Decision 726/QD-TTg 2022 Strategy on Vietnam's chemical industry development through 2030, with a vision toward 2040

DECISION

Approving the Strategy for development of Vietnam’s chemical industry through 2030, with a vision toward 2040^[1]

THE PRIME MINISTER

Pursuant to the June 19, 2015 Law on Organization of the Government; and the November 22, 2019 Law Amending and Supplementing a Number of Articles of the Law on Organization of the Government and the Law on Organization of Local Administration;

Pursuant to the November 21, 2007 Chemical Law;

Pursuant to the Strategy for Vietnam’s industrial development through 2025, with a vision toward 2035;

Pursuant to the Political Bureau’s Resolution No. 23-NQ/TW of March 22, 2018, on orientations for formulation of national industrial development policies through 2030, with a vision toward 2045;

Pursuant to the Government’s Resolution No. 124/NQ-CP of September 3, 2020, promulgating the Government’s Program of Action to implement the Political Bureau’s Resolution No. 23-NQ/TW of March 22, 2018, on orientations for formulation of national industrial development policies through 2030, with a vision toward 2045;

At the proposal of the Minister of Industry and Trade,

DECIDES:

Article 1. To approve the Strategy for development of Vietnam’s chemical industry through 2030, with a vision toward 2040 (below referred to as the Strategy), with the following principal contents:

1. Development viewpoints

a/ To closely follow the Party’s Directives and Resolutions, socio-economic development strategies and industrial development strategies in order to build the chemical industry into a foundation industry, greatly contributing to the cause of national industrialization and modernization and to ensuring security and national defense.

b/ To restructure chemical products in order to increase their added value and improve the chemical industry’s productivity, quality, efficiency and competitiveness so as to better meet the domestic demand for and boost export of chemical products; to get the best of advantages and opportunities of international integration, thereby taking the initiative in deeply participating in industrial production value chains of Vietnam and the world.

c/ To acquire adequate awareness about, respect and properly apply objective rules of the market economy in conformity with the country’s development conditions, thereby developing the chemical industry on the basis of efficiently mobilizing resources from all economic sectors; to promote the development of the private economic sector in order to bring into full play the internal strengths and build the autonomous capacity of the chemical industry; to intensify international cooperation in order to attract foreign investment in terms of capital, technology, management experience and operation organization model.

d/ To harmoniously combine extensive development and intensive development, rapidly and sustainably develop the chemical industry, apply modern and environmentally friendly technologies in adaptability to climate change, and efficiently use natural resources toward green growth and circular economy; to apply digital transformation and digital techniques to improve efficiency of production and business activities in the chemical field.

dd/ To ensure that orientations and solutions to develop the chemical industry will be resolutely and radically implemented with the participation of the entire political system, Party Committees and administrations of the central and local levels, and enterprises of all economic sectors, in compatibility with strategic priorities and pivotal and key issues as well as practical conditions of regions and localities so as to concentrate resources for practical and efficient implementation, and in association with responsibility of local administrations at all levels to ensure the fulfillment of the assigned tasks and set objectives.

2. Development objectives

a/ General objectives

By 2030:

- To build the chemical industry with a fairly complete structure, covering the production means of production and means of consumption serving other industries in order to better meet the domestic demand for and boost export of chemical products; to prioritize the development of a number of key sub-industries such as base chemicals, petrochemistry, technical rubber, pharmacochemistry, fertilizers, etc.

- To form value chains, deeply participate in production networks of industries of Vietnam and the region; to rationally and economically natural resources; to apply modern technologies, digital economy and digital transformation in order to increase added value and improve competitiveness of the chemical industry, thereby stepping up capital accumulation of economic groups operating in the chemical field.

- To rationally distribute production forces by sector and territorial area, and establish and efficiently operate industrial parks and clusters and large-scale chemical production complexes.

By 2040:

Vietnam’s chemical industry will be developed with most of its sub-industries applying advanced technologies to ensure international-standard quality of their products, deeply involved in global value chains, ensuring energy efficiency and conservation, and capable of fairly competing in the process of international integration; to build a contingent of professional, disciplined and highly productive employees; to initially be proactive in research, designing and manufacturing stages and master technologies for production of a number of high-quality products; to bring into full play internal strengths, thus contributing to the development of Vietnam’s independent and self-sufficient economy.

b/ Specific objectives

- To strive for an average annual growth rate of 10-11% and ratio of the chemical industry to the entire national industrial sector of 4-5% by 2030; these figures will be 7-8% and 4-5% by 2040.

