Complete investment policy approval procedures

In a recent document, the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) continued to express its support for the plan to reduce the number of projects that must undergo investment approval procedures. A large number of administrative procedures, along with the time and resources of businesses and state management agencies, will be immediately reduced.

According to the latest Draft that is being consulted by the Ministry of Finance , cases that do not have to carry out procedures for approving investment policies are clearly regulated. These are investment projects that have been specifically identified in terms of project name, scale, objectives, location, investor, progress, and duration in the national or provincial sector planning; investment projects that select investors through the form of auctioning land use rights, bidding for investment projects using land... and some cases related to investors.

It can be seen that this procedure is only applied to projects that have a major impact on the environment or have the potential to seriously impact the environment, projects that affect national defense and security, investment projects in important areas such as seaports, airports, etc.

Recently, the debate on whether or not to abolish the investment policy approval procedure has been quite intense. The proposed abolishment opinion is that this procedure has no clear management objective, is ineffective, unpredictable, and overlaps with many other regulations... On the contrary, many opinions are concerned that abolishing this procedure will pose many risks to state management, cause damage to businesses, and affect the investment and business environment.

It must also be emphasized that investment policy approval is a legal document that recognizes and guarantees the legitimate rights and interests of investors in implementing investment projects, ensuring the implementation of the State's commitments to investors on investment incentives and special policies approved by competent state agencies; at the same time, it stipulates the requirements and conditions for project implementation for investors. Investment policy approval is also a tool to screen sensitive projects that have impacts and influences on socio -economic development, national defense - security, and the environment, and is a tool to control, ensure safety and sustainable development.

International experience shows that many countries (the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, China...) maintain a review and licensing mechanism similar to the investment policy approval procedure for investment projects according to the above criteria, especially for foreign investment projects.

However, in recent times, many legal regulations related to investment and business in Vietnam in the fields of land, bidding, planning, housing, real estate business, electricity, science and technology, etc. have been amended and supplemented relatively comprehensively. The procedures for approving investment policies and selecting investors according to the provisions of the law on investment have given rise to a number of difficulties and problems in the implementation process. Therefore, amending and perfecting this regulation is very necessary to remove difficulties and problems and speed up the implementation of procedures for approving investment policies, ensuring consistency and synchronization with the provisions of relevant laws.

It should also be added that the above procedure integrates contents related to planning, land, environment, construction... The state management agency on investment simultaneously appraises these contents right from the project preparation stage to reduce implementation time and costs compared to carrying out each independent procedure on land, planning, construction...

In addition, the implementation of investment policy approval procedures helps the state investment management agency to review the overall investment project in relation to specialized legal regulations to assess the socio-economic efficiency and feasibility of the investment project.

Moreover, the investment policy decision procedure in the Investment Law creates consistency and synchronization of the legal system, avoiding the situation of "a hundred flowers blooming" in the order and procedures for project implementation of specialized laws, creating a transparent, clear, and accessible investment environment for investors.

Of course, to complete, businesses continue to request clarification of the content of investment approval appraisal in the direction of elimination and simplification. In particular, policy proposals related to investment approval procedures need to be placed in the overall system of legal documents regulating the implementation of investment projects to ensure consistency and clarity.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/hoan-thien-thu-tuc-chap-thuan-chu-truong-dau-tu-d382568.html