Forms of consultation in environmental impact assessment in Vietnam from January 6, 2025

Forms of consultation in environmental impact assessment in Vietnam from January 6, 2025 (Image from the Internet)

On January 6, 2025, the Government of Vietnam issued Decree 05/2025/ND-CP, amending Decree 08/2022/ND-CP, which guides the Law on Environmental Protection.

Forms of consultation in environmental impact assessment in Vietnam from January 6, 2025

According to Clause 8, Article 1 of Decree 05/2025/ND-CP amending Article 26 of Decree 08/2022/ND-CP, the forms of consultation in environmental impact assessment are as follows:

- Consultation through electronic information portals:

Before submitting the environmental impact assessment report for appraisal, the project owner sends the environmental impact assessment report along with consultation content in compliance with the form prescribed in Appendix VIa attached to Decree 08/2022/ND-CP to the unit managing the information portal of the appraising agency to consult the subjects stated in Item 2, except for information classified as state or business secrets according to law.

Within one day from receiving the posting request from the project owner, the unit managing the information portal of the appraising agency is responsible for posting the consultation content. The consultation is conducted within 15 days for investment projects of Group I specified in Appendix III, 10 days for Group II specified in Appendix IV attached to Decree 08/2022/ND-CP, and 5 days for projects located in concentrated production, business, service areas, and industrial clusters.

Within 3 days after the consultation period ends, the unit managing the information portal must send the consultation results to the project owner;

- Consultation through organizing meetings for comments:

The project owner collaborates with the commune People's Committee where the project is executed to publicly post the environmental impact assessment report at the commune People's Committee headquarters and notify the time and location for the consultation meeting at least 5 days before the meeting. The commune People's Committee must publicly post the environmental impact assessment report from the receipt until the end of community consultation activities; organize consultation meetings to gather opinions from the community according to regulation in point (1) Item 2 within a maximum of 15 days from the receipt of the project owner's request.

The project owner is responsible for presenting the consultation content at the consultation meeting. The opinions of attendees and the responses and commitments from the project owner must be fully and truthfully recorded in the minutes of the community consultation meeting as per the form regulated by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment;

- Consultation in writing:

The project owner collaborates with the commune People's Committee where the project is executed to send consultation feedback forms as prescribed in Appendix Vlb attached to Decree 08/2022/ND-CP to the entities listed in point (1) Item 2 who do not attend the consultation meeting.

The project owner sends the environmental impact assessment report of the project to the entities listed in point (2) Item 2 along with written consultations in compliance with the form stated in Appendix VI and consultation content per the form in Appendix VIa attached to Decree 08/2022/ND-CP.

The subjects consulted in writing must respond in writing as per the form stated in Appendix VII attached to Decree 08/2022/ND-CP within 15 days from receiving the consultation documentation. Failure to respond within the regulated period is considered agreement with the consultation content.

- The commune People's Committee is responsible for collaborating with the project owner to conduct the consultation of the environmental impact assessment report as provided in points b and c of this clause; inform about the number of consultation feedback forms sent and received in the written comments in accordance with point c of this clause; decide on combining the consultation of the environmental impact assessment report according to environmental protection legislation with obtaining community feedback on projects in accordance with grassroots democracy legislation.

Entities subject to consultation in environmental impact assessment in Vietnam

(1) Communities and individuals directly affected by the investment project, including: Resident individuals living according to residence law at places like hamlets, villages, communes, wards, townships, or similar residential locations where the investment project is executed; owners of production, business, service premises, or households having production, business activities on land, water, or marine areas where the project takes place.

Community consultation for individuals directly affected is conducted through meetings for comments or written feedback. The project owner collaborates with the commune People's Committee to send invitations to the entire community and directly affected individuals to participate in consultation meetings.

If communities or individuals do not attend the meeting, written feedback must be obtained through feedback forms as per point c of clause 3, Article 26 of Decree 08/2022/ND-CP (amended in Decree 05/2025/ND-CP).

The number of attendees and consulted persons must constitute at least two-thirds of all directly affected individuals.

Members of the same household can provide feedback through their household representative; if individuals receive feedback forms but do not respond within 5 days from receipt, they are considered to have been consulted;

(2) Agencies and organizations directly related to the investment project, including: Commune People's Committees, local Fatherland Front Committees where the project is carried out and areas directly affected identified during the environmental impact assessment process; management boards of economic zones, industrial zones, export processing zones, high-tech parks of provinces or cities, infrastructure construction, and business investors in concentrated production, business, service areas, industrial clusters where the project is located; State agencies managing irrigation works for projects discharging wastewater into them or occupying irrigation works; agencies, organizations assigned to manage environmentally sensitive areas as stipulated in points b, c, d, and dd of clause 4, Article 25 of Decree 08/2022/ND-CP (if any); Ministry of National Defense, Ministry of Public Security, or provincial military command, provincial police for projects related to security-defense elements (if any); other directly related agencies, organizations identified through the environmental impact assessment process.

Consultation with agencies and organizations directly related to the investment project is conducted through written communication.

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