The Prime Minister will give a final decision to build-operate-transfer (BOT), build-transfer-own (BTO) and build-transfer (BT) projects capitalized at more than VND3 trillion (US$187.5 million) in Vietnam, says a latest draft decree.
Ministers and city/provincial leaders will be responsible for approving other projects.
The draft has gone before the Government and will soon be signed into a Government decree guiding the implementation of the new Law on Investment and will be one of the most important guidance decrees for the legislation.
The draft requires investors to have equity equivalent to at least 30 per cent of the total capital required for a project but allows them to raise funds in stages in the agreed-upon course of project implementation.
Depending on the nature and scale of projects, the proportion might be lower, but not less than 20 per cent if agreed by competent State agencies and investors, according to the draft.
The ratio of equity sparked strong debates among foreign investors during the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI)’s consultations with business circles over the draft in the past.
The draft specifies that foreign investors will have to submit applications to the MPI so that the ministry can pass them around other ministries, other relevant agencies and city/provincial governments for consultations.
The MPI will then report to the Prime Minister and if the Government leader gives approval, the ministry will issue licenses.
For local projects with total investment capital of VND3 trillion or higher, investors will be required to submit applications to relevant ministries or city/provincial governments, which will then report to the prime minister for approval.
After the prime minister gives the nod, investors will sign their projects with competent authorities to proceed to the implementation stage.
So licensing or certifying power regarding foreign-invested projects will continue to rest with the MPI but this ministry must not issue any license before the prime minister nods his agreement. This is unchanged from Decree 62/1998/ND-CP dated August 15, 1998.
Meanwhile, local investors can start implementing their projects after competent authorities give approval without having to go through the above process.
Tran Hao Hung, deputy head of the legal department of the MPI, says this regulation would not rise to discrimination between local and foreign investors since there were things particular about projects with foreign involvement.
For example, they require negotiations over the Government’s guarantees for investors to balance their foreign exchange needs in the project implementation process or over issues involving reference to foreign laws to resolve disputes, he says.
A noticeable point in the draft ministries and city/provincial governments rather than the MPI will give a final say to Vietnamese-invested projects, or they can send these projects directly to the prime minister for a stamp of approval.
STD
Vietnamese
