SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM
Ministry of Industry
Rural Energy II Project
Environmental Guidelines and Framework
Attachment to Ministry of Industry’s Decision
Number: Date:
January, 2004
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Environmental Guidelines and Framework
VIETNAM: Rural Energy II
1. Introduction
The Rural Energy II Project (the Project) is classified as Category B for environmental
assessment (EA, see OP/BP/GP 4.01 Environmental Assessment). The project may include both
positive and negative impacts. Negative impacts are minor, and temporary and are primarily
associated with preconstruction and construction activities. Positive impacts are mostly incurred
during operation, and are likely to be significant because of their longer term nature at both the
local and regional level.
2. Overview
This framework document will provide guidance on the EA process to be adopted for
subprojects to be considered for financing under the Project. Basically, there are eight elements
involved for the EA process during project preparation and three elements involved with project
implementation. These are listed below:
Investment Preparation
Screening
EA Documentation/Document Content
Consultation
Disclosure
EA Review and Approval
Subloan Conditionality and Approval
Environmental Performance Standards
Licensing and Permitting

• Project Description (see Annex 1)
• Screening of Potential Environmental Issues AND Rationale for Their
Significance Grading
An EMP should be developed from the Environmental Template Document, which has
been suggested by WB and the final version is yet to be endorsed by EVN and MOI
An EIA or environmental certificate should be prepared in accordance with
Vietnamese guidelines as presented in the GOV Circular 490/KHCNMT
All EA documents (IEE, EMP, and EIA) should be consistent. For example, priority
issues identified should be the same for all EA documents as well as the proposed measures to
mitigate these issues. Similarly, institutional responsibilities for mitigation, monitoring etc.
should be the same in all EA documents.
Consultation
The Client will be required to conduct a consultation with project affected people and
non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The purpose of the consultation is to identify
environmental issues of concern to project affected groups and NGOs, so that they may be
included in the EA documents. Therefore consultation may take place either before the EMP is
prepared or after a draft EMP is available. In either case, the final EMP should include any
appropriate environmental issues identified at the consultation.
The consultation can be conducted in any of several forms: door to door survey, public
meeting, circulation of questionnaires, call-in to local radio or TV station, etc.
Detailed documentation of the consultation (see Annex F of the Environmental
Template Document) should be included in the EMP and IEE/EIA.
Disclosure
The Client will be required to provide a Vietnamese language version of the EMP and
IEE/EIA in a public location easily accessible to project affected people. An English language
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version of the EMP and IEE/EIA should also be provided by the Client to the World Bank
Office in Hanoi for display in its library (VDIC) and in the InfoShop in Washington DC
EA Review and Approval
The Client will be responsible for delivering IEE/EIA and EMP documents of quality

Supervision Responsibilities for Mitigation and Monitoring
It is the responsibility of the PMU, possibly in collaboration with Vietnamese
environmental authorities to supervise both the mitigation and monitoring activities which have
been agreed to by the Client in the subloan documentation. The supervision effort should be a
regular on-going activity. Additionally, if there are complaints from local project-affected
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