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The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment (MOAE) is working on a draft Law revising the 2020 Law on Environmental Protection, with a raft of proposals on simplifying administrative procedures, strengthening decentralisation of powers, and enhancing the accountability of project owners.
One of the notable revisions is to streamline the environmental criteria for classification of investment projects.
As per the draft, investment projects would be classified into three groups subject to different environmental administrative procedures. These comprise Group I (requiring a detailed environmental impact assessment (EIA)), Group II (requiring a simplified EIA), and Group III (requiring only environmental registration or environmental permit prior to project implementation).
This approach is expected to enable investors to more easily identify their obligations in respect of procedures such as the appraisal of EIA reports or the issuance of environmental permits.
The draft also aims to continue reviewing and reducing the number of entities subject to administrative procedures, as suitable to the processing capacity of local authorities. At the same time, procedures for implementation would be simplified by shifting from pre-licensing control to enhanced post-licensing oversight, thereby enhancing the role and responsibility of project owners.
Noteworthily, the draft reduces the number of projects required to carry out EIAs. These include projects located within industrial parks or cottage industry zones; projects not classified as posing a high risk of environmental pollution; and small-sized projects that do not involve environmentally sensitive factors.
For projects eligible for simplified EIAs, the appraisal process is revised to require only the issuance of a notification of appraisal results, rather than a formal approval as previously required.
The MOAE also proposes further decentralisation of powers to local authorities, under which the Ministry would only appraise projects with large-scale impacts, inter-regional scope, or those related to treaties for which it serves as the focal agency.
In addition, the draft revises the legal grounds for issuance of environmental permits in order to ensure greater clarity and transparency. It also proposes the addition of certain categories exempt from environmental permits, including projects on construction of offices of public administrative service providers as well as early childhood and general education institutions.-(VLLF)
