The latest draft of a law revising a number of articles of several laws concerning capital construction investment was put up for debate at a seminar held recently in Hanoi by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The 11-article draft law, which is elaborated by the omnibus lawmaking technique, contains amendments to the Construction Law, Investment Law, Bidding Law, Enterprise Law, Enterprise Income Tax Law, Land Law, Environmental Protection Law, Fire Prevention and Fighting Law and the NA’s Resolution No. 66/2006/QH11, with the top priority given to matters concerning the order of and procedures for construction investment projects.
Specifically, the draft law proposes amendments to seven articles of the Construction Law, including those on construction practice capability and construction operation capability; the Prime Minister’s competence to make investment decisions; adjustment of construction investment projects; cost management; steps of construction designing; contests to select architectural designs; and evaluation and approval of work designs. It also adds to the current law a new article on investment supervision and assessment.
The procedures for appraisal of basic designs under the 2004 Construction Law are simplified. Under the draft law, persons competent to make investment decisions would appraise basic designs concurrently with the evaluation of projects and take responsibility for their evaluation results.
The revision of the Investment Law focuses on such issues as conditional investment sectors; procedures for registration for investment incentives and investment procedures applicable to domestic and foreign-invested projects.
The draft law suggests abolishment of investment certificates for domestic investors. It also annuls the current Investment Law’s provisions allowing foreign investors to apply the same investment conditions as Vietnamese parties in cases the latter own 51% or more of the charter capital of enterprises.
The draft law underlines that all foreign investors in Vietnam must have investment projects and fill in investment registration or examination procedures at state agencies in charge of investment in order to be granted investment certificates. However, while the current law stipulates that investment certificates are concurrently business registration certificates, the draft law requires foreign investors to carry out procedures for the grant of business registration certificates.