In which:

The group of petrochemical, pharmacochemical, technical rubber and base chemical products will annually grow at the rate of 10-12% and 8-11% in the 2021-2030 period and 2031-2040 period, respectively.

The group of fertilizers, crop protection chemicals, electrochemical products, cleaners, industrial gases, tires and inner tubes, and paint-printing ink products will annually grow at the rate of 3-5% and 4-6% in the 2021-2030 period and 2031-2040 period, respectively.

- By 2030, to maintain the level of meeting the domestic demand for urea, phosphate, and NPK fertilizers, pesticides, tires and inner tubes, industrial gases, common paint-printing ink products, cleaners, and common batteries, and develop export markets; to partially meet the domestic demand for ammonium sulfate fertilizers; to increase the average level of meeting the domestic demand for petrochemical products, pesticide active ingredients, base chemicals, technical rubber products and accumulators to 40%, 30%, 70%, 40% and 75%, respectively.

By 2040, to partially meet the domestic demand for organic base chemical products, special paints, and hi-tech batteries and accumulators; to increase the average level of meeting the domestic demand for petrochemical products, pesticide active ingredients, base chemicals, technical rubber products and accumulators to 60%, 50%, 80%, 50% and 80%, respectively.

- To strive for an average annual export growth rate of 9-11% in the 2021-2030 period and 7.5-9% in the 2030-2040 period.

To ensure the trade balance in the 2021-2030 period, proceeding to maintain the sustainable trade surplus in the 2030-2040 period; to aim for a healthy and rational trade balance with partners, thereby ensuring sustainable growth for a long term.

3. Development orientations

a/ General orientations

To develop Vietnam’s chemical industry into a foundation and modern industry with a fairly complete structure consisting of 10 sub-industries including fertilizers, pesticides, pharmacochemistry, petrochemistry, base chemicals (including also explosive precursors and industrial explosive materials), rubber products, electrochemistry, cleaners, paint-printing ink products, and industrial gases, focusing on the strategy for development of such key sub-industries as base chemicals, petrochemistry, technical rubber products, pharmacochemistry, and fertilizers.

To reorganize existing production establishments to be centralized with a large scale; to maintain and develop production plants with advanced technologies; to minimize the formation of small-sized production establishments using obsolete technologies resulting in low efficiency of the use of natural resources, inferior-quality products and environmental pollution and gradually remove existing ones.

To step up the renovation and reorganization and raise the business efficiency of state enterprises in the chemical industry, thereby improving efficiency of the use of state capital in state enterprises, addressing thinned-out and inefficient investment. The State will only hold dominating shares in enterprises operating in such key areas as infrastructure of chemical industrial zones and infrastructure of chemical trading zones, chemical sub-industries that are prioritized or require large investment amounts or are associated with national defense and security; to promote private investment in the chemical industry, getting the best of internal strengths of social investment to develop domestic sole proprietorships into an important driving force for development of the chemical industry; to radically renew policies to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) in the chemical industry, paying attention to quality with focuses instead of quantity, and encourage FDI projects to invest in priority areas and products and projects applying advanced, modern and environmentally friendly technologies that can bring about high socio-economic efficiency.

To develop the chemical industry in a centralized manner conformable with advantages of each region or locality instead of development in all administrative units, thus meeting environmental protection, national defense and security requirements; to form and efficiently operate industrial parks and clusters and large-scale chemical complexes in order to attract chemical production projects and projects using chemicals for production in other fields, chemical logistic centers in locations with large ground areas, far from residential areas, close to deep-water ports, and convenient for transportation, and promote the application of circular technologies and use of unused products and wastes of a plant as production materials for other plants; to step by step relocate chemical production plants into industrial parks and clusters for centralized management, ensuring  that no dangerous chemical establishments that fail to ensure safety distances or fail to conform to standards and technical regulations on safety, environmental protection and fire prevention and fighting are located in residential areas or populated areas.     

b/ Orientations by sub-industry

- Base chemicals

+ By 2030:

To invest in, expand, modernize and increase output of the production of commercial caustic soda and sulfuric acid of existing production establishments; to invest in projects on production of caustic soda flakes and chlorine-based products to meet the demand for caustic soda and chlorine of refining-petrochemical projects, and alumina mining and processing projects, etc.

To invest in researching technologies for sorting grade-II and grade-IV apatite ores; to innovate technologies of establishments producing yellow phosphorus, thus improving production efficiency and safety.

To invest in the production of thermal phosphoric acid and its derivatives and products of high economic value from phosphorus; to invest in the production of ammonia to meet the demand of the DAP production and other household consumers; to produce nitrate salts, base organic chemical products, and solvents, etc.

