Opinion exchange meeting on proposed revisions to industrial wastewater and emission standards in Vietnam 
On June 7, 2023, the Vietnam Office of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), together with the Embassy of Japan in Vietnam and the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI), held the Opinion Exchange Meeting on the Proposed Revisions to the Vietnam’s Environmental Technical Standards. At the meeting, a JICA expert stationed and working at the Vietnamese Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) and Dr. Nguyen The Dong, former Deputy Director General of the MONRE Environment Administration, explained the proposed revisions to the respective responsible standard values for industrial wastewater and exhaust gas emissions. The proposed revisions have attracted a number of concerns in terms of various issues from stricter discharge/emission standards compared to the current standards, sampling locations, to cooling water management. The purpose of this meeting was to hear concerns, questions and opinions from participants and ultimately submit a written opinion to MONRE.
This meeting was held at the Thang Long Industrial Park I (located in Dong Anh District, Hanoi City) and was attended in person and online by approximately 150 Japanese companies.
EnviX staff based in Hanoi also attended the discussions.
Background of the meeting and issues of the proposed new standards
As a background to this meeting, after the full revision of the Law on Environmental Protection in 2020 (“the Law”), MONRE has promulgated and implemented the Decree No. 08/2022/ND-CP and the Circular No. 02/2022/TT-BTNMT that govern the implementation of the Law, strengthening the state’s environmental policy. MONRE is also now revising the National Technical Regulations (QCVN) on standards for industrial wastewater and emissions to make them align with the existing rules on Environmental License as stipulated in the Law. Actually, MONRE developed and published such draft standards in 2021 and have solicited for comments from businesses, experts, and others.
