10/10/2016
In the past years, Việt Nam has made significant socio-economic achievements. However, it has also faced numerous challenges of environmental degradation and pollution. Therefore, it is necessary to develop environmental services to meet increasing demand for pollution control, waste treatment and environmental improvement. So far, an environmental service system has been established and attracted initial participation from a private sector. Diverse forms of environmental services have been developed, including waste collection, transport and treatment and environmental consultancy. However, in practice, the environmental service system has not yet met demand for environmental protection. Delivery capacity remains low and heterogeneous in provinces throughout the country.
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| Waste collection, transport and treatment is among common environmental service activities in Việt Nam |
The reasons for this shortcoming are multiple. First, a legal framework for environmental service development has not been completed. Second, policies for promoting environmental services remain unclear. Third, regulations on quality of environmental services have not received due attention. Individuals and organizations participating in environmental services are numerous while their capacities for delivering high service quality are insufficient. Regulations on eligibility of registry for providing environmental services are unclear. As a result, environmental service providers are uncontrolled.
To address these obstacles, significant efforts have been made by state management agencies to establish a clear legal framework for environmental protection and environmental services. Mechanisms for promoting environmental services have been mainstreamed into environmental regulations, financial incentives and investment enabling conditions. These have provided some basic foundation for the establishment and development of environmental services.
Besides policies and regulations, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) has developed a draft legal and policy framework for promoting environmental services in Việt Nam to promote the environmental service system nationwide. The draft has three main focuses:
Policies for promoting environmental services: Developing and issuing policies and regulations to encourage organizations and individuals in establishing environmental service enterprises thorough bidding and public private partnership; developing and issuing policies on supporting development some special forms of environmental services; developing a roadmap for removing state subsidy via prices, fees, in particular in public environmental services.
Regulations on managing quality of environmental services: Developing and issuing regulations on eligibility for providing environmental services; developing and completing technical environmental regulations; developing and completing technical economic norms for environmental protection; and completing regulations for punishing violations by environmental service providers.
Policies on establishing some state owned organizations and enterprises that are capable of addressing large scale environmental issues:
In addition, MONRE has developed and submitted to Prime Minister for issuing a master plan for developing environmental service networks by 2020, vision to 2030. Objectives of the master plan are establishing and developing environmental service networks to meet demand for environmental services, increasing contribution to national economy development, generating jobs and ensuring social security. The master plan has identified four task measures: Completing institutions and regulations for developing environmental services; Developing plans for formulating local environmental service networks; Reorganizing and establishing or co-sharing investment in environmental services in some special sectors; and Implementing Program on Supporting Competitiveness of environmental service enterprises.
In particular, MONRE has coordinated with Ministry of Finance to develop and submit to Prime Minister to issue Decision on financial mechanisms for promoting some forms of environmental services. The Decision is aimed at encouraging and facilitation international, domestic individuals, organizations to participate in environmental services. The Decision focuses on five types of services: municipal solid waste collection and treatment; centralized waste water treatment; environmental review; environmental accident responses and environmental audit.
To promote environmental services, MONRE proposes that Prime Minister reviews and issues legal documents for promoting environmental services. The proposed documents include a legal and policy framework for promoting environmental services in Việt Nam, a master plan for developing environmental service enterprises by 2020, vision to 2030; and financial mechanisms for some special types of environmental services and related documents. MONRE also proposes that Prime Minister directs Ministries, sectors and state agencies to continue studying and developing legal foundations for promoting environmental services which are suitable in the Vietnam’s context and focus on facilitating and attracting private involvement in this area.
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Some policies on developing environmental services in vietnam Law on Environmental Protection (LEP) 2014 has regulations on environmental services (Article 150) and support and enabling conditions for environmental protection (Article 151) Chapter VII, Decree no.19/2015/ND-CP on guiding the implementation of LEP 2014 regulates support and enabling conditions for environmental protection. These include support on land and capital, tax exemption, price subsidy, and support for output consumption and other support forms. National Strategy on Environmental Protection until 2020, and vision toward 2030 emphasizes that environmental socialization is one of the important measures for enhancing and diversifying investment for environmental protection. Decree no. 38/2015/ND-CP on waste and scarp management affirms that state encourages socialization in collection, transport, recycling, reuse and treatment of waste and energy recovery. A master plan for developing environmental services by 2020 states its objective of developing environmental services to meet demand from sectors and localities, increasing contribution to economy, generating jobs and contributing to sustainable development of the country. |
MSc. Dương Thị Thanh Xuyến
Dr. Nguyễn Thị Phương Mai
Vietnam Environment Administration
