CNEE was founded in Hanoi in 1997 as part of a Franco-Vietnamese protocol worth four million francs that aimed to establish a training centre and provide equipment as well as training for 850 technicians in the water sector.

In 2000, France started to enlarge CNEE through a project worth one million euros undertaken by the Fonds de Solidarité Prioritaire (FSP) of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs in response to a request from Vietnam.

As a high-quality training centre, CNEE has helped train more than 1,200 people in the field of water supply and environment. It has also served as a workshop for thousands of students from construction and architecture colleges in Hanoi.