PROJECTS NEED APPROVAL FOR INVESTMENT GUIDELINES

Legal base:

  • Law on Investment

Approval for investment guidelines means a competent authority approving the objectives, location, scale, schedule, and duration of a project; investor or form of selection of investor and special mechanisms or special policies to execute an investment project.

When investing in Vietnam, foreign investors need to register for an investment certificate to be able to register and establish a business here. However, for some investment projects, investors need to have approval for investment guidelines to be able to register for an investment certificate. Those projects are specified in Article 30, 31, and 32 of the Law on Investment, including:

  1. Investment projects that exert great effects or potentially serious effects on the environment, including:
  2. a) Nuclear power plants;
  3. b) Projects that require repurposing of land of special-use forests, headwater protection forests, or border protection forest of at least 50 hectares; of sand-fixing and windbreak coastal forests or protection forests for wave prevention of at least 500 hectares; of production forests of at least 1,000 hectares;
  4. Investment projects that require revising of land usage purpose for wet rice cultivation with 2 or more crops of at least 500 hectares;
  5. Investment projects that require application of a special mechanism or policy that needs to be decided by the National Assembly.
  6. Investment projects regardless of capital sources in any one of the following cases:
  7. a) Investment projects that require relocation of 10,000 people or more in mountainous areas or 20,000 people or more in other areas;
  8. b) Investment projects on construction of airports and aerodromes; runways of airports and aerodromes; international passenger terminals; cargo terminals of airports and aerodromes with a capacity of at least 1 million tonnes per year;
  9. c) New investment projects on passenger air transport business;
  10. d) Investment projects on construction of ports and wharves of special seaports; ports and wharves in which investment is at least 2,300 billion VND within the category of Class I seaports;

đ) Investment projects on petroleum processing;

  1. e) Investment projects that involve betting and casino services, excluding business in prize-winning electronic games for foreigners;
  2. g) Investment projects on construction and operation of infrastructure in industrial zones and export processing zones;
  3. Foreign investors’ investment projects in the following fields: provision of telecommunications services with network infrastructure; afforestation; publication, press;
  4. Investment projects that request the State to allocate or lease out land without auction or bidding for or receipt of land use rights, and investment projects that request permission to repurpose land, except for cases of allocation, lease, or permission for repurposing of land of households or individuals not subject to the written approval by the provincial People’s Committee following regulations of law on land;
  5. Projects on construction of residential housing (for sale, lease, or lease purchase) and urban areas in some special cases according to the law;
  6. Projects on investment in golf course construction and business;
  7. Investment projects of foreign investors and foreign-invested business organizations executed on islands or in border or coastal communes; in other areas affecting national defence and security.

Thus, for the projects listed above, investors need to have their approval for investment guidelines to be able to apply for an investment registration certificate and continue to conduct investment activities in Vietnam. Applying for investment guidelines approval for the above projects is to balance economic benefits by Vietnam’s orientation. Foreign investors need to pay attention to ensure the smooth implementation of investment activities.