On December 1, the National Assembly discussed in the hall the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Geology and Minerals.
An issue that many delegates are concerned about is the management of rare earth minerals.
Explaining and accepting the opinions of National Assembly deputies (NADs), Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Tran Duc Thang said that Vietnam is a country with large reserves of rare earths, ranking second and third in the world, distributed in 21 provinces and cities.
According to the Minister, this agency is taking the lead in developing a national strategy on rare earths, submitted to competent authorities for promulgation in early 2026.
"We have basically completely identified mining areas with minerals, and strictly organized management. After completing the sealing, the very important thing now is how to put it into exploitation and deep processing to benefit the country" - Minister Tran Duc Thang said.
Minister Tran Duc Thang emphasized that rare earths will truly become an important resource for us to exploit and develop the country in the coming time in the spirit of forming a closed value chain and minimizing the export of raw materials.
Regarding the mechanism for granting mineral exploitation licenses for public works and key projects, at the meeting, many delegates proposed to consider the scope of works that are entitled to policies and decision-making authority; avoid expanding subjects without planning, leading to loopholes and profiteering.
Regarding this issue, Minister Tran Duc Thang stated that the permission to expand to depth only applies to mines in operation, without requiring additional planning for those mines themselves.
Another issue that many delegates are interested in is the criterion for determining areas where mineral exploitation rights are not auctioned.
According to Minister Thang, the draft law has designed specific principles and criteria, aiming to ensure a stable source of raw materials for investors to carry out urgent projects and mineral processing projects - fields with specific characteristics, large capital, strongly affecting socio-economic development.
The Minister gave an example, for cement factories, when they have been granted a construction investment license, the accompanying raw material mine cannot be auctioned, because it is not suitable for practice.
In addition, the law has also assigned the Government to specify in detail the conditions and procedures for determining areas where mineral exploitation rights are not auctioned.
According to the Minister, the goal is to fully assess factors such as market demand, resource efficiency, investor capacity, environmental impact and people's livelihoods, thereby forming a deep domestic processing chain.
This approach helps control risks right from the stage of establishing a non-auction area, avoiding taking advantage of policies, especially for particularly important strategic minerals.
During the implementation process, we also paid great attention to the opinions of National Assembly deputies on the risk of taking advantage of the designated mechanism leading to losses" - Minister Thang explained.
Regarding mineral reserve planning, the Minister emphasized that this is a reserve area with a term of 50 years. In this area, only level I works are not allowed to be built; works from level II and below are allowed to be invested in and constructed normally.
