Revised law to improve local investment climate

The draft amended law will help attract investments based on the priorities laid out in the country's socio-economic development strategy for the 2011-20 period.

The new law will also likely contribute to the restructuring of the economy and help foreign investors overcome existing bureaucratic bottlenecks and meet Vietnam's requirements for opening its markets.

The MoPI said the Investment Law, which was enacted in 2005, has some restrictions that dampen the country's attractiveness as an investment destination, and the draft amended law will help create an equal legal system to attract high-quality projects.

To ensure stability and equality, the draft regulations propose to not discriminate between domestic and foreign investors. In case there are legal changes, incentives for investors will remain.

To further attract investments, investment encouragement fields and areas will be extended to projects using new, cutting edge and environmentally friendly technologies; those using and producing clean energy; those supporting industry projects; and those developing education, training and healthcare, as well as investment projects in agriculture, rural areas, growing and processing agro, and forestry and fishery items.

Projects with major social and economic impact, of high added value, and investment in areas with difficult socioeconomic conditions will be prioritised as well.

The draft law stipulates that investment incentives are applicable to both new and expanded investment projects.

Besides this, the draft law will revise regulations for the implementation of investment incentives. Investors, based on their projects and preferred investment areas, will determine investment preferences and ask investment certificate granting authorities to include these investment incentives in the investment certificates.

The draft law will improve regulations by narrowing the number of projects that will need to follow investment procedures.

Only projects under state management and supervision will need to follow these procedures. These projects include projects with land given and allocated by the state, projects enjoying investment support and incentives, projects that need environmental impact assessment reports and foreign direct investment projects.

The draft law also separates business registration from investment registration for foreign investors. Foreign investors will follow regulations to source investment certificates and will then register their business to implement investment projects.

The amended Investment Law will be submitted to the National Assembly during the seventh session in May and is expected to be approved by the end of 2014.