling, import of scrap materials;
• Battery and accumulator manufacturing;
• Cement production;
• Natural rubber processing;
• Production of starch, MSG, beer, carbonated beverages, industrial alcohol;
• Sugar production from sugarcane;
• Seafood processing; livestock slaughtering and farming;
• Manufacturing of electronic products, computers, and optical equipment.