National Chemical Inventory (NCI)

Vietnam has been working on a draft National Chemical Inventory (NCI) and so far the inventory has been opened 5 times for industry to nominate substances. Currently, the inventory contains about 40,000 substances. The new deadline for substance submission is April 15th, 2021.

The final draft of the inventory is expected to be released by the end of this year. It's therefore important that all chemical manufacturers, importers, traders in Vietnam as well as non-Vietnamese manufacturers nominate their substances to the inventory to ensure their access to the market. 

Who can nominate substance to the Inventory?

To be eligible to nominate, companies must have a legally registered business entity in Vietnam. A tax identification number will be required for online registration. 

GPC through its Vietnamese affiliates can help you with the NCI nomination for Vietnam regulatory compliance.

Information to be submitted for notifying substance in the Inventory:

Businesses must submit the following information:

• Chemical name (IUPAC);
• CAS number;
• Safety Data Sheets (SDS) - as per Vietnamese Decree No. 113/2017/ND-CP and Circular no. 04/2012/TT-BCT in Vietnamese language
• evidence or documentation proving the chemical has been used in Vietnam (eg. purchasing contracts and invoices).

Process after finalization & Publication of Inventory:

It's expected that the Inventory would be published by end of 2021. Its therefore important that all chemical manufacturers, importers, traders in Vietnam and from outside Vietnam nominate their substances to the inventory. 

Once registered online, companies will be able to search the site for chemical substances. The search results will provide the status of the chemicals, which are divided into four groups:

• nominated and verified – for this group, no further action is required. The chemicals have been included on the draft inventory;
• nominated with some documentation – chemical substances which have been nominated, but have not yet been verified. In this case, companies can choose to attach further evidence or documentation. Companies are encouraged to submit additional evidence if feasible. If a company declines to submit additional evidence, and the information previously submitted by another company is deemed insufficient at a later point, the substance will not be added to the draft list of chemicals;
• nominated – chemical substances which have been nominated but no documentation has been submitted. If no evidence is submitted for these chemicals, they will not be added to the draft inventory; and
• not nominated – if not listed, then these chemical substances have not yet been nominated. Companies can nominate the substances and submit the required evidence.