The Government has recently issued Decree 35, which is designed to replace Decree 82 of 2018, with some notable changes in the management of industrial parks and economic zones.
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| A bird’s eye view of Ba Thien 2 industrial park, Binh Xuyen district, Vinh Phuc province__Photo: Hoang Hung/VNA |
Compared to Decree 82, the new decree prunes procedures for establishing industrial zones so as to simplify administrative procedures for enterprises.
Accordingly, an industrial park may be regarded as having been established from the date a competent authority decides on the policy on investment in its infrastructure project using public investment funds; or approves both its investment policy and investor or grants an investment registration certificate for implementation of the project on investment in the construction and commercial operation of its infrastructure facilities in accordance with the investment law.
The new regulation adds conditions for investment in and commercial operation of industrial park infrastructure facilities, including occupation rate, industrial park size and investor’s capacity, among others, to ensure conformity with characteristics of industrial park infrastructure projects.
Worthy of note, the new decree specifies conditions for conversion of industrial parks into urban-service areas.
Specifically, such conversion must be conformable with provincial-level master plans and urban development master plans.
To-be-converted industrial parks must be those located in inner areas of centrally run special-class or class-I urban areas, or provincially run class-I urban areas and have operated for 15 years or half of their approved operational period by the date of application for conversion.
In addition, there must be agreement of investors implementing projects on construction and commercial operation of industrial park infrastructure facilities and more than two-thirds of enterprises located in industrial parks’ areas planned to be converted. This requirement is not compulsory in case investment projects’ operational period has expired, investment projects are not eligible for land sublease term extension, or investment projects have caused serious environmental pollution and are subject to relocation.-