To maintain the stable production of ammonium nitrate, invest in the production of a number of other explosive precursors being dual-use chemicals to meet the demand of other industrial production activities and fertilizer production; to invest in the production of explosives and explosive accessories to serve the petroleum industry; to continue intensifying investment in the production of bulk emulsion explosives and emulsion explosives in packages to totally replace TNT-containing explosives.

To develop industrial explosive products in the direction of increasing blasting power, water resistance duration and safety and reducing smoke and dust, products of non-standard sizes, industrial explosive products and accessories meeting such special requirements as multiple differentials, tensile strength, impact value and reliability since mining pits have become deeper and deeper in more and more complicated terrains.

+ By 2040:

To invest in projects on production of such base organic chemicals as organic solvents, chemicals for use in the production of petrochemical products or chemicals as materials for other industries, etc.

To invest in projects on production of inorganic chemicals, including sulfate salts, soda, hydrogen peroxide, etc., to meet the development demand of such industries as detergents, glass, paper, etc.

To develop margin-creating emulsion explosives for use in open-cast and underground mines and in underground construction without detonation gas; bulk emulsion explosives, electronic detonators, non-electric period delay detonators, high-output detonating cords for use in underground mines and underground construction without detonation gas; non-electric period delay detonators, etc.

- Petrochemistry   

+ By 2030:

To invest in the production of ammonia, methanol, ethylene, propylene, benzene, xylene, toluene, etc., and a number of preparations and derivatives of these chemicals, proceeding to fully meet the domestic consumption and export demands, thus limiting the export of crude materials.

To invest in the deep processing of products from existing plants and complexes of petrochemical/gasification (from natural gases) in order to increase added value of natural resources and diversify products, thus contributing to meeting the domestic consumption and export demands.

To invest in the production of primary plastic granules, adhesives and synthetic rubber materials: polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polystyrene (PS), acrylonitrile  butadiene styrene (ABS), terephthalic acid (PTA), monoethylene glycol (MEG), urea formaldehyde (UF), melamine formaldehyde (MF), polyamide 6, etc., and some other chemicals, additives and semi-finished products to serve domestic production sectors and hi-tech industries.

To prioritize the formation of petrochemical industry complexes associated with domestic oil refineries and petroleum processing plants.

+ By 2040:

To maintain the safe, stable and efficient operation of projects already put into operation; to continue diversifying petrochemical products, and invest in the production of products from aromatics (NB, LAB, PTA, PET, etc.).

To invest in petrochemical projects using substitute materials such as biomass, green hydrogen, blue hydrogen, etc., not from traditional fossil fuel sources.

- Technical rubber products

+ By 2030:

To attach importance to developing the group of technical rubber products such as conveyor belts, O-rings, felts and technical rubber accessories to serve other industries; to invest in the construction of a plant to produce technical rubber products under either of the following options: building a tire and inner tube production plant or adding a new production line in the existing tire and inner tube production plant in order to get the best of its available equipment, with key products being felts, gaskets, details and spare parts for automobile and motorcycle assembly and part replacement.

To promote investment in the production of materials and additives, such as black coal and silica (silicon dioxide) for the production of rubber products.

+ By 2040:

To invest in the construction of a plant for special technical rubber production with advanced technologies and equipment; to produce synthetic rubber.

- Pharmacochemistry

+ By 2030:

To build pharmaceutical-material areas with Vietnam’s advantages, and invest in a plant processing, extracting or purifying essential materials from tropical animals and plants, marine organisms and semi-synthetic materials for the production of pharmacochemical products of natural origin.

To concentrate investment in developing the production of antibiotic products and materials for the production of essential medicines based on natural resource advantages, such as products extracted from herbal plants and semi-synthesized from natural compounds; to invest in a plant producing inorganic pharmacochemical products and common adjuvants; a plant producing antibiotic materials of the cephalosporin group of second, third and fourth generations; a plant producing sorbitol for production of vitamin C; and a plant producing pharmacochemical materials for the production of some other essential medicines (including fever reducers, pain relievers, and anti-microbial drugs).

To encourage all economic sectors, particularly non-state production organizations, to participate in the cultivation and processing of herbal plants, attaching importance to developing small- and medium-sized enterprises for production and processing of pharmacochemical products. The State shall take the initiative in investing in the production of active ingredients and adjuvants requiring high technologies and subject to great demands and essential for community well-being and safety, such as new-generation vaccines and antibiotics and, at the same time, encourage foreign investors to invest in production in this field; to promote technology transfer, joint venture and association between foreign investors and domestic investors in the production of materials and products in the pharmacochemical field.

