On the morning of November 3, in Hanoi, Vietnam’s Deputy Prime Minister Ho Quoc Dung sat down with industry associations and companies over a single question: who is Decree 101/2026/ND-CP, the implementation detail of the Law on Technology Transfer, actually holding up?
The answer is written into a catalogue. Production and assembly technology for low-emission-standard cars, motorcycles and their engines now sits on the restricted or prohibited list for technology transfer. Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Hoang Minh gave the reason directly: the list exists to back Vietnam’s vehicle emission standard roadmap, and to stop companies from sinking money into outdated technology.
The catalogue locks tech in; the old fleet stays out
Set out as a timeline, none of this was a sudden move:
April 1, 2026 – the decree takes effect, sorting transfers into encouraged, restricted and prohibited categories. September 18 – an inter-agency meeting confirms the catalogue is consistent with the emission roadmap. November 3 – the deputy prime minister fixes three principles: contracts signed before the decree may run their course; production lines already built and operating may keep producing; companies may develop new products on the technology they already have.
The three principles release the existing stock. The new investment companies actually want was not unlocked. The question left hanging after the meeting is whether transfers of prohibited technology may resume after April 1 for new or expanded projects – lines to build Euro 2 and Euro 3 motorcycles, or vehicles at Euro 4 and below for export. No answer yet.
Put the two ends side by side and Vietnam’s logic is clear. On the new-vehicle side, the catalogue plus the roadmap is a double lock: outdated production technology stays out, and the emission standard of newly built vehicles can only move up. On the in-use side, finished lines keep producing and vehicles already on the road keep running – which means a large share of the fleet stays old-emission for years. Tighter standards for new vehicles, paradoxically, stretch the service life of the old ones.
It is the same question China’s market has worked through: standards govern new vehicles; road access and inspections govern old ones. For the diesel trucks and generator sets that will not be replaced soon, retrofitting aftertreatment costs a fraction of vehicle replacement – the niche the AIFILTECH truck exhaust gas purifier serves through exactly this transition period.
When the next answer on post-April transfers comes, no date is set. What is certain is the roadmap’s direction: one way only.
