Reducing 9 groups of administrative procedures, businesses see that further reductions are possible

The draft Law on Chemicals reduces up to 9 groups of administrative procedures compared to the current Law, but businesses still see many conditions that can be further reduced.

Amending the Chemical Law: Reducing 9 groups of administrative procedures, businesses see that further reductions are possible

The draft Law on Chemicals reduces up to 9 groups of administrative procedures compared to the current Law, but businesses still see many conditions that can be further reduced.

Is a 5-year production qualification certificate appropriate?

This is the question that many businesses raised when giving their opinions on the Draft Law on Chemicals. Mr. Nguyen Huu Dung, Vice President of the Vietnam Association of Laboratories, even wanted to clarify whether it was necessary to consider re-issuing the certificate of eligibility for conditional chemical production.

“If to ensure that the facility maintains production conditions according to regulations, then apply an inspection mechanism or acknowledge the results of some appropriate assessment, such as ISO 9001 Certificate... If the regulation stipulates that the certificate of production eligibility is valid as a 50-year investment license, will it affect management?”

This is the reason Mr. Dung proposed to extend the validity of the certificate of eligibility for chemical production.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Mai, Deputy Head of Technical Department, Vietnam Chemical Group

Sharing the same concern, Ms. Nguyen Thi Mai, Deputy Head of Technical Department, Vietnam Chemical Group, said that chemicals with conditions are strictly inspected and controlled to be licensed for production. Every year, competent authorities have programs to indirectly and directly monitor chemical activities at enterprises through periodic reports of enterprises and direct supervision at enterprises.

“Enterprises must report on the chemical activities of the previous year to the Department of Chemicals and the local Department of Industry and Trade according to regulations. Inspections, checks, and supervision by competent authorities on enterprises regarding the implementation and compliance with legal regulations in chemical activities according to regulations. In case of changes in the location of chemical production and trading facilities; type, scale, and types of chemicals produced, the unit must make a request to adjust the Certificate according to regulations,” Ms. Mai analyzed in detail.

Furthermore, according to the provisions of the Law on Environmental Protection, the term of an environmental license for group 1 investment projects (projects with a high risk of negative environmental impacts) is 7 years and for the remaining cases it is 10 years.

“The validity period of the “Certificate of eligibility for conditional chemical production is 10 years from the date of issue,” Ms. Mai suggested.

In the Draft Law on Chemicals (amended), revised after the 42nd session of the National Assembly Standing Committee in February 2025, the Certificate of Eligibility for Conditional Chemical Production is valid for 5 years from the date of issue and is issued, reissued, adjusted, and revoked by the People's Committee of the province or centrally-run city.

  The Chemical Group also recommends that organizations and individuals who have been granted a certificate of eligibility for chemical production and trading by a competent authority before the effective date of this Law may continue to operate under the granted certificate until the expiration date stated on the certificate, instead of having to re-issue it after December 31, 2027 as in the Draft.

In addition, the Vietnam Association of Laboratories recommends not to include chemical consulting activities in the list of conditional business lines. The reason is that in the Draft, the conditions for “chemical consultants” do not have any special requirements, even taking criteria from the Construction Law, but adding the administrative procedure of “issuing a license to practice chemical consulting”.

Should the chemical classification system be changed to be different from the global system?

Also contributing to the content of the Draft Law on Chemicals, Canon Vietnam Co., Ltd. is interested in the change in the chemical classification principles proposed in the Draft. That is, applying the classification principles of the Ministry of Industry and Trade instead of the United Nations Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals.

Ms. Dao Thi Thu Huyen, Deputy Director of External Affairs, Canon Vietnam Co., Ltd.

Ms. Dao Thi Thu Huyen, Deputy Director of External Affairs, Canon Vietnam Co., Ltd., is concerned that this change "is going against the world trend".

Canon Vietnam's calculations show that, although it is a manufacturing enterprise, not a chemical production/trading enterprise, Canon Vietnam has imported more than 400 types of chemicals, of which more than 100 chemicals are on the list of chemicals that must be declared.

“Currently, we declare 1-2 times/week and only need 1 person in charge. If we had to declare all imported chemicals, we would have to declare more than 400 times/week, which would require 4 people just to declare. Thus, declaring all types of chemicals increases procedures, costs, and human resources by 4 times,” said Ms. Huyen.

The problem is, according to a representative of Canon Vietnam, countries around the world only manage controlled chemicals or chemicals that need special control, toxic chemicals. The need to control chemicals that do not belong to the above two types of chemicals is baseless and not in accordance with international principles and practices.

Currently, in some countries such as Thailand, only chemicals in the list of controlled chemicals and chemicals requiring special control must be declared when imported. Or in Japan, chemicals in the MEIT (Manufactured Chemical Substances in Japan) list have been commercialized and have MEIT codes, so they do not need to be declared when imported.

New chemicals not on the MEIT list must be notified before production or import. In Korea, businesses only have to declare toxic chemicals on the list when importing.

Up to now, Vietnam has been applying the classification principles of the United Nations Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals without any problems. Vietnam's regulations also have very strict regulations on chemical management at each stage such as transportation, storage, use and treatment.

"We propose to keep it as the current Chemical Law," Ms. Huyen submitted a petition.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/sua-luat-hoa-chat-giam-9-nhom-thu-tuc-hanh-chinh-doanh-nghiep-thay-co-the-giam-them-d255309.html