Removing 'bottlenecks', creating an open investment environment

Photo caption — Minister of Finance Nguyen Van Thang presents the Proposal on the draft Law on Investment (amended). Photo: Doan Tan/VNA

Presenting the Report, Minister of Finance Nguyen Van Thang said that the draft Law consists of 7 chapters and 53 articles regulating investment and business activities in Vietnam and investment and business activities from Vietnam to foreign countries; applicable to investors and agencies, organizations and individuals related to investment and business activities. The draft Law has narrowed and clarified the scope of projects that must be approved in principle. Accordingly, investment policy approval is only granted for infrastructure development investment projects in a number of fields such as seaports, airports, telecommunications, publishing, press, etc.; projects proposing to use land and sea areas; projects that have a major impact on the environment, potentially have a serious impact on the environment or are implemented in areas that affect national defense and security, etc.

The Draft Law also stipulates that the procedure for approving investment policies shall not be carried out in the following cases: Investment projects requesting the State to allocate land, lease land, or permit the change of land use purpose of households and individuals that are not required to have written approval from the Provincial People's Committee according to the provisions of the law on land. Investment projects to build technical infrastructure for industrial clusters; exploit minerals (excluding offshore mineral exploitation investment projects); build houses (for sale, lease, lease-purchase), and urban areas regardless of land use scale or population scale in cases of auctioning land use rights or bidding to select investors.

Informing that it will continue to simplify investment approval procedures, according to Minister Nguyen Van Thang, the draft law amends and supplements Article 22 of the 2020 Investment Law to allow foreign investors to establish economic organizations without requiring an investment project before establishment, but must meet the market access conditions for foreign investors prescribed in Article 9 of this Law when carrying out procedures to establish economic organizations.

"This helps the investment and business environment become more open and attractive to foreign investors, promotes investment attraction, and ensures equal treatment between domestic and foreign investors when carrying out this procedure," Minister Nguyen Van Thang emphasized.

The Draft Law also amends and supplements in the direction of defining preferential investment sectors and occupations as sectors and occupations that are prioritized to attract investment to develop science , technology, innovation, digital transformation, digital technology industry and semiconductor industry; develop green economy, circular economy, sharing economy, digital economy, develop new economic models; develop industry clusters, value chains, attract investment in modern management, have high added value, have spillover effects, connect global production and supply chains; develop renewable energy, new energy, clean energy; ensure national energy security;...

The draft Law has reviewed and cut 25 conditional business lines that do not meet the prescribed criteria and conditions; reviewed and revised the scope of 22 business lines. "The reason is that currently, most conditional business lines apply a pre-inspection mechanism, which can be switched to a post-inspection mechanism to limit barriers to market entry for businesses, promote business freedom and implement the Government 's resolution on the Program to reduce and simplify administrative procedures related to production and business activities in 2025 and 2026" - said the Minister of Finance.

Reporting on the review of the draft Investment Law (amended), agreeing on the necessity, viewpoints, and objectives of amending and supplementing the Investment Law according to the simplified procedures and order, Chairman of the National Assembly's Economic and Financial Committee Phan Van Mai suggested a thorough review, and only in really necessary cases should the implementation be regulated according to the investment policy approval process. In addition, continue to research and thoroughly argue the basis and rationale for removing the entire authority of the National Assembly in approving investment policies; review and complete on the basis of ensuring the principle of decentralization and delegation of power.

According to Chairman Phan Van Mai, it is necessary to review and clarify in this Law project the criteria of "determined in the planning", "conformity with the planning", "suitability of the project with the planning" to ensure feasibility, handle problems that are bottlenecks in practice, and ensure consistency with the provisions in the Law projects being submitted to the National Assembly at the same time. Continue to study, review, streamline, and reduce conditional investment and business sectors and professions, substantially reduce investment and business conditions, and only retain the truly necessary conditions for constitutional reasons.

The Economic and Financial Committee recommends a clear distinction between the conditions for individuals to practice their profession and the conditions for business investment of business investment entities when investing and doing business in the form of an organization or business entity. Continue to carefully review and research regulations in the direction of not abolishing conditional business investment industries and professions, change management methods, remove "pre-inspection" administrative procedures, and switch to management according to the "post-inspection" principle.

Regarding the investment incentives and support stipulated in Chapter III of the draft Law, the Economic and Financial Committee recommends continuing to review and study a number of proposals in the Full Review Report. Carefully and cautiously review the regulations allowing foreign investors to establish economic organizations without requiring an investment project before establishment.

Also this morning, the National Assembly heard the Presentation and Verification Report on the projects: Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Citizen Reception, the Law on Complaints, the Law on Denunciation; and the Law on Drug Prevention and Control (amended).

Source: https://baotintuc.vn/thoi-su/go-diem-nghen-tao-moi-truong-dau-tu-thong-thoang-20251111094638858.htm