+ By 2040:

To invest in researching and producing new products and make in-depth investment to improve product quality.

- Fertilizers:

To balance the output of commercial ammonia/urea produced by nitrogenous fertilizer plants to meet the market demand; to gradually shift the production of single superphosphate fertilizers to the production of triple superphosphate fertilizers; to promote the production of compound fertilizers, reorganize existing mixed-fertilizer production establishments toward concentration and larger size, maintain and develop fertilizer plants with advanced technologies, and step by step remove small-sized production establishments using obsolete technologies and producing inferior-quality products.

To invest in plants producing ammonium sulfate, potassium and calcium ammonium nitrate fertilizers in order to fully meet the demand for fertilizers for agricultural production and export.

To invest in researching and improving use efficiency of existing fertilizers in order to increase use value and added value of single and mixed fertilizers containing primary nutrients, secondary nutrients and trace elements; fertilizers containing plant growth regulators and immunity boosters; and fertilizers with soil-improving properties as suitable to numerous plant varieties of high economic value and different pedological characteristics.

- Other fields

+ Crop protection chemicals:

To invest in the production of a number of environmentally friendly active ingredients with pest control effects, such as those of carbamate origin, those of azole class and their derivatives, and those of pyrethroid and validamycin groups.

To make in-depth investment in establishments producing or processing pesticides, applying advanced technologies and replacing toxic chemicals and organic solvents; to develop new active ingredients from microorganisms and active ingredients extracted from plants, thereby creating environmentally friendly easy-to-use disposable products; to develop products processed in new forms and rationally distribute them in the three regions of the North, Central and South of Vietnam in order to reduce transportation costs of materials and finished products and suit crop, climate and soil characteristics.

+ Paints and printing inks:

- To concentrate investment in expanding and modernizing existing paint-printing ink production establishments, apply new technologies, improve product quality, and gradually remove production establishments using obsolete technologies; to expand and increase capacity of plants producing materials (alkyd resin, acrylic resin, powder colors, etc.) for the paint-printing ink industry; to formulate a number of projects on production of materials for the paint-printing ink industry, attaching importance to plastic materials, filler talc and solvents such as acrylic, epoxy, and polyurethane, and filler talc with special and high-class properties such as kaolin, CaCO₃, SiO₂, etc.  

To invest in the production of paints of high usability such as UV/EB, nano paints, water-based paints, powder paints, paints with high solid content, and smart paints; to produce environmentally friendly printing ink categories of high economic value, such as water-based products and products with toluene or MEK solvents replaced by alcohol, etc.

+ Cleaners:

To modernize existing technological lines to meet the domestic market demand in terms of product quantity and quality and boost export; to develop new cleaners and cosmetic products that use materials and active ingredients of natural origin, and are environmentally friendly, safe for users and of high economic value.

To attract investment capital for production of high-class products that need high technologies and large investment amounts, including also production of materials of all types.

To formulate policies to encourage and support domestic enterprises to invest in production and infiltrate into markets with their own brands.

+ Industrial gases:

To invest in renewing technologies and equipment into modern and safe ones for processing common industrial gases to meet the domestic demand; to invest in production of rare gases of high value as Xe, Kr, etc., special gases (highly purified gases, semiconductor gases, standard gases and mixed gases), thereby gradually reducing the import thereof; to produce hydrogen from renewable energy.

+ Electrochemical sources:

To make in-depth investment in improving product quality and increasing output of common accumulators and batteries.

To invest in production of a number of special-use and high-class accumulators and batteries, including absorbent glass mat, solid-fuel cells, nickel-metal-hydride batteries or lithium-ion batteries, and new-generation rechargeable batteries for use in high-class electronic devices.

4. Tasks and solutions for implementation of the Strategy

a/ Group of breakthrough solutions

- Forming chemical industrial parks and logistics centers:

+ To research and promote investment in establishing chemical industrial complexes and parks and logistics centers to attract chemical production projects and projects using chemicals for production in other industries and in locations that are large enough, distant from residential areas, close to deep-water ports, convenient for transportation and have complete infrastructure facilities for production and service provision, thus meeting safety, environmental protection and sustainable development requirements.

+ To study and propose addition of investment projects on infrastructure of chemical industrial parks and investment projects in these parks to the list of sectors and trades eligible for investment incentives, and formulate a special incentive mechanism applicable to these projects.

+ To carry out investment promotion activities and call for investment in projects on infrastructure of industrial parks and investment projects in chemical industrial parks.

- Renovating institutions for management of investment in the chemical industry

+ To ensure the investment incentive mechanism for petrochemical, pharmacochemical, base chemicals and rubber projects in accordance with law; to create conditions for priority projects to access tax, land and labor incentives.

+ To amend and supplement regulations on requirements on chemical projects: being conformable with sector development strategies, and local and territorial development strategies and master plans; meeting requirements on assurance of chemical safety and environmental protection, and requirements on application of advanced technologies; to rationally use resources and natural resources, thereby ensuring energy efficiency and conservation; to apply green chemical criteria.

+ To enhance the mechanism for coordination in the investment management in the chemical industry. Provincial-level investment policy-approving agencies shall collect opinions of the Ministry of Industry and Trade on conformity of investment projects in the chemical industry with sector development strategies.

+ To ensure equality between economic sectors, focusing on further heightening the role of the private economic sector through effectively implementing the protection of ownership and equality in the access to resources.

+ To develop a database on investment projects in the chemical industry; to apply digital technology to improve the operational efficiency, create a competitive advantage on the market, and ensure sustainability of chemical industrial activities.

b/ General solutions

- Renovating mechanisms and policies, thereby stepping up the reform of administrative procedures to meet development requirements

+ To review and revise and improve the system of legal documents, and support mechanisms and policies in order to facilitate and promote the development of the chemical industry in conformity with international economic integration commitments and socialist market economy orientations.

+ To step up the administrative reform, particularly administrative procedures, in order to simplify processes and procedures, and sharply reduce time and costs for performance of administrative procedures; to raise the quality of public administrative services and create the most favorable conditions for the operations of enterprises and for the people.

+ To propose appropriate mechanisms and policies to attract investment in hi-tech projects and technology transfer projects and, at the same time, propose policies and roadmaps to gradually remove obsolete technologies; to propose incentive mechanisms and policies applicable to specialized industrial parks and clusters, investment incentive policies for construction of chemical industrial parks and clusters, incentives for chemical research and development activities, and policies to support the relocation of chemical production plants in residential areas to industrial parks and clusters.

+ To formulate and improve the system of national technical regulations in the chemical industry.

- Raising investment, production and business efficiency of enterprises

+ To implement policies on focused and selective investment; to commence only the construction of works and projects that fully meet the conditions on ground areas, investment capital and human resources for implementation; to call upon large multinational groups to invest in important projects; to intensify international cooperation in the development of the chemical industry, particularly sectors applying high technologies.

+ To heighten the operational role of professional associations and governmental and non-governmental organizations; to intensify the establishment of linkages between domestic enterprises and foreign enterprises to cooperate in the participation in global production value chains.

+ To accelerate the equitization and restructuring of state groups, corporations and enterprises; to efficiently implement approved schemes on restructuring of groups and corporations in order to raise their operational efficiency and competitiveness in the region and the world; to support enterprises in the course of equitization and reorganization of enterprises, and study organization forms appropriate to enterprises; to diversify investment capital sources and balance and allocate funds.

+ To efficiently implement the Law on Support for Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises in order to raise production and business efficiency of chemical enterprises.

- Cooperation and linkage solutions  

+ To enhance and diversify linkages in production; to invest in upgrading the infrastructure system; to attach importance to training human resources and improving professional qualifications of the managerial staff.

+ To enhance the linkage between localities in economic regions, and build infrastructure facilities for development of the chemical industry.

+ To formulate and implement inter-regional chemical industry development projects in order to create spillover effects for promoting the development of other regions.

- Commerce and market development policies

+ To formulate mechanisms and policies to promote the use of domestically available materials and semi-finished products with good quality and reasonable prices; to limit import of intermediary products and products Vietnam is able to produce; to adopt a mechanism to reduce input prices of a number of products important for food security, national security and defense, and community well-being.

+ To diversify methods and forms of domestic commercial business organizations; to organize and efficiently operate systems of supply and distribution of product groups on the market.

+ To formulate policies to connect other production sectors with the chemical industry on the basis of optimizing economic efficiency and reducing costs.

+ To intensify market research and trade promotion in order to better exploit large and potential developing markets in addition to existing export markets.

+ To produce chemical products meeting international technical and environmental standards; to research product design models, promptly grasp international trends and facilitate international trade.

+ To apply achievements of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, e-commerce and digital economy in the stage of development of products, production and marketing, etc.

+ To enhance the management of commercial activities and distribution systems so as to fight the production of counterfeit and imitate goods and trade frauds.

