 |
| Manufacturing electronic components in Dong Mai industrial park, Quang Ninh province__Photo: VNA |
In order to meet practical requirements and improve feasibility in the implementation of new provisions on special investment procedures specified in Article 36a of the Investment Law (which is added under Law 57/2024/QH15), the Government on February 10 issued Decree 19/2025/ND-CP, detailing the Investment Law regarding special investment procedures[1].
As stated in the new Decree, special investment procedures apply to operating projects on construction of innovation centers, research and development (R&D) centers; investment in semi-conductor integrated circuit (IC) industry, designing and manufacturing IC chips and parts thereof, printed electronics (PE), and semi-conductor materials; investment in high technologies prioritized for development investment, and manufacturing of products on the List of hi-tech products eligible for development promotion under the Prime Minister’s decision.
Special investment procedures have some differences from those for implementation of ordinary investment projects, including abolition of some licenses and procedures required for investors when implementing their investment projects. Instead, investors must commit to complying with standards, conditions and technical regulations specified by the construction, environmental protection, and fire protection laws.
The most significant feature of special investment procedures compared to normal procedures is the management mechanism, i.e., the “post-licensing inspection” mechanism. Accordingly, investors are not required to carry out procedures for their projects to be appraised, approved and licensed in terms of environmental protection, fire protection or construction. However, they must still comply with relevant conditions, standards and technical regulations on environmental protection, construction or fire protection.
Procedures for applying for investment registration certificates
Under Article 36.2 of the Investment Law, an investor will have to submit one dossier of application for an investment registration certificate to the industrial park, export processing zone, hi-tech park or economic zone management board (the management board). In such a dossier, the written request for implementation of an investment project must contain the investor’s commitment to satisfying conditions, standards and technical regulations specified by the construction, environmental protection and fire protection and fighting laws. Meanwhile, the investment project proposal must contain identification and forecasting of environmental impacts and measures to mitigate adverse environmental impacts in replacement of the preliminary environmental impact assessment. Within 15 days after receiving the dossier, the management board will have to complete the dossier appraisal and grant an investment registration certificate.
To make it clearer, the new Decree says that the investor’s commitment mentioned above must contain:
· Relevant conditions, standards and technical regulations specified by the construction, environmental protection and fire protection laws;
· Preliminary assessment of the project’s conformity with the relevant conditions, standards and technical regulations; and,
· The investor’s commitment on the satisfaction of the relevant conditions, standards and technical regulations; commitment to refrain from committing prohibited acts defined under the construction, environmental protection and fire protection laws, and to take total responsibility for failure to fulfill this commitment.
The management board will consider and appraise the investor’s dossier and grant an investment registration certificate under Article 36a.4 of the Investment Law.
The investment registration certificate will, together with the investor’s commitment, be sent to local state agencies in charge of management of the construction order, environmental protection and fire protection.
As a result, investors are obliged to identify and forecast by themselves adverse environmental impacts and devise measures to mitigate these impacts in their project implementation proposals. Contents that need to be clarified include work items and activities of investment projects that are likely to exert adverse impacts on the environment; major environmental impacts; wastes discharged into the environment in different phases of projects; volume and characteristics of wastes; possible environmental incidents to projects; works and measures to collect, store and treat wastes. Other contents in need of clarification include tentative plans on environmental remediation and rehabilitation and tentative plans to prevent and respond to environmental incidents, in addition to environmental management and monitoring programs.
Decree 19 also provides guidance on the assessment of conformity of projects with master plans specified in Article 36a.3.b of the Investment Law, including master plans on zoning of industrial parks, export processing zones, hi-tech parks, information technology parks and free-trade zones. For projects that are proposed to be implemented in areas not requiring formulation of zoning master plans, or in case zoning master plans are subject to adjustment and such adjustment has not yet been approved by competent authorities, it is necessary to assess their conformity with approved master plans of cities/towns/townships, urban centers, districts or communes.
Projects that are proposed to be implemented in functional quarters in economic zones will be subject to the assessment of their conformity with approved master plans of economic zones or master plans of cities/towns.
Particularly for industrial parks, export processing zones, hi-tech parks, information technology parks, free-trade zones, and functional quarters in economic zones under zoning master plans effective in accordance with the Law on Urban and Rural Planning, it is required to assess the conformity of projects with the zoning master plans.
Projects requested for land lease or land repurposing permission by the State will be subject to the assessment of their satisfaction of conditions for land lease or land repurposing in accordance with the land law, or the assessment of conformity of their land use demands to their objectives, scales, investment capital amounts, locations and implementation schedules.
Investment registration certificates must have the contents specified in Article 40 of the Investment Law, including investors’ commitments.
Procedures for making project implementation security
The new Decree requires an investor to make a deposit or submit a credit institution’s letter of guarantee for the deposit obligation after obtaining an investment registration certificate and before organizing the implementation of approved plans on compensation, support and resettlement (in case the investor fails to advance the amount for compensation, support and resettlement) or before the issuance of a decision on land lease or land repurposing permission (in case the investor has advanced the amount for compensation, support and resettlement) or within 30 days after obtaining an investment registration certificate (in case the State has paid the amount for compensation, support and resettlement for the land plot recovered by the State for project implementation).
Regarding the refund of the amount as project implementation security, the new Decree permits the refund of half of the deposit amount or the reduction by half of the guarantee amount for the deposit obligation by the time the investor sends to the management board a notice of construction commencement enclosed with the documents specified in Article 36a.8 of the Investment Law.
The remaining deposit amount and interest thereon (if any) will be refunded to the investor or the guarantee for the deposit obligation will be invalidated by the time the investor sends to the management board a written record of completion of the construction work for being commissioned.
Implementation of investment projects
As per Article 36a of the Investment Law, investment projects are not required to carry out procedures for approval of the investment policy, appraisal of technologies, preparation of environmental impact assessment reports, formulation of detailed plans, and grant of construction permits, and other procedures for approval or permission in the fields of construction and fire protection.
However, under the new Decree, investors are responsible for implementing their projects in accordance with their investment registration certificates and their construction, environmental protection and fire protection commitments and will bear responsibility for failure to fulfill their commitments.
In case a project fails to comply with conditions, standards and technical regulations as committed, the competent state agency will consider imposing administrative sanctions, suspending or terminating operation of the project or applying other handling forms in accordance with law.
When registering investment projects subject to environmental impact assessment in accordance with the Law on Environmental Protection as required under Article 36a of the Investment Law, investors are not required to prepare environmental impact assessment reports.
For projects subject to environmental licensing, investors will, before commencing the project construction, have to carry out procedures for being granted environmental licenses at state agencies competent to approve results of the appraisal of environmental impact assessment reports as for projects required to make reports of this kind in accordance with the law on environmental protection.
For projects subject to environmental registration, investors will make environmental registration under Article 49.6.b of the Law on Environmental Protection.-
[1] This Decree takes effect on February 10, 2025.
