Vietnam’s new Decree aims to achieve a circular economy under LEP2020

On January 10, 2022, the Vietnamese government issued the Decree No. 08/2022/ND-CP Detailing a Number of Articles of Law on Environmental Protection 2020 (hereinafter “the Decree”), which came into effect on the same day. Articles 138–140 in Chapter 10 of the Decree provide for the nation’s targets, a roadmap, and incentive schemes to achieve a circular economy. Based on the Decree, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) plans to formulate a national plan for achieving a circular economy by the end of 2023, in which specific requirements would be stipulated.

The Decree (No. 08/2022/ND-CP) can be downloaded at:
https://monre.gov.vn/VanBan/Pages/ChiTietVanBanPhapQuy.aspx?pID=277

Targets towards a circular economy

The Decree sets out domestic targets to achieve a circular economy as follows:

• To reduce the development and use of non-renewable resources and water resources; and to enhance the effective use of (raw) materials and energy.
• To extend the lives of materials, equipment, products, goods, and components.
• To curb the amount of waste generated that has negative impacts on the environment through minimizing discharge of solid waste, wastewater, and exhaust gases; reducing the use of hazardous chemicals; recycling waste; recovering energy; reducing disposable products; and applying green procurement.

Measures to realize a circular economy

To achieve the targets listed above, manufacturing, trade, and service investment projects/facilities must take one or more of the following measures, in the following order of priority:

• To reduce the use of non-ecofriendly products; to optimize the use of products; and to enhance the productivity and material efficiency.
• To extend the lifetime of products and components (by reusing, repairing, modifying, remanufacturing, repurposing products, etc.).
• To reduce waste (by recycling products, recovering energy through incineration, etc,).

Roadmap towards a circular economy

Although the Decree does not provide any specific roadmap, it requires for MONRE to complete a national plan for the realization of a circular economy and submit it to the government by December 31, 2023. This plan is expected to establish circular economy standards and include provisions with which manufacturing, trade, and service investment projects must comply.

Incentive schemes to accelerate progress towards a circular economy

To accelerate the economic development towards a circular economy, a priority will be given to investments in the following activities:

• Research and development, applied development, technology transfer, and human resource education to realize a circular economy
• Provision of information and data sharing platforms on a circular economy

Projects that apply a circular economy model will be eligible for incentives regarding environmental protection and green credit allocation, as well as preferential treatment in terms of land, investment amount, taxes, fees, and others as stipulated in Articles 131–137 of the Decree.