- Developing human resources

+ To identify the demand for human resources of chemical sub-industries in order to work out plans on training of professionally qualified human resources at all qualification levels to meet the demand of each sub-industry in each period, particularly high-quality human resources; to formulate a mechanism for attracting brilliant scientists to contribute to the development of the chemical industry; to formulate a special mechanism for attracting high-quality human resources at home and abroad, focusing on salary policies, working environment and provision of support in terms of houses and places for cultural and spiritual activities and relevant working conditions.

+ To get the best of existing human resources in the direction of rearranging personnel in the most efficient manner; to formulate personnel plans that ensure continuity and are capable of promoting creativity in the new business environment.

+ To review and reorganize public non-business units in the system of institutions training human resources for the chemical industry (universities, vocational colleges and intermediate schools and other education and training institutions), intensify the mobilization of social resources for training of human resources for the chemical industry; to diversify forms of labor cooperation with foreign countries and develop education and training institutions to meet labor requirements, especially cooperation with prestigious domestic and overseas education institutions in establishing international-standard training institutions in Vietnam, focusing on majors serving the development of knowledge-based economy, particularly science, technology and services.

- Developing science and technology

+ To continue improving organizational models of scientific and technological research and service agencies toward autonomy, accountability and enhanced linkage with enterprises; to intensify application-oriented research and training activities of chemical research institutes in order to create quality products and apply scientific and technological advances in the exploitation and production of products of higher quality; to build capacity for specialized chemical consultancy and designing units.

+ To renovate and additionally supply equipment and tools, prevent degrading of, and upgrade specialized chemical laboratories with modern equipment and tools to meet research needs, especially in the field of designing and manufacturing new products, analyzing, checking and certifying regulation and standard conformity of products.

+ To intensify the application of new technologies and modern technologies in order to create technological breakthroughs in production activities of key industries, spearhead industries and priority industries; to intensify investment in and harmonize basic research activities and research and development (R&D) activities, thereby step by step taking the initiative in researching and transferring technologies.

+ To promote and intensify the protection of intellectual property for research outcomes; to seek, receive and master new technologies transferred from abroad into Vietnam in the chemical industry.

- Concentrating investment in technical infrastructure facilities

+ To improve infrastructure for the development of the chemical industry in harmony with the development of general infrastructure of the whole country, especially focusing on development of the logistics system and chemical warehouses.

+ To vigorously develop chemical industry investment consultancy services.

- Financial solutions and policies

+ To adjust tax policies in a timely and rational manner to suit practical conditions.

+ To encourage and create all favorable conditions for all economic sectors to invest in developing the chemical industry. The State’s capital sources to be provided in support of investment in the chemical industry include state budget funds, state development investment loans, investment of state enterprises, ODA loans, domestic and overseas commercial loans, FDI capital, and funds raised through the issuance of corporate bonds, etc.

+ To concentrate and accumulate financial resources for key projects; to provide capital and financial management support to these projects so that they can quickly optimize their efficiency and make amortization and debt payment in accordance with regulations.

- Environmental solutions

+ To strictly implement regulations on environmental protection; to formulate and promulgate environmental technical regulations related to the chemical industry in order to ensure sustainable development and environmental protection; not to grant investment licenses for chemical projects with obsolete or used technologies and high rates of natural resource consumption.

+ To encourage and adopt incentive mechanisms and policies to support chemical industry projects applying advanced, modern and environmentally friendly technologies.

+ To carry out public communication and education to improve the public awareness about environmental protection in combination with the mobilization of social resources for environmental protection activities.                  

c/ A number of specific solutions by sub-industry

- Base chemicals

+ To mobilize capital from joint-venture, association and foreign investment activities in large-scale projects with high technologies for deep processing of materials to serve production activities; to give priority to enterprises having efficient production and business plans to borrow loans for renewing technologies and applying scientific and technical advances in production activities.

+ To grant import duty incentives for materials that cannot be domestically produced or can be domestically produced but fail to meet the domestic demand; to increase import duty rates within an allowable range for finished products and products that can be domestically produced.

+ To study using rare earth materials to serve the production of base chemicals; to accelerate the progress of projects on domestic production of industrial salt; to invest in technological equipment for industrial salt production to meet the demand for the production of chemicals like caustic soda.

+ To invest in building explosive chargers in order to increase the mechanization and synchronization of the mining field; to prioritize the use and production of electronic detonators in Vietnam, meeting strict requirements on environmental protection, climate, geography and digitalization of mining; to meet requirements of the state management of security, safety and social order on the basis of controlling detonating devices by separate ID codes and management by QR codes.

