Proposal to amend regulations on investment policy approval procedures

(Chinhphu.vn) - In the draft Law on Investment and Business, the Ministry of Finance proposed amending and supplementing regulations on procedures for approving investment policies.

The Ministry of Finance proposed to amend regulations on investment policy approval procedures.

The Ministry of Finance said that recently, there have been some problems in implementing investment policy approval procedures:

Firstly, there are some opinions suggesting abolishing the procedure for approving investment policies to reduce investment barriers because this procedure has unclear management objectives, is ineffective, unpredictable, and overlaps with many other regulations. However, besides that, there are also many opinions that if this procedure is abolished, it will potentially pose many risks in state management, cause damage to businesses, and affect the investment and business environment.

Second, currently, in the context of legal regulations related to business investment such as land, bidding, planning, housing, real estate business, electricity, science and technology, etc. being amended and supplemented relatively comprehensively, the procedures for approving investment policies and selecting investors according to the provisions of the law on investment have given rise to a number of difficulties and problems in the implementation process such as:

(i) Difficulties in determining cases where investment policy approval procedures must be carried out (such as industrial cluster projects, mineral exploitation projects, projects in which only one investor is interested after carrying out procedures to determine the number of interested investors according to the provisions of the bidding law, whether investment policy approval procedures must be carried out or not...);

(ii) Problems related to the content of investment policy approval appraisal (such as determining the suitability of the investment project with the planning, appraisal of technology content, land use needs, financial capacity of the investor, content related to housing law, etc.) lead to complicated and prolonged implementation of investment policy approval procedures;

(iii) Currently, the bidding law has added 02 forms of investor selection including investor designation and investor selection in special cases. However, the investment law has not yet regulated the selection of investors in these cases...

Third, Articles 30, 31, and 32 of the Investment Law stipulate the authority to approve investment policies of the National Assembly , the Prime Minister, and provincial People's Committees. Although Laws No. 03/2022/QH14, 57/2024/QH15, and 90/2025/QH15 amending and supplementing the Investment Law No. 67/2020/QH14 have basically decentralized the authority to approve investment policies. However, in order to promote decentralization and delegation of power, it is possible to continue to study more thoroughly the decentralization of projects under the authority of the National Assembly and the Prime Minister.

Regarding this issue, the Ministry of Finance finds that the investment policy approval procedure as prescribed by the Investment Law has the following roles:

Firstly, investment policy approval is the basis and legal document that recognizes and guarantees the legitimate rights and interests of investors in implementing investment projects, ensuring the implementation of the State's commitments to investors on investment incentives and special policies approved by competent State agencies; at the same time, it stipulates the requirements and conditions for project implementation for investors.

Second, investment policy approval is a tool to screen sensitive projects that have impacts and influences on socio-economic development, national defense - security, and the environment, and is a tool to control, ensure safety, and sustainable development. International experience shows that many countries (including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, China, etc.) maintain a review/licensing mechanism similar to the investment policy approval procedure for investment projects according to the above criteria, especially for foreign investment projects.

Third, the investment policy approval procedure is an integrated procedure of contents related to planning, land, environment, construction, etc. The state management agency for investment simultaneously appraises these contents right from the project preparation stage to reduce implementation time and costs compared to carrying out each independent procedure on land, planning, construction, etc.

In addition, the implementation of investment policy approval procedures helps the state management agency on investment to review the overall investment project in relation to specialized laws to assess the socio-economic efficiency and feasibility of the investment project. In case of not implementing the investment policy approval procedures but only implementing procedures according to specialized laws, the specialized state management agency can only evaluate the investment project according to the state management aspect of that agency, which lacks comprehensiveness and synchronization, and does not really ensure the efficiency and feasibility of the project.

Fourth, the decision to approve the investment policy is the input procedure of administrative procedures to carry out the following procedures to implement the investment project such as procedures for land allocation, land lease, change of land use purpose, allocation of sea areas, construction and environment licensing, etc. Abolishing the procedure for approving the investment policy will lead to the requirement to fundamentally amend the entire legal system related to land, construction, environment, bidding, housing, etc., destabilizing the investment and business environment due to changes in policies and laws.

Fifth, the investment policy decision procedure in the Investment Law creates consistency and synchronization of the legal system, avoiding the situation of "a hundred flowers blooming" in the order and procedures for project implementation of specialized laws, creating a transparent, clear, and accessible investment environment for investors.

Sixth, the decision to approve the investment policy is a tool to carry out the inspection, supervision and evaluation of investment by investors and state investment management agencies.

