National Assembly (NA) deputies Monday strongly disagreed with a draft amendment to the Environmental Law that they said favored investors at the expense of residents.

Delegate Le Van Hung said the draft regulation unilaterally favored investors rather than affected residents.

He said many investors may cut environmental protection costs at a time when environmental pollution has become more serious.

Deputy Ly Kim Khanh said the environmental impact assessment is a necessary condition to approve a project, so it cannot be done after the approval.

Investors will waste a lot of time and effort if the assessment report is not approved because they would have already acquired the investment license, he said, adding that some investors may illegally lobby authorized officials to get their environmental impact assessment report approved.

Red to merge into pink

In other issues discussed at the ongoing parliamentary session, deputies agreed with the proposal to combine documentation for land-use rights and house ownership into the “pink book.”

Currently “red books” are certificates that confer land-use rights while the pink books express titles to both land and houses.

Pham Khoi Nguyen, minister of Natural Resources and Environment, said the government has prepared to effect this change that he said was necessary.

Reported by Bao Van