Decree No. 54/2021/ND-CP preliminary environmental impact assessment

DECREE

On preliminary environmental impact assessment^[1]

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 June 18, 2014 Construction Law;

Pursuant to the June 17, 2020 Law Amending and Supplementing a Number of Article of the Construction Law;

Pursuant to the June 13, 2019 Law on Public Investment;

Pursuant to the June 17, 2020 Law on Investment;

Pursuant to the June 18, 2020 Law on Investment in the Form of Public-Private Partnership;

Pursuant to the June 23, 2014 Law on Environmental Protection;

At the proposal of the Minister of Natural Resources and Environment,

The Government promulgates the Decree on preliminary environmental impact assessment.

Chapter I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1. Scope of regulation

This Decree prescribes in detail preliminary environmental impact assessment.

Article 2. Subjects of application

This Decree applies to agencies, organizations and individuals engaged or involved in investment, public investment, investment in the form of public-private partnership, construction investment and grant of investment registration certificates, except grant of investment registration certificates at the request of investors.

Chapter II

PRELIMINARY ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT

Article 3. Objects and contents of preliminary environmental impact assessment

1. Objects of preliminary environmental impact assessment include investment projects subject to the formulation of environmental impact assessment reports specified in Annex II, Section I of the Appendix to the Government’s Decree No. 40/2019/ND-CP of May 13, 2019, amending and supplementing a number of articles of the decrees detailing and guiding the implementation of the Law on Environmental Protection, that fall into one of the following cases:

 a/ Public investment projects (except urgent public investment projects, projects of national target programs, component projects of projects for which investment policy, investment preparation task or planning task has been decided by  competent authorities);

b/ Investment projects in the form of public-private partnership (PPP projects);

c/ Investment projects subject to approval of investment policy in accordance with the law on investment;

d/ Investment projects subject to grant of investment registration certificates, except the grant of investment registration certificates at the request of investors.

2. Contents of preliminary environmental impact assessment of an investment project include:

a/ Assessment of conformity of the location of the project with the national environmental protection strategy, national environmental protection master plan, and environmental protection contents in regional and provincial-level master plans and other relevant master plans;

b/ Identification and forecast of major environmental impacts of the project based on scale, production technology and location of the project; 

c/ Identification of environmentally sensitive factors of the area for implementation of the project based on location options (if any);

d/ Analysis, assessment and selection of options on scale, production technology, waste treatment technology and location of the project, and solutions to reduce environmental impacts;   

dd/ Identification of major environmental issues and scope of environmental impacts that need attention in the course of environment impact assessment.

Article 4. Performance and consideration of contents of preliminary environmental impact assessment

1. Agencies, organizations and individuals that propose the investment projects specified in Clause 1, Article 3 of this Decree shall perform preliminary environmental impact assessment in the course of preparing prefeasibility study reports, investment policy proposal reports, dossiers of request for investment policy approval and dossiers of application for investment registration certificates.

2. Competent agencies shall consider contents of preliminary environmental impact assessment simultaneously with appraising dossiers of request for investment policy decision or approval and dossiers of application for investment registration certificates in accordance with the laws on public investment, investment in the form of public private-partnership, investment, and construction.

Chapter III

IMPLEMENTATION PROVISIONS

Article 5. Transitional provisions

1. Preliminary environmental impact assessment is not required for investment projects for which environmental impact assessment reports have been appraised by competent agencies before the effective date of this Decree without requiring any modification and investment projects for which environmental impact assessment reports have been approved by competent agencies before the effective date of this Decree.

2. Preliminary environmental impact assessment is not required for investment projects for which preliminary environmental impact assessment has been performed and investment policy has been approved by competent authorities when investors apply for investment registration certificates.

3. PPP projects for which dossiers of request for investment policy decision have been received by competent agencies before January 1, 2021, and environmental impact assessment reports have been prepared in accordance with the law on environmental protection must still comply with regulations effective at the time of receipt of the dossiers. PPP projects for which dossiers of request for investment policy decision have been received by competent agencies before January 1, 2021, but environmental impact assessment reports have not been prepared must comply with the law on investment in the form of public-private partnership and the law on public investment.

Article 6. Effect

1. This Decree takes effect on the date of its signing.

2. To annul Article 12 of the Government’s Decree No. 40/2020/ND-CP of April 6, 2020, detailing a number of articles of the Law on Public Investment.

Article 7. Implementation responsibility

Ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies, heads of government-attached agencies, chairpersons of provincial-level People’s Committees, and related organizations and individuals shall implement this Decree.-

On behalf of the Government
For the Prime Minister
Deputy Prime Minister
LE VAN THANH