Creating a transparent investment environment

Although all levels and sectors in the province have made efforts to improve the business environment and support enterprises and investors, reality shows that many enterprises are still hesitant due to institutional constraints and bottlenecks, especially in project investment procedures.

In fact, the biggest challenge in attracting investment in recent times comes from the lack of synchronization between regulations. For example, with the Investment Law, although it was issued with the goal of creating a legal corridor to encourage investment, this law is deeply intervening in areas that already have their own specialized laws. This overlap leads to common legal conflicts, causing difficulties for both investors and management agencies.

A typical example is the process of implementing an investment project to build an industrial park. According to the Investment Law, the project needs to be approved by the Provincial People's Committee. However, the Construction Law requires licensing based on the approved planning and design; while the Environmental Protection Law requires information from the detailed planning to prepare an environmental impact assessment report - something that is not possible without the investment policy being approved. This vicious cycle makes the process last for many years, easily leading to the "ask - give" mechanism to shorten the time.

People and businesses come to resolve administrative procedures at the Provincial Public Administration Service Center.

According to a construction contractor in the province, the most common problems facing investment projects today are administrative procedures and site clearance. The theoretical time to resolve administrative procedures for land-using projects is 310 days, but in reality, there are projects where the site clearance process has taken up to ten years. Not to mention, the real estate law also has many complicated points, lacking synchronization with about 15 related laws. The investment incentive mechanism is not designed to be automatic and transparent, but depends largely on the approval of competent authorities. In a modern market economy , the job of enterprises is to comply with the law and compete fairly, not "beg for investment".

According to the Department of Finance, in the past time, the settlement of investment procedures in the province has also encountered difficulties. Some departments and branches, when participating in the appraisal of investment policies, did not ensure the required content, only provided information without evaluation and comments, causing difficulties in synthesizing reports and not ensuring the provisions of the Investment Law. Moreover, there are overlapping regulations with industrial cluster infrastructure projects. For example, Decree No. 32/2024/ND-CP on industrial cluster management does not require investment policies upon establishment, but the Investment Law 2020 and Decree No. 31/2021/ND-CP require it if there is land allocation or lease. This causes legal problems in the implementation of industrial cluster infrastructure projects. Or as for the selection of land acquisition methods for public projects, Decree No. 151/2025/ND-CP (effective from July 1, 2025) decentralizes the Provincial People's Committee to decide on land allocation and land lease without auction or bidding for public projects. However, the distinction between which projects are subject to bidding (no investment policy required) and which are not subject to bidding (investment policy required) is still unclear.

Calling for investment is not just about “bringing investors to the province to sign contracts and that’s it”, but also about considering investors as strategic customers who need to be taken care of and have their difficulties resolved. Consider businesses and investors as customers and resolve their difficulties.”

Permanent Vice President of Dak Lak Province Young Entrepreneurs Association Tran Thieu Nha

In addition, Decision No. 43/2022/QD-UBND of the Dak Lak Provincial People's Committee on procedures and responsibilities for coordinating the settlement of investment procedures and management of land use projects is no longer suitable due to many new legal documents and the arrangement of administrative units.

Realizing these bottlenecks, on March 26, 2025, the Government issued Resolution No. 66/NQ-CP with the goal of: abolishing at least 30% of unnecessary business conditions; reducing at least 30% of the time to handle administrative procedures; cutting 30% of the cost of complying with administrative procedures for businesses. Many experts have also suggested that if the Investment Law is abolished, the estimated efficiency could be to cut 15-20% of project implementation time (thanks to the elimination of investment policy procedures), reduce 5-7% of sub-license procedures, and cut 5-10% of administrative burden for foreign investors. In total, this could help achieve 20-25% of the administrative procedure reduction target of Resolution No. 66. Economic experts also believe that, in a modern legal system, investment does not need to be "permitted" by a separate law but only needs a clear, transparent and unified legal system.

A business operating in Tan Lap ward.

Demonstrating efforts in cutting administrative procedures and improving the investment environment, the Government has recently established a Steering Committee to review and resolve problems in the system of legal documents. The Ministry of Finance is also consulting on amending the Land Law, Housing Law, Real Estate Business Law and proposing to develop a draft Law amending 4 other laws (Planning, Investment, PPP, Bidding) to decentralize authority, creating more favorable conditions for localities and key projects.

To remove difficulties in investment procedures in Dak Lak province, Deputy Director of the Department of Finance Huynh Gia Hoang said that the Department is implementing many solutions, including strengthening the settlement of investment procedures in accordance with regulations, closely monitoring the progress of projects, especially key projects, promptly removing difficulties so that projects can soon come into operation. The unit also advised the Provincial People's Committee to issue new regulations on procedures and responsibilities for coordinating the settlement of investment procedures and management of investment projects using land, replacing the outdated Decision No. 43/2022/QD-UBND. At the same time, coordinate in drafting new regulations in accordance with the two-level local government model and the province's practices. The Department also advised the Provincial People's Committee on procedures for adjusting the Provincial Planning and the Provincial Planning Implementation Plan (after receiving instructions from the Central Government), as a basis for removing difficulties for renewable energy projects - a potential and strong field of the province.

These efforts demonstrate the strong determination of the Government as well as the province in administrative reform, creating a transparent, competitive and trustworthy investment environment. This is an important premise for the province to break through, maximize its potential, and contribute to realizing the country's common development aspirations.

Source: https://baodaklak.vn/kinh-te/202508/kien-tao-moi-truong-dau-tu-minh-bach-40510d1/