VCCI proposes to expand the scope of beneficiaries of special investment procedures

Special investment procedures are currently applied to a number of specific industries and sectors and within the scope of a number of areas such as industrial parks, high-tech parks...

"It is recommended to study and expand the application of this special investment procedure to other areas such as investment projects in high-tech zones, industrial zones, etc. to create a breakthrough in administrative procedure reform and create an attractive investment and business environment."

The Vietnam Federation of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) sent this petition to the Ministry of Finance when commenting on the policy proposal dossier of the Investment Law (replacement).

This is not the first time VCCI has mentioned this proposal. In the 2024 Business Law Flow Report, which was just published at the end of May 2025, VCCI devoted a large part of the content to analyzing the huge breakthrough in this procedure, clearly showing the shift from "pre-audit" to "post-audit" thinking when eliminating most of the procedures that investors must perform during the implementation of investment projects.

In the Report, VCCI wrote: " The investment process according to special procedures is applied, helping investors not to need to carry out many types of licenses and procedures related to construction, fire prevention and fighting, scientific and technological appraisal. Accordingly, investors only need to complete the procedures for granting Investment Registration Certificates and environmental licenses, while management requirements will be implemented through a post-audit mechanism ."

This process has contributed to significantly shortening the time for administrative procedures, while creating favorable conditions for investment activities. However, the application of this process is currently limited, mainly applied to a number of specific industries and fields and within the scope of a number of areas such as industrial parks and high-tech parks. Meanwhile, projects in high-tech parks and industrial parks have many conditions to apply for green channels.

"The implementation of special investment procedures is an important step in reforming administrative procedures and investment attraction policies. Therefore, it is necessary to continue research and evaluation to be able to expand the scope of application to more industries and locations in the coming time," VCCI proposed in the 2024 Business Law Flow Report.

Law No. 57/2024/QH15 amending the Investment Law has added special investment procedures for a number of priority and key sectors. Accordingly, when investors invest in these sectors in industrial parks, export processing zones, high-tech zones, concentrated information technology zones, free trade zones and functional areas in economic zones, they only need to apply for an investment registration certificate and an environmental license, and do not have to carry out other common investment procedures (procedures for approving investment policies, technology appraisal, preparing environmental impact assessment reports, preparing detailed plans, granting construction permits and procedures for approval, acceptance and permission in the fields of construction, fire prevention and fighting). This is a strong breakthrough in shortening the investment process and is expected to attract strategic investors in key sectors.

Along with the above proposal, VCCI supports the proposal to narrow the scope of projects that must undergo investment policy approval procedures as proposed by the Ministry of Finance in the Draft Policy Proposal.

Specifically, for projects announced by the provincial People's Committee to select investors in the form of land use rights auctions and investor selection bidding, accordingly, the provincial People's Committee approves the investment policy for "Projects proposing to use resources such as land, forests, sea, minerals (except for projects announced to select investors in the form of land use rights auctions and investor selection bidding)"; "Projects using land and sea areas on islands and border communes, wards and towns; coastal communes, wards and towns; other areas affecting national defense and security"; "Large-scale, important projects in the fields of seaports, airports, electricity, industrial parks...".

However, according to this proposal, there will be projects proposing land use in cases of "not requiring investment policy approval" (cases requiring bidding or auction) and cases of "requiring investment policy approval".

Moreover, according to the provisions of the Land Law, the condition for land auction is "being included in the annual district-level land use plan" (Point b, Clause 2, Article 125). To be included in the annual district-level land use plan, the project must be approved in principle by the provincial People's Committee (for projects that are subject to approval in principle by the provincial People's Committee).

Conditions for bidding to select investors: "Belonging to the list of land plots for bidding for investment projects using land decided by the Provincial People's Council" (Point a, Clause 3, Article 126 of the Land Law); "Based on the list of land plots for bidding for investment projects using land decided by the Provincial People's Council, the competent state agency as prescribed by the law on investment or the investor prepares a dossier requesting approval of the investment policy as a basis for carrying out the procedure for approving the investment policy." (Clause 1, Article 10 of Decree 115/2024/ND-CP).

Relevant legal documents are still stipulating that investment projects that are subject to bidding or auction to select investors, if subject to investment policy approval, must first carry out investment policy approval procedures before proceeding with bidding and auction.

Before the Investment Law 2020 came into effect, there was a lack of consensus among legal documents on which projects had to undergo auction procedures, which projects had to undergo bidding, and which projects had to undergo investment policy approval procedures. The Investment Law 2020 has unified regulations in determining which projects had to undergo investment policy approval, and then determining the methods of selecting investors: auction, bidding, and investor approval.

Therefore, VCCI recommends that policy proposals related to investment approval procedures need to be viewed within the overall system of legal documents regulating the implementation of investment projects, to ensure consistency and clarity.

Specifically, VCCI proposed to supplement the proposed direction to amend relevant legal documents (land, bidding, housing, real estate...) on the implementation of investment projects in case the project does not approve the investment policy.

In case the project proposes to use land, forests, seas, minerals, and is large-scale, in which cases must investment policy be approved and in which cases must investment policy be approved?

In case of investment policy approval, what is the method of selecting investors? Because, for land use projects that have been announced to select investors in the form of land use rights auction, bidding to select investors will not be a case of investment policy approval.

Thus, in addition to the two methods of selecting investors, which are bidding and auction, it is necessary to clarify the method of selecting investors in the case of approving investment policies...

According to the Ministry of Finance, the Draft Law on Investment has been completed, with 7 chapters, 62 articles and 4 appendices. The draft is being consulted with the business community and investors to complete it and submit it to the Government soon.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/vcci-de-nghi-mo-rong-dien-duoc-huong-thu-tuc-dau-tu-dac-biet-d382317.html