Minister pushes for faster drafting of three key environmental laws

Minister of Agriculture and Environment Trinh Viet Hung

Minister Hung chaired a meeting on April 10 to report on the progress of drafting three amended laws – the Law on Land, the Law on Marine and Island Resources and Environment, and the Law on Environmental Protection.

He stressed that the key requirement for these three laws is that progress must go hand in hand with quality, avoiding submission at the last minute and starting early to ensure the quality of the dossiers.

"The PM has directed the continued acceleration of decentralisation and delegation of authority in handling administrative procedures, aiming for ministries to directly handle no more than 30 per cent of total procedures under their management. This task must be completed in the second quarter of 2026," said Hung. "Units are required to closely adhere to the goals and roadmap and implement them seriously."

"In the environmental sector, policy needs to shift from pre-inspection to post-inspection. To achieve this, we need to clarify three factors: personnel, technology, and administrative processes. Simplifying procedures should focus on reducing the number while maintaining quality, with standards and criteria issued once and applied to similar projects. Classification should be based on geographical area, sector, and industry," he added.

The minister requested related parties to basically complete the draft amendment version by this month, or at the latest by early May.

Specifically for the amended draft Law on Marine and Island Resources and Environment, the procedural steps must be implemented quickly while still ensuring the overall progress – in particular, administrative procedure reform must be closely linked to the drafting of the law.

“This is a new field, offering both opportunities to learn from international experience and requiring thorough research. The adoption of these experiences must be based on a full assessment of their suitability and feasibility in Vietnam's context,” Minister Hung said.

Emphasising the requirement for policy quality, the head of the agriculture and environment sector stated that the law must be 'viable', meaning that individuals and businesses can implement it, and management agencies can apply it. Each regulation must clearly state the benefits it brings to the country, while fully assessing its economic, environmental, social, and international impact, aiming for new regulations to be better than before, serving growth, with the marine economy and related sectors as important drivers.

Regarding the amended draft Law on Land, the ministry's leadership requested that the progress be ensured, with submission to the government expected in June or July. The drafting agency needs to closely follow the practical context, clarify issues in the implementation process, and then propose appropriate solutions to improve the quality of the draft law.

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