Amending 15 laws on agriculture and environment: Removing bottlenecks, creating breakthroughs

In order to quickly remove legal "bottlenecks" that are hindering investment, production and business activities, including cutting administrative procedures and investment and business conditions in the fields of agriculture and environment, while strengthening decentralization and ensuring compliance with the two-level local government organization model, at the 10th session of the 15th National Assembly, the Government will submit to the National Assembly a draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of 15 laws in the fields of agriculture and environment (the draft Law).

The draft Law will amend and supplement a number of articles of 15 laws, including the Law on Environmental Protection; Law on Plant Protection and Quarantine; Law on Animal Husbandry; Law on Biodiversity; Law on Dikes; Law on Surveying and Mapping; Law on Hydrometeorology; Law on Forestry; Law on Natural Disaster Prevention and Control; Law on Water Resources; Law on Marine and Island Resources and Environment; Law on Veterinary Medicine; Law on Irrigation; Law on Fisheries and Law on Cultivation.

Mr. Phan Tuan Hung, Director of the Legal Department ( Ministry of Agriculture and Environment ) said that the scope of the revision of the "bottlenecks" this time focuses on the "ripe" and "clear" contents that are necessary and can be resolved immediately or some problems that have been directed by competent authorities.

In addition, the draft Law also focuses on amending regulations related to the organization of the apparatus, decentralization, and delegation of power to two-level local governments and reducing and simplifying investment and business conditions and administrative procedures.

The amendment of regulations related to organizational structure, decentralization and delegation will ensure consistency with current regulations on the basis of inheriting and legalizing Decree No. 131/2025/ND-CP regulating the division of authority of local authorities at two levels in the field of state management of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment and Decree No. 136/2025/ND-CP dated June 12, 2025 regulating decentralization and delegation in the field of agriculture and environment.

Classifying and processing ocean tuna products for export. (Photo: Vu Sinh/VNA)

Regarding the reduction and simplification of administrative procedures and investment and business conditions, the draft Law is expected to amend 75 articles; of which 26 articles are related to investment and business conditions and 49 articles are related to administrative procedures according to the administrative procedure reform plan under the management of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment approved by the Prime Minister . The review and amendment are carried out in many laws, such as the Law on Fisheries, the Law on Cultivation, the Law on Animal Husbandry, the Law on Veterinary Medicine, the Law on Water Resources, the Law on Forestry, and the Law on Environmental Protection.

According to Mr. Phan Tuan Hung, state management practices in recent times have given rise to many problems, also known as "bottlenecks."

There are provisions that lack consistency among laws, such as the provisions on the management of alien organisms in the Law on Biodiversity; some provisions are unclear or not feasible when applied, such as the provisions on promulgating national technical regulations on testing livestock lines and breeds and animal feed in the Law on Animal Husbandry; or difficulties in assessing environmental impacts for component projects and project investment phases in the Law on Environmental Protection.

A specific example is the management of veterinary drug quality. Currently, enterprises must comply with the regulations of the Veterinary Law and make a declaration of conformity according to the Law on Standards and Technical Regulations.

This increases costs, reduces product competitiveness and causes difficulties for businesses. The draft Law proposes to exempt veterinary drugs from conformity declaration, in order to avoid duplication with veterinary drug quality management measures and reduce administrative burden and compliance costs.

In the forestry sector, the draft Law amends regulations related to the conversion of forest use to other purposes to ensure compliance with the Land Law; adds regulations on temporary forest use or regulations on replacement forest planting in the direction of expanding the scope of funding use, allowing flexible use for forestry activities with equivalent ecological value, contributing to solving difficulties in land funds for forest planting.

The draft Law also adds provisions on forest environmental services, forest carbon absorption and storage services - important content in the process of building a carbon market and developing a green economy.

Protective pine forests and landscapes play an important role in regulating water resources, limiting landslides and creating a unique landscape in the Southern Central Highlands. (Photo: VNA)

In addition, the Forestry Law currently has no regulations on adjusting the policy of changing forest use purposes when actual conditions change, leading to confusion in implementation.

Some cases have been granted policies but after 24 months have not been implemented, causing waste of forest land and creating management gaps. The Law Project will supplement regulations on adjusting, updating and revoking policies to ensure the responsibility of the decision-making agency, avoiding investors taking advantage of legal loopholes to occupy land and keep forests "on paper", negatively affecting the management and effective use of forest and land resources. With the Law on Environmental Protection, a notable content is the management of imported scrap as raw materials for production.

Currently, the law has not yet regulated the roadmap and rate of scrap imports. Without appropriate management policies, scrap will be imported massively into Vietnam, leading to a surplus of scrap in the country or a high risk of environmental pollution.

Therefore, the draft Law will stipulate the rate and roadmap for scrap import to be consistent with the State's policies and regulations in developing the green economy, national circular economy and sustainable development.

According to Mr. Phan Tuan Hung, focusing on removing legal "bottlenecks" and handling inadequacies arising from practice is a necessary and urgent step to unblock resources, improve the effectiveness and efficiency of state management and promote economic growth.

There are quite a lot of problems in the laws, proposed for amendment by units, organizations and individuals. However, due to the shortened procedure and short time to complete, it is necessary to determine and limit the scope of the draft Law.

Handling all problems will have to be done when amending each law as a whole on the basis of research, evaluation and summary of the implementation process./.

(TTXVN/Vietnam+)

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/sua-doi-15-luat-ve-nong-nghiep-va-moi-truong-go-diem-nghen-tao-dot-pha-post1071615.vnp