Viet Nam

The draft Circular was developed to complete the legal framework for the management of aquatic breeds, aquatic feed, and environmental treatment products in aquaculture, while simultaneously implementing decentralization of power and levels and administrative procedure reform in line with the orientation of draft laws amending legislation in the agricultural and environmental sectors, decrees guiding the Law on Fisheries, and Prime Ministerial decisions on cutting and simplifying administrative procedures.Accordingly, the draft focuses on shortening the processing time for several key administrative procedures; specifically: the time for granting aquatic breed export licenses is reduced from ten days to seven days, while removing the requirement for Prime Ministerial approval and decentralizing authority to the Minister; the time for granting aquatic breed import licenses is reduced from five days to four days, with no requirement to resubmit certain digitized documents, and authority is decentralized to the Chairmen of Provincial People's Committees. Similarly, the procedure for aquatic feed import licenses is also shortened from five days to four days and decentralized to the Chairmen of Provincial People's Committees.In addition, the draft reviews and amends regulations to align with the two-level local government model, unifying terminology and authority as per National Assembly resolutions and Government decrees on state apparatus reorganization. The draft also supplements and updates specialized management lists, including the List of aquatic species allowed for trading in Viet Nam, the List of aquatic species banned from export, and the List of aquatic species for conditional export; it adds regulations on naming aquatic breeds and specifies cases for the re-issuance of licenses for certain procedures.Furthermore, the draft addresses practical obstacles arising from management practice, such as adding information on aquatic breeds, updating the list of endangered, precious, and rare aquatic species of legal origin, and the list of chemicals, biological products, microorganisms, and raw materials for aquatic feed production allowed for use, thereby creating favorable conditions for fishery production and business while ensuring strict management and sustainable fishery development.

The Circular amending and supplementing some articles of the Circulars regulating the management of veterinary drugs was developed with the goal of reducing and simplifying administrative procedures related to the production and business of veterinary drugs and raw materials, creating favorable conditions for businesses to simplify documentation, save costs, and shorten the time for administrative procedures.

The draft Circular is developed to streamline and simplify administrative procedures, resolve practical bottlenecks, and enhance the validity and efficiency of state management regarding risk assessment and licensing for the import of live aquatic products, in alignment with the administrative reform policy of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment.Accordingly, the Draft focuses on shortening the processing time for administrative procedures: the timeframe for issuing or reissuing live aquatic product import permits is reduced from 35 to 30 days for cases requiring risk assessment, and from 12 to nine days for cases not requiring risk assessment; notably, the timeframe for reissuing permits is significantly reduced from five days to two days. Furthermore, the Draft amends application requirements to promote electronic submissions, permitting the use of scanned copies of original documents to reduce costs for organizations and individuals, and waiving the requirement for certain documents if they are accessible via specialized databases.In addition, the Draft addresses several inadequacies arising from practical management. This includes standardizing the nomenclature of regulatory bodies in accordance with the new organizational model (replacing the "General Department of Fisheries" with the "Fisheries and Fisheries Inspection Department"; and the "Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development" with the "Ministry of Agriculture and Environment"). It also replaces all forms issued under Circular No. 25/2018/TT-BNNPTNT to ensure consistency and ease of implementation.Moreover, the Draft amends and supplements certain provisions of Circular No. 01/2022/TT-BNNPTNT, such as expanding the scope of adjustments on permits, introducing hybrid (in-person and online) council meetings, and repealing obsolete regulations. These changes aim to facilitate the importation of live aquatic products and promote the sustainable development of the fisheries sector.

This Decree details the implementation of:- Clause 5a Article 13 of the Law on Plant Protection and Quarantine regarding the import of plants with soil-attached root balls, as amended and supplemented under Clause 2 Article 2 of the Law on Amending and Supplementing Certain Articles of 15 Laws in the Fields of Agriculture and Environment;- Article 64 of the Law on Crop Production regarding production unit codes (PUCs) and packing house codes (PHCs), as amended and supplemented under Clause 5 Article 15 of the Law on Amending and Supplementing Certain Articles of 15 Laws in the Fields of Agriculture and Environment.

This draft Decree includes the following key updates:- Clarifies the definition of "products of genetically modified organisms" as products derived from GMOs that contain genetic material or proteins resulting from the modified gene;- Defines "Genetic technology" as the application of molecular biology to directly intervene in the genetic material of organisms, including gene editing techniques and genetic recombination techniques;- Defines "Gene-edited organism" as an organism whose genetic material has been modified through gene-editing techniques and does not contain new genetic material from another species or from synthetic sources that are not equivalent in composition and structure to that of the species;- Article 3a is added to establish a clear basis for distinguishing between genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and gene-edited organisms (GEs) for biosafety management. GMOs continue to be subject to existing risk assessment and risk management procedures under Decree No. 69/2010/ND-CP. GEs are managed in accordance with existing regulations on production and business, with organizations and individuals responsible for determining and publicly declaring classification results, reporting to the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, and maintaining relevant documentation for 10 years from the date of declaration. The amendment aims to clarify classification criteria, ensure consistency with current legislation, simplify administrative procedures, and strengthen accountability in biosafety management.