What is the time limit of the environmental license of group I investment projects in Vietnam?

What is the time limit of the environmental license of group I investment projects in Vietnam? 

Pursuant to Clause 4, Article 40 of the Law on Environmental Protection in 2020 stipulating that the environmental license shall be valid for:

a) 07 years, regarding group I investment projects;

b) 07 years, regarding businesses, 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 Group I investment projects;

c) 10 years, regarding the license holders not mentioned in Points a and b of this Clause;

d) The validity period may be shorter than that specified in Points a, b and c of this Clause at the request of the investment project owners, businesses, investors in construction and commercial operation of infrastructure in dedicated areas for production, business operation and service provision and industrial clusters (hereinafter collectively referred to as “investment project/business owners”).

As regulations above, the environmental license of group I investment projects could be valid for 07 years or shorter at the request of the investment project owners, businesses. Therefore, in order to determine whether the environmental license is still valid, we have to consider the request of the investment project owners, businesses when applying for an environmental license.

What are environmental protection requirements in the environmental license?

Pursuant to Clause 3 of the same Article stipulating as follows:

. Environmental protection requirements are as follows:

a) There should be appropriate works and measures for collecting and treating waste and emissions and reducing noise and vibration; in the case of discharge of wastewater into hydraulic structures, environmental protection requirements should be in place to be applied to the source of water discharged into hydraulic structures;

b) Regarding investment projects and hazardous waste treatment providers, there should be measures, systems, works and equipment serving storage, transport, transfer, preliminary processing and treatment which satisfy technical and managerial requirements,;

c) Regarding investment projects and establishments importing scrap from foreign countries as production materials, there should be appropriate warehouses and yards for scrap storage; recycling equipment; impurity treatment scheme; re-export scheme;

d) There should be environmental management and supervision plans, environmental emergency prevention and response plans; equipment and works serving environmental emergency prevention and response and environmental monitoring;

dd) It is required to manage domestic solid waste, normal industrial solid waste and hazardous waste; improve and remediate environmental; carry out biodiversity offsets according to regulations of law;

e) Other environmental protection requirements (if any).

Best regards!