Continuing the 10th Session, on the morning of November 6, the National Assembly discussed in groups: Draft Law on Construction (amended); Draft Law on amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Geology and Minerals; Draft Law on amending and supplementing a number of articles of laws in the fields of agriculture and environment.
Clarifying criteria for selecting rare earth exploration enterprises
Discussing the draft Law on amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Geology and Minerals, delegates in Group 4 (including the National Assembly delegations of Khanh Hoa, Lai Chau and Lao Cai provinces) basically agreed with the necessity of promulgating this law, according to the Government's Submission and the Verification Report of the Committee on Science , Technology and Environment.
According to National Assembly Deputy Hoang Quoc Khanh (Lai Chau), the draft Law supplementing Chapter VIIa on state management of geology and rare earth minerals is very necessary, because this is one of the special resources in the world , so special policies are needed.
Citing the reality in Lai Chau, the delegate informed that the province has rare earth reserves scattered in the area formerly belonging to Tam Duong district, spanning 60 hectares, making management very difficult; local funding for this work is also difficult.
The Draft Law states: The area for mineral reserves and protection of rare earth minerals is an area containing rare earth minerals but not yet exploited, which needs to be protected and is determined based on the results of geological surveys of minerals and the results of exploration of rare earth minerals .
“This regulation is still unclear about the policy of protecting rare earths.” Emphasizing this, the delegate suggested that Clause 6, Article 85a should be supplemented in the direction: The State has a policy of reserving, regulating and ensuring funding to protect rare earths, regulating the export and import of rare earths in each period in accordance with the goal of sustainable socio-economic development, instead of just stating “The State has a policy of reserving rare earths, regulating export activities…” as in the draft Law.
According to the delegate, if it is not clearly stated that “funding is guaranteed to protect rare earths” but handed over to the locality, it will be very difficult, because rare earths are spread out and need funding to fence them off. “That must be the budget from the central government to the locality,” the delegate suggested.
Also related to the provisions on rare earth in the draft Law, National Assembly Delegate Nguyen Thi Lan Anh (Lao Cai) agreed with the provision "no raw export of rare earth minerals" (Clause 3, Article 85a).
Delegates noted that the Government needs to have strict regulations on the concept and classification of rare earths, because each region has different heavy and light rare earths, along with appropriate exploration, exploitation and processing technology to make the most of rare earths.
The regulation of "no export of raw rare earths" is also consistent with the current practice of many countries, because this is a strategic technology that needs to be mastered.
Also in Clause 3, Article 85a stipulates: only enterprises and organizations designated or permitted by the State are allowed to explore, exploit, process and use rare earth.
Agreeing with this regulation because rare earth exploration is a state secret and cannot be widely distributed, it will be difficult to manage. Delegate Nguyen Thi Lan Anh suggested that it is necessary to clearly define the criteria for selecting and designating units that are allowed to explore.
“It can be a state-owned enterprise or a private enterprise, so what are the criteria to determine which unit ensures national secrets and has the ability to explore? There needs to be clear and strict regulations on the criteria,” the delegate proposed.
In addition, according to delegate Nguyen Thi Lan Anh, deep processing of rare earths must be associated with building a modern industrial ecosystem to enhance the domestic value chain and ensure autonomy in implementing the national strategy on rare earths, which is very necessary.
However, deep processing requires the use of chemicals, so despite advanced technology, it still causes environmental impacts. Therefore, it is necessary to have regulations on deep processing of rare earths that must be linked to environmental protection and post-processing environmental remediation.
Building a strategic inventory of common building materials from sea sand
According to National Assembly Deputy Nguyen Thanh Trung (Lao Cai), the amendment and supplementation of a number of articles of the Law on Geology and Minerals aims to meet urgent requirements in state management and remove difficulties arising in practice, especially issues related to licensing mechanisms, exploitation and use of minerals as common construction materials and filling materials for construction of important projects and works.
The delegate added that the Law on Geology and Minerals No. 54/2024/QH15, effective from July 1, 2025; the regulations on Group IV minerals, effective from January 15, 2025, have added many new and stricter regulations on the management and exploitation of sea sand as construction materials, especially focusing on strict control and promoting reserve assessment to serve key projects.
Citing the actual process of inspecting and supervising a number of key road traffic projects, especially in the Mekong Delta, delegates informed that professional agencies and contractors all said that using sea sand meets technical and environmental requirements, proactively sources materials to ensure construction time, and reduces the current high price of construction sand.
To solve the difficulties caused by the shortage of sand for key national traffic projects and works and to stabilize the price of construction materials, businesses and contractors have proposed a number of solutions, specifically the need to conduct exploration, evaluation and exploitation of sand offshore in Vietnam's sea areas and build strategic warehouses for this product.
In order to quickly deploy the exploitation of sea sand to solve the shortage of sand for infrastructure development and stabilize the price of sand for construction materials nationwide, the delegates proposed that the Government assign the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, the Ministry of Construction and relevant agencies to conduct research and allow the implementation of the assessment of the potential of sea sand as a construction material in Vietnam's sea areas in the form of organizations and individuals conducting basic geological surveys of minerals; when the results of the survey are available, they will be transferred to the state management agency to proceed with the step of exploiting offshore sand, and at the same time deploy the construction of a strategic warehouse of common construction materials from sea sand.
"Implementing the above contents will ensure the goal of stabilizing construction and leveling sand prices in the long term, while completely resolving the shortage of sand for infrastructure development projects," said delegate Nguyen Thanh Trung.
Source: https://daibieunhandan.vn/bao-dam-kinh-phi-de-bao-ve-dat-hiem-10394611.html
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