By Le Trinh
Ass.Prof.Dr., President of Vietnam Association for Environmental Impact Assessment
(VAFEIA - VACNE), Director of Vietnam Institute for Environmental Science and Development, 179 Bachdang,
Tanbinh, Ho Chi Minh City

ABSTRACT:

 In order to integrate environmental consideration into socio-economic development planning process
since 1980s of 20th Century in the World concepts and approach on strategic environmental
assessment (SEA) have been created. However, at present, while environmental impact assessment
(EIA) in many countries is commonly executed and its effectiveness in environmental management is
clearly evaluated, SEA is still new issue, application and effectiveness of which are still debated. 
In Vietnam, SEA for development policies and regional, sectional development plans has started to be
executed from Mid 2006 based on the requirements of the Law on Environmental Protection (2005).
Various technical guidelines for SEA execution were issued by Ministry of Natural Resources and
Environment (MONRE) and other ministries. Until Mid 2012 over 50 SEA reports have been reviewed
by MONRE and over 20 SEA reports - by other ministries. Actually, at present, in Vietnam SEA is
playing an important role in decisions of the Government on provincial and sectional socio-economic
master plans for the period to 2020 and vision on 2030.  Many studies in SEA with high quality greatly
contributed in integration of environmental consideration into economic development decision.
However, SEA is a new concept, its approach and methodology are new, therefore, at present various
limits may be found in SEA process. This paper introduces some achievements and problems to be
concerned in SEA in Vietnam. With introduction of a good practice in SEA for the Tonkin Gulf Coastal
Region Socio-Economic Development Master Plan this paper briefly describes the region, included
Quangninh Province and Haiphong City, main issues of the plan, core environmental issues, potential
impacts caused by plan implementation and proposed mitigation measures. From the results of SEA
practice for this Master Plan this paper gives various lessons in information collection to set up
database, SEA methodology, public consultation, time and budget for SEA. These lessons are useful
to improve SEA to be a reliable tool to integrate environmental protection into economic growth
towards sustainable development.


See full report here.