The Ministry of Planning and Investment has just announced to collect opinions for the Draft Decree detailing the Investment Law on special investment procedures.
According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, Clause 12, Article 36a of the Investment Law (amended and supplemented by Law No. 57/2024/QH15 amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Planning, the Law on Investment, the Law on Investment under the public-private partnership method and the Law on Bidding) assigns the Government to specify details on special investment procedures.
Accordingly, from the time Law No. 57/2024/QH15 takes effect from January 15, 2025, investors proposing to implement investment projects that meet the conditions specified in Article 36a can register for investment under the new regulations.
In addition, according to the provisions of Point c, Clause 2, Article 6 of Law No. 57/2024/QH14, special investment procedures are also applied to projects operating in the fields subject to special investment procedures prescribed in Clause 8, Article 2 of this Law. Thus, from January 15, 2025, high-tech projects in operation, if meeting the conditions prescribed in Article 36a, can also choose to apply special investment procedures to shorten the project implementation time.
Special investment procedures are new, breakthrough regulations applied to investment projects in the fields of semiconductor and high-tech industries… in industrial parks, export processing zones, high-tech zones and economic zones, moving from “pre-inspection” to “post-inspection”.
Accordingly, investors carry out investment registration procedures to be granted an Investment Registration Certificate within 15 days and do not have to carry out a number of procedures to be granted licenses in the fields of construction, fire prevention, fire fighting and environmental protection (expected to shorten project implementation time by about 260 days).
Along with that, the draft clearly stipulates the procedures for registering for the issuance of an Investment Registration Certificate. Accordingly, the draft specifies the content of the investor’s commitment to meeting the conditions, standards, and regulations according to the provisions of law on construction, environmental protection, fire prevention and fighting in the investment project registration document; specifies the content of identification, forecast of environmental impacts and measures to minimize negative impacts on the environment in the investment project implementation proposal.
In case an investor proposes an investment project similar to a project already implemented in Vietnam or abroad, the investor may submit approved documents and records of that project instead of the investment project proposal, but must include the contents of the investment project proposal as prescribed.
Regarding the procedures for ensuring project implementation, the draft clearly states that investors must make a deposit or submit a guarantee certificate from a credit institution regarding the deposit obligation after being granted an Investment Registration Certificate and before organizing the implementation of the compensation, support and resettlement plan approved by a competent authority (in case the investor does not make an advance payment for compensation, support and resettlement) or before the time of issuing a decision to lease land or permit the change of land use purpose (in case the investor has made an advance payment for compensation, support and resettlement).
According to the draft, the investor will be refunded 50% of the deposit amount or the guarantee for the deposit obligation will be reduced by 50% at the time the investor sends the Management Board a notice of commencement of construction along with the documents specified in Clause 8, Article 36a of the Investment Law; the remaining deposit amount and interest arising from the deposit amount (if any) will be refunded or the guarantee for the deposit obligation will be terminated at the time the investor has completed the self-acceptance of the construction work…
Regarding the implementation of investment projects, the draft stipulates: Investors are responsible for fully implementing the provisions of the Investment Registration Certificate and commitments on construction, environmental protection and fire prevention and fighting, and are responsible for failure to properly implement their commitments. Investors carry out procedures for granting Environmental Licenses in accordance with the provisions of the law on environmental protection…