Therefore, the investment policy approval procedure is a necessary procedure in the management of investment and business activities in Vietnam. However, it is necessary to continue to amend and perfect this regulation in order to remove difficulties and obstacles and speed up the implementation of investment policy approval procedures, ensuring consistency and synchronization with relevant legal provisions.

Amending and supplementing regulations on investment policy approval procedures

In the draft, the Ministry of Finance proposed to amend and supplement regulations on investment policy approval procedures in the following direction:

(i) Specify cases that do not have to carry out procedures for approving investment policies to simplify procedures and resolve difficulties in the process of implementing these procedures. Accordingly, Article 26 of the draft Law stipulates cases that do not have to carry out procedures for approving investment policies, including:

- The investment project has been specifically identified in terms of project name; scale; objectives; location; investor (if any); progress, deadline (if any) in the national sector planning or provincial planning;

- Investment projects select investors through the form of land use rights auction, bidding for investment projects using land (including cases where investors are designated bidders; cases where the land plots organized for auction, the bidded land has differences in land use purposes before and after the auction, bidding);

- Investors winning the auction for mineral exploitation rights;

- Investors are assigned to invest in the construction of technical infrastructure of industrial clusters according to legal regulations on management and development of industrial clusters;

- Other cases as prescribed by the Government.

(ii) Narrow down the scope of projects that must undergo investment policy approval and only conduct investment policy approval for projects that have a major impact on the environment or have the potential to seriously impact the environment; projects that affect national defense and security; investment projects in important areas such as seaports, airports, etc.

On that basis, the draft Law proposes to stipulate that the Provincial People's Committee approves investment policies for the following projects:

- Investment projects in cases where the State allocates land or leases land without auctioning land use rights, without bidding to select investors to implement projects using land, and are not in cases of receiving transfer of land use rights or assets attached to land;

- Investment projects with requests for permission to change land use purposes, except for cases of land allocation, land lease, permission to change land use purposes of households and individuals that are not required to have written approval from the Provincial People's Committee according to regulations of the law on land;

- Investment projects for important infrastructure works, large-scale projects with major impacts on the environment, security, national defense, and other projects as prescribed by the Government (including projects such as airports, seaports, industrial parks, urban areas, etc.);

- Investment projects implemented on islands and border communes, wards and towns; coastal communes, wards and towns; other areas that affect national defense and security;

At the same time, the draft Law proposes to amend and supplement the provisions on the authority to approve investment policies of the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee instead of the Provincial People's Committee to ensure compliance with the principles of organization and operation of local governments as prescribed by the Law on Organization of Local Government. Accordingly, the People's Committee at the local government level operates under the collective regime of the People's Committee combined with promoting the responsibility of the Chairman of the People's Committee.

(iii) Only stipulate the authority to approve investment policies of the Prime Minister and the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee and decentralize all projects under the authority to approve investment policies of the National Assembly to the Prime Minister to speed up the implementation of procedures, in which, for important projects, there must be special mechanisms and policies not yet prescribed in the law or project under the direction of the Politburo, the Central Party Secretariat, the Government Party Committee, the Prime Minister approves investment policies after receiving the consent of the National Assembly Standing Committee.

(iv) Amend and supplement Clause 4, Article 29 of the Investment Law to handle difficulties in the process of implementing procedures for approving investment policies at the same time as approving investors in the following direction:

- Specific regulations on approving investment policies at the same time as approving investors in "other cases not subject to auction or bidding" are cases "Investors implementing projects in cases where the State allocates land or leases land without auctioning land use rights or bidding to select investors to implement projects using land" to overcome difficulties and problems of many localities in the past arising from this regulation, avoiding different understandings among law enforcement agencies.

- Supplementing regulations on approving investment policies at the same time as approving investors in cases where investors are selected in special cases according to the provisions of the law on bidding to ensure consistency with the provisions of the law on bidding in selecting investors.

(v) The provisions in the draft Decree guiding the Law on the content of investment policy approval appraisal are in the direction of eliminating and simplifying some contents of investment policy approval appraisal that are wide in scope, overlap with the appraisal contents in the project implementation steps or are not really necessary to be considered immediately at the stage of approving the investment policy such as appraisal contents related to technology, housing progress, etc.; determining the content of assessing the project's conformity with planning directly related to the project implementation proposal (such as industry planning, provincial planning, etc.) to simplify the content of investment policy approval appraisal.

Please read the full draft and give your comments here.

Source: https://baochinhphu.vn/de-xuat-sua-doi-quy-dinh-ve-thu-tuc-chap-thuan-chu-truong-dau-tu-1022509101124423.htm