Vietnam's No. 69/2025/QH15 Law on Chemicals was overwhelmingly passed by the 15th National Assembly on June 14, 2025, with a high approval rate of 93.10% among participating representatives. The law will officially take effect on January 1, 2026.
The new law incorporates multiple reform measures aimed at addressing industry development bottlenecks and creating a favorable environment for the chemical industry, with the goal of achieving double-digit economic growth during the 2026-2030 period. By enhancing decentralized authorization, streamlining administrative procedures, and promoting the application of information technology, the law also seeks to improve the business environment, facilitate corporate compliance, and reduce implementation difficulties.
The 2025 Law on Chemicals primarily focuses on the following four key new aspects:
Formulating Policies to Build a Sustainable Chemical Industry as a Foundational and Modern Sector
- Supplements the development strategy for the chemical industry (Article 4): Clarifies the objectives, requirements, content, and periods for strategy formulation.
- Chemical projects (Article 5): Requires chemical projects to comply with safety distance regulations, environmental standards, and technical norms, while encouraging the selection of green, sustainable, and environmentally friendly technologies and equipment.
- Key chemical industry sectors (Article 6): Investment projects in key chemical sectors that meet government regulations on capital scale and disbursement progress will enjoy special investment incentives and support.
- Professional chemical consulting activities (Articles 7, 8): Adds provisions on the conditions for professional consulting organizations and individuals in the chemical field, as well as certification requirements for individuals engaged in consulting activities.
Implementing Unified Management of the Entire Chemical Lifecycle
- The law systematically regulates the entire lifecycle of chemicals—from production, trading, import-export, transportation, storage, and use to waste treatment (Articles 10-16)—and implements classified management by category (conditional chemicals, specially controlled chemicals, prohibited chemicals).
- Conditional Chemicals: Production or trading organizations must hold a corresponding Certificate of Eligibility. Their import-export is limited to certified producers (exporting their own products), traders (for trading purposes), and users (for self-use purposes).
- Specially Controlled Chemicals: Production or trading requires a License. Apart from the relevant license, their import-export also requires a separate, special import-export license. This license is issued per export/import invoice, is valid for six months from issuance, and may be extended once.
- Prohibited Chemicals: These are generally prohibited. Import is only permitted under specific exceptions with an import license (e.g., for scientific research as defined by law) and requires strict compliance with regulations on use and final disposal (export or destruction).
- Organizations and individuals purchasing or selling specially controlled chemicals must maintain purchase/sale control lists and must authenticate the data of the purchasing/selling organizations/individuals according to the implementation roadmap prescribed by the government (Clause 4, Article 11).
- Organizations and individuals using specially controlled chemicals must disclose the purpose of use (Article 17).
Managing Hazardous Chemicals in Products
- Introduces new control and information disclosure requirements regarding the content of hazardous chemicals in products (Articles 31, 32), aiming to reduce their harm to human health, property, and the environment, aligning with international management trends.
- For products containing hazardous chemicals for which technical standards already exist, compliance follows this Law, the Law on Standards and Technical Regulations, the Law on Product and Goods Quality, and other relevant laws.
- For products containing hazardous chemicals for which technical standards have not yet been established, competent authorities will promulgate a list of hazardous chemicals requiring information disclosure.
- Organizations and individuals producing or importing products containing hazardous chemicals are obligated to disclose information on the content of hazardous chemicals in their products on the specialized chemical database (https://chemicaldata.gov.vn/tim-kiem/hoa-chat) before the products enter market circulation.
Enhancing Chemical Safety and Security Effectiveness
- Revises safety distance regulations and clarifies that provincial People's Committees are responsible for formulating compliance roadmaps for existing chemical facilities (Article 35).
- Adjusts the timing for approving chemical incident prevention and response plans for chemical projects and facilities (Article 37).
- Improves provincial-level chemical incident response plans (Article 39).
- Adds provisions on the state formulating policies to enhance chemical incident prevention and response capabilities in the civil sector (Article 41).
The Chemical Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade stated that the 2025 Chemicals Law systematically regulates chemical management, chemical industry development, information disclosure, supervision of hazardous chemicals in products, as well as safety and emergency response safeguards. It aims to establish a legal foundation to improve the efficiency of state management in chemical industry development and chemical management, minimize risks arising from chemical activities, and build a normative legal document system harmonized with regulations worldwide.
Further Information
