Documents and procedures for approving investment policies (case by case)

The process and procedures for requesting approval of investment policies from the National Assembly, the Prime Minister, the Provincial People’s Committees and projects subject to investment policy approval will be detailed in the article below by fdiinvietnam.com.

Not all investment projects require investment policy approval. However, for large projects of importance that affect the economy, politics, culture, society or national security, before applying for an investment registration certificate, the project owner must obtain investment approval from the competent state agency.

Projects that are required to obtain investment policy approval

1. Projects subject to investment policy approval by the Provincial People’s Committee

• Investment projects that request the State to allocate or lease land without going through auction, transfer or bidding activities;
• Investment projects with requests for permission to change land use purposes, except for: land lease, land allocation, permission to change land use purposes of households and individuals not subject to investment policy approval;
• Housing construction projects (for sale, lease-purchase, or rental), urban areas with land use area of ​​less than 300 hectares and population size of less than 50,000 people;
• Golf course construction and business project;
• Projects of foreign investors and foreign-invested economic organizations implemented on islands and border communes, wards and towns or coastal communes, wards and towns or other areas that affect national defense and security;
• Investment projects on national cultural heritage and special national relics (not on the World Heritage List) have been recognized by competent authorities;
• Investment projects located in restricted development areas or historical inner cities of special-class urban areas (identified in urban planning projects).

2. Projects subject to investment policy approval by the Prime Minister

Investment projects falling into one of the following cases (regardless of investment capital source) must obtain investment policy approval from the Prime Minister before being implemented, including:

• Investment projects requiring resettlement of 10,000 or more people in mountainous areas and 20,000 or more people in other areas;
• New construction investment projects for airports and seaports with a capacity of 1 million tons/year or more (such as construction of terminals, runways, cargo terminals, passenger terminals);
• New investment project for air passenger transport business;
• New construction investment projects including ports and port areas with investment capital of VND 2,300 billion or more belonging to type I seaports or ports and port areas belonging to special seaports;
• Investment project for oil and gas processing;
• Investment projects with betting and casino business activities, excluding electronic game business with prizes for foreigners;
• Investment projects for the purpose of building housing and urban areas with a land use scale of 300 hectares or a population scale of 50,000 people or more;
• Investment projects to build and operate infrastructure of export processing zones and industrial parks;
• Investment projects in the fields of telecommunications services with network infrastructure, afforestation, publishing, and press of foreign investors;
• Investment projects under the authority of investment policy approval from 2 or more provincial People’s Committees;
• Investment projects within the scope of protection zone I of national monuments and special national monuments;
• Investment projects located within the protection zone II of special national monuments ranked in the World Heritage List;
• Other investment projects under the authority of the Prime Minister to approve investment policies or investment decisions according to the provisions of law.

3. Projects subject to investment policy approval by the National Assembly

• Investment projects that have a major impact or potentially have a serious impact on the environment, including: nuclear power plant projects; investment projects requiring conversion of land use purposes of special-use forests, upstream protection forests, border protection forests with an area of ​​50 hectares or more; windbreak protection forