Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam speaks at the ceremony.

On June 21, 2019, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc signed Decision 761/QD-TTg to establish the NACCET.

The organisation will be responsible for running tasks to overcome the post war consequences of chemical toxins to environment and humans; handling pollution of toxic chemicals and hazardous substances, including incidents of toxic chemicals and environment nationwide; and building and managing a database on overcoming post war consequences of toxic chemicals.

Ha Van Cu, General Director of the NACCET, said while the war had ended long ago, its consequences remained.

“Tackling post-war toxic chemicals and carrying out activities to ensure security and safety of the environment is an urgent and long-term task. It is both a humanitarian task and a task to ensure the sustainable and prosperous development of the country,” Cu said.

Incidents like the recent mercury pollution and water safety issue in Hanoi showed the increasing risk of chemical pollution, he said.

“Threats to environmental security have been increasing in terms of scale and seriousness in the past year,” he said.

Speaking at the ceremony, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam emphasised the importance of establishing the NACCET.

“There still remains a huge amount of dioxin-contaminated land in Vietnam, millions of toxic chemicals in the soil, millions of people who suffered from dioxin contamination after the war. That’s a problem we need to deal with,” the Deputy PM said.

 “The need to address pollution and chemicals detoxification is urgent,” he said, adding that the establishment of the NACCET is timely.

The Prime Minister assigned the Ministry of National Defence to be responsible for NACCET's activities.