- Petrochemistry

+ To rationally use material sources of natural gases and associated gases for the petrochemical development and accelerated development of base organic chemicals under petrochemical projects;

+ To formulate and apply a mechanism for promoting the use of gas sources for petrochemical projects in order to increase added value of these material sources and adopt an incentive mechanism to promote projects on production of petrochemical products from substitute material sources such as biomass, green hydrogen, blue hydrogen, etc., other than conventional fossil fuel sources.

- Rubber products

+ To create conditions for all economic sectors to participate in developing rubber products, particularly foreign investors with capital and technology advantages to participate in producing products that require high technologies and techniques such as automobile and motorbike inner tubes of synthetic rubber (butyl rubber), natural rubber and other types of technical rubber products; to increase the content of natural rubber in rubber products.

+ To study restructuring preliminarily processed natural rubber products toward ensuring a balance between product groups, focusing on products with a competitive edge, and stably providing materials for the industry of processing rubber products for domestic consumption and export.

+ To apply measures to strictly control the import of tires and inner tubes beyond official quotas and declaration of import prices, and prevent transportation of counterfeit and inferior-quality goods into Vietnam’s market.

- Pharmacochemistry

+ To formulate mechanisms and policies to support investment in the production of antibiotic materials and pharmacochemical materials for production of a number of essential medicines, and projects on development of the production of pharmacochemical products from precious natural materials at home; to propose a more flexible mechanism for use of pharmacochemical products as materials for preparation of medicaments.

+ To promote technology transfer and joint ventures or associations between foreign investors and domestic investors for production of pharmacochemical materials and products.

- Fertilizers

+ To build and improve the system of national technical regulations on inorganic fertilizers and grading of superphosphate fertilizers and NPK fertilizers.

+ To study and propose incentive mechanisms applicable to projects on conversion of single superphosphate fertilizers into triple superphosphate fertilizers; projects on production of potassium fertilizers and SA fertilizers, and projects on substitution of material sources for production of nitrogenous fertilizers with those from natural gases.

+ To research and experiment technologies and processes for processing of gyps from DAP production plants into materials for production of building and land-filling materials.

- Crop protection chemicals

+ To grant import duty incentives for materials that cannot be domestically produced, such as active ingredients of carbamate origin, active ingredients of azole class and their derivatives, active ingredients of pyrethroid and validamycin groups, etc.; and for machinery that cannot be domestically produced and are imported to serve the production of crop protection chemicals.

+ To prioritize the development of chemical projects applying new technologies that generate less wastes and are environmentally friendly, such as new active ingredients from microorganisms and those extracted from plants.

+ To promote investment in the production of materials for the production of crop protection chemicals, such as active ingredients, solvents and surfactants (emulsifiers, dispersants, water-absorbing substances, foaming agents, etc.).

- Paints and printing inks

+ To prioritize and encourage non-state economic sectors to invest in the production of special paints of high added value with environmentally-friendly advanced technologies, and adopt incentive policies to develop electrostatic paints, water-based wood paints or wood paints with a content of volatile organic compounds (VOC) of under 50%.

+ To encourage enterprises to formulate plans and strategies for development of their product branding and marketing systems.

+ To prioritize the development of projects applying new, energy-efficient technologies for production of environmentally friendly products, improvement of use efficiency of materials and reuse of wastes generated from the production process.

- Cleaners

+ To formulate and implement subjects for research and development of new cleaner products, particularly environmentally friendly ones.

+ To study and propose policies to support domestic enterprises in investing in the production of cleaner products and a number of materials.

- Industrial gases

+ To prioritize the development of projects applying new technologies that generate less wastes and are environmentally friendly and solutions to conserve energy and improve use efficiency of materials.

+ To prioritize the development of the production of such rare gases as Xe, Kr, special gases and calibration gases to serve hi-tech economic sectors; to produce hydrogen from renewable energy sources.

- Electrochemical sources

+ To attract foreign investment in the production of products requiring high technologies, particularly accumulators serving the program on localization of automobiles, motorcycles and accumulators for power source stations of the telecommunications sector and for special-type automobiles.

+ To continue maintaining the production and development of existing brands, and increase and seek more domestic and overseas outlet markets.

+ To propose the promulgation of special incentive policies for projects on production of hi-tech and environmentally-friendly batteries and accumulators.

Article 2. Organization of implementation

1. The Ministry of Industry and Trade shall:

- Assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with other ministries, sectors, provincial-level People’s Committees and related agencies in, organizing the implementation of the Strategy; inspect and evaluate the implementation of the Strategy, and regularly report it to the Prime Minister.

- Assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with localities, the Ministry of Planning and Investment, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Ministry of Science and Technology, and Ministry of Finance in, formulating a Scheme on promotion of investment in the construction of infrastructure facilities of chemical industrial parks and investment projects in chemical industrial parks, then report it to the Prime Minister for approval for organization of implementation.

- Assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with related ministries and sectors in, reviewing, supplementing, formulating and promulgating, or submitting to competent authorities for promulgation, appropriate policies to promote the development of the chemical industry.

- Develop a database on investment projects in the chemical industry.

- Assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with related ministries and sectors in, reviewing and formulating national standards and technical regulations on chemicals.

2. Related ministries and sectors:

- The Ministry of Planning and Investment shall assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with the Ministry of Industry and Trade and Ministry of Finance in, formulating policies to intensify the attraction of investment in the development of the chemical industry; balance short-term and long-term investment funds for the industrial development; study and propose amendments to regulations on investment in the direction of adding projects in priority chemical sub-industries to the list of investment projects eligible for investment incentives; and formulate policies to promote the development of specialized industrial parks.

- The Ministry of Finance shall assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with related ministries and sectors in, studying and proposing amendments and supplementations to financial policies in order to promote the development of priority fields in the chemical industry in conformity with the international economic integration process.

- The Ministry of Science and Technology shall assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with Ministry of Planning and Investment and Ministry of Industry and Trade in, implementing scientific and technological solutions to increase hi-tech content in Vietnam’s chemical products; formulating technology innovation and application policies; evaluating technological level; and intensifying research and development of technologies to produce chemicals suitable to Vietnam’s conditions in order to efficiently use natural resources toward green growth and circular economy; and coordinate with the Ministry of Industry and Trade and related ministries and sectors in improving the system of national standards and technical regulations on chemicals.

- The Ministry of Education and Training shall, within the ambit of its functions and tasks and scope of state management, assume the prime responsibility for making plans on training of human resources for the production of chemicals in each period.

- The Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs shall assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with ministries, sectors and localities in, organizing the implementation of the Strategy for development of vocational education and the Master Plan on the network of vocational education institutions, prioritizing the development of vocational education institutions that provide training of human resources in sectors and professions for the development of Vietnam’s chemical industry in each period, particularly high-quality human resources.

- The Ministry of Information and Communications shall assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with the Ministry of Industry and Trade and localities in implementing solutions to develop information and communication technology to serve the domestic chemical production and participate in the regional and global supply chains; formulate and implement the Strategic Action Program on digital transformation in the chemical industry field.

- The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment shall assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with the Ministry of Industry and Trade in, inspecting and guiding the implementation of regulations on environmental protection in the chemical industry and, within the ambit of its functions and tasks and scope of state management, assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with the Ministry of Planning and Investment, Ministry of Industry and Trade and localities in, studying and formulating master plans on construction of economic regions suitable to resources, potential and orientations for the development of the chemical industry.

- The Ministry of Construction shall, within the ambit of its functions and tasks and scope of state management, assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with the Ministry of Planning and Investment, Ministry of Industry and Trade and localities in, studying and formulating master plans on construction of economic regions suitable to resources, potential and orientations for industrial development.

- The State Bank of Vietnam shall administer monetary policies in a flexible and autonomous manner and in harmony with fiscal policies and other macro policies, thus contributing to maintaining macro-economic stability and controlling inflation, in order to facilitate production and business activities in general and the chemical industry in particular.

- Other ministries and sectors shall, within the ambit of their functions and tasks and scope of state management, coordinate with the Ministry of Industry and Trade in organizing the implementation of relevant contents of the Strategy.

3. Provincial-level People’s Committees shall:

- Base themselves on local development conditions, potential and advantages to organize the implementation of the Strategy and incorporate  the Strategy’s relevant contents in local master plans; take the initiative in considering the allocation of land areas for attraction of investment in the construction of chemical industrial complexes and parks and chemical logistics centers.

- Collect opinions of the Ministry of Industry and Trade on conformity of investment projects in the chemical field with the Strategy in the course of considering and approving their investment policy.

4. State enterprises operating in the chemical industry shall:

- Base themselves on the Strategy to formulate their strategies, production and business plans, and 5-year and annual development investment plans.

- Groups and corporations shall accelerate the implementation of their approved restructuring schemes in order to raise their operational efficiency and competitiveness.

Article 3. This Decision takes effect on the date of its signing.

Article 4. Ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies, heads of government-attached agencies, chairpersons of provincial-level People’s Committees, and related agencies shall implement this Decision.-

For the Prime Minister
Deputy Prime Minister
LE VAN THANH