Prime minister of Vietnam issued directive on stricter air pollution control 
On January 18, Vietnamese Prime Minister issued the Directive No. 03/CT-TTg on Environmental Air Pollution Controls, which governs state ministries and local People’s Committees. In recent years, air pollution in many localities has become severer across the country, especially in big cities such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. This results in current and potential damages to public health and socio-economic development. The main causes of such severe air pollution are the dust and exhaust gas discharged from various means of transport and construction and industrial activities. In the past (on June 1, 2016), the government issued the Decision of the Prime Minister No. 985a/QD-TTg on Approval of the National Action Plan on Air Quality Management to 2020, with a Vision to 2025. This Decision requires to review the status of compliance of industrial, transportation, and construction sectors with laws and regulations regarding dust and exhaust gas control by the middle of the year 2021.
The Directive can be downloaded at:
http://vea.gov.vn/Ngh%20quyt%20ch%20th/03.CT.TTg.2021.pdf
According to this Directive, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the Ministry of Industry and Trade must fulfill their responsibilities as follows:
Responsibilities of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment:
- To evaluate the implementation results of Decision No. 985a/QD-TTg, propose the plan of air quality management in the period from 2021 to 2025, and report the outcomes to the Prime Minister in the first quarter of 2021
- To strengthen the management and implementation of the air quality monitoring program for ensuring stricter control of air environment monitoring capacity; and to publish the monitoring results and promptly give warning on air pollution to the community
- To rapidly implement the investment and capacity building on air quality monitoring in accordance with the national plan through to 2025; and to strive to establish, in urban cities and rural areas across the country, the capacity of controlling, warning, and forecasting air quality
- To review and make efforts to complete a system of national technical regulations on emissions from industrial sectors and exhaust gases from means of transport; and to make a report to the Prime Minister on the implementation of the road map of application of national technical regulations on emissions from means of transport in Vietnam, and to complete the road map by the fourth quarter of the year 2021
- To develop criteria for eco-labels to be issued for environmentally friendly products, means of transport and transportation services
- To coordinate with ministries and local governments in reviewing laws and regulations on air environmental protection; and to complete the laws and regulations with its competence or to propose other state administrative agencies to complete laws, regulations, or political measures on air pollution control.
Responsibilities of Ministry of Trade and Industry:
- To strengthen control over projects and factories that discharge large amount of wastes and have high risk of causing environmental pollution, such as coal, petroleum oil, steel, chemicals and chemical fertilizers, and mineral exploitation
- To advance policies to encourage and support businesses to employ clean energy and environmentally friendly technologies and to achieve efficient use of natural resources across industrial activities
- To review the country’s capacity to produce, import, and supply fuels against the road map on the emissions from means of transport in Vietnam, and report the results to the Prime Minister by around the middle of the year 2021
- To guide provinces and cities on the electricity development planning so that the needs for electricity-based transportation (i.e., EV) are met
- Deliberate and establish regulations and standards on imported coals to ensure environmental protection (e.g., treatment of ash and allowable limit for sulfur content); and to propose policies to exploit, process and import raw materials for battery production of electricity-based transportation (lithium, cobalt, etc.)
