The Government issued Decree No. 19/2025/ND-CP dated February 10, 2025 detailing the Investment Law on special investment procedures.
This Decree details the special investment procedures prescribed in Article 36a of the Investment Law, as amended and supplemented in Clause 8, Article 2 of Law No. 57/2024/QH15 amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Planning, the Law on Investment, the Law on Investment under the public-private partnership model and the Law on Bidding.
Procedures for registration for issuance of Investment Registration Certificate
In particular, the Decree stipulates the investor's commitment in the document requesting to implement an investment project, including the following contents:
a) Relevant conditions, standards and technical regulations as prescribed by law on construction, environmental protection, fire prevention and fighting;
b) Preliminary assessment of the project's compliance with relevant conditions, standards and technical regulations according to the provisions of law on construction, environmental protection, fire prevention and fighting.
c) Commit to meeting relevant conditions, standards and technical regulations as prescribed by law on construction, environmental protection, fire prevention and fighting; not to perform prohibited acts as prescribed by law on construction, environmental protection, fire prevention and fighting and to take full responsibility in case of failure to properly implement the commitment.
The investor shall submit 01 set of application documents for the issuance of an Investment Registration Certificate as prescribed to the Management Board of industrial parks, export processing zones, high-tech zones, and economic zones (Management Board). The Management Board shall review, evaluate, and issue an Investment Registration Certificate as prescribed in Clause 4, Article 36a of the Investment Law. The Investment Registration Certificate, together with the investor's commitment, shall be sent simultaneously to the competent state management agency for construction order management, environmental protection, and fire prevention and fighting in the locality.
The assessment of the project's conformity with the planning specified in Point b, Clause 3, Article 36a of the Investment Law is carried out as follows:
- Assess the project's conformity with the zoning plan of industrial parks, export processing zones, high-tech zones, concentrated information technology zones and free trade zones. In case the project is proposed in an area where zoning plans are not required or the zoning plans must be adjusted and have not been approved by competent authorities, assess the project's conformity with the approved general plan of the city; town; township; new urban area; district or commune, except for the following cases: industrial parks, export processing zones, high-tech zones, concentrated information technology zones, free trade zones and functional areas in economic zones with effective zoning plans according to the provisions of the Law on Urban and Rural Planning, assess the project's conformity with the zoning plan (*).
- In case the project is proposed to be implemented in a functional area in an economic zone, assess the project's conformity with the approved general planning of the economic zone or the general planning of the city or town, except for the case (*) above.
The Decree stipulates that for projects that request the State to lease land or allow change of land use purpose, the ability to meet the conditions for land lease and change of land use purpose according to the provisions of the law on land must be assessed; the suitability of land use needs with the objectives, scale, investment capital, location, and progress of project implementation must be assessed.
The contents of the Investment Registration Certificate shall comply with the provisions of Article 40 of the Investment Law, including the investor's commitment.
Economic organizations established by foreign investors under the provisions of Clause 5, Article 36a of the Investment Law must register their investment and business lines in accordance with the provisions of Clause 1, Article 36a of the Investment Law and may only adjust the contents of their business registration to add other investment and business lines after being granted an Investment Registration Certificate in accordance with the provisions.
Project implementation assurance procedures
Regarding the procedures for ensuring project implementation, the Decree clearly states that investors must make a deposit or submit a credit institution's guarantee commitment on the deposit obligation after being granted an Investment Registration Certificate and before organizing the implementation of the compensation, support and resettlement plan approved by the competent authority (in case the investor does not make an advance payment for compensation, support and resettlement) or before the time of issuing a decision on land lease or permission to change the land use purpose (in case the investor has made an advance payment for compensation, support and resettlement) or within 30 days from the date of being granted an Investment Registration Certificate (in case the land area for project implementation has been compensated, supported, resettled and reclaimed by the State).
Regarding the refund of the project performance guarantee obligation, the Decree stipulates the refund of 50% of the deposit amount or a reduction of 50% of the deposit guarantee obligation amount at the time the investor sends the Management Board a notice of commencement of construction along with the documents specified in Clause 8, Article 36a of the Investment Law.
Refund the remaining deposit and interest arising from the deposit (if any) or terminate the validity of the deposit guarantee at the time the investor sends the Management Board the minutes of acceptance of the completion of the construction project to put it into operation.
Regulations on investment project implementation
The Decree stipulates that investors are responsible for implementing the project in accordance with the provisions of the Investment Registration Certificate, commitments on construction, environmental protection, fire prevention and fighting, and are responsible for failure to fulfill their commitments.
In case the project does not meet the committed conditions, standards and technical regulations, the competent state agency shall consider imposing administrative sanctions, suspending or terminating operations or taking other forms of handling in accordance with the provisions of law.
For investment projects subject to environmental impact assessment as prescribed by the Law on Environmental Protection, when registering for investment as prescribed in Article 36a of the Investment Law, investors are not required to prepare an environmental impact assessment report. In case the project is subject to the issuance of an Environmental License, investors shall perform as follows:
- Carry out procedures for granting an Environmental License before starting construction at the competent state agency that approves the results of the appraisal of the environmental impact assessment report corresponding to the case where the project must prepare an environmental impact assessment report according to the provisions of law on environmental protection;
- The order and procedures for granting Environmental Licenses shall comply with the provisions of the law on environmental protection applicable to investment projects that are not subject to environmental impact assessment.
For projects that are subject to environmental registration, investors shall carry out environmental registration in accordance with the provisions of Point b, Clause 6, Article 49 of the Law on Environmental Protection.
The above Decree takes effect from February 10, 2025.
* The Ministry of Planning and Investment said that Clause 12, Article 36a of the Investment Law (amended and supplemented by Law No. 57/2024/QH15 amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Planning, the Law on Investment, the Law on Investment under the public-private partnership method and the Law on Bidding) assigns the Government to specify details on special investment procedures.
Special investment procedures are new, breakthrough regulations applied to investment projects in the fields of semiconductor industry, high technology... in industrial parks, export processing zones, high-tech zones and economic zones in the direction of shifting from "pre-inspection" to "post-inspection". Accordingly, investors carry out investment registration procedures to be granted an Investment Registration Certificate within 15 days and do not have to carry out a number of procedures to be granted a license in the fields of construction, fire prevention, fire fighting and environmental protection (expected to shorten the project implementation time by about 260 days).
From the effective date of Law No. 57/2024/QH15 from January 15, 2025, investors proposing to implement investment projects that meet the conditions specified in Article 36a can register for investment under the new regulations. In addition, according to the provisions of Point c, Clause 2, Article 6 of Law No. 57/2024/QH14, special investment procedures are also applied to projects operating in the fields subject to special investment procedures specified in Clause 8, Article 2 of this Law. Thus, from January 15, 2025, high-tech projects in operation, if meeting the conditions specified in Article 36a, can also choose to apply special investment procedures to shorten the project implementation time.
Therefore, detailed regulations to guide the implementation of Article 36a ensure feasibility in implementing new regulations on special investment procedures, meeting practical requirements.
Source: https://baotainguyenmoitruong.vn/quy-dinh-moi-ve-thu-tuc-dau-tu-dac-biet-386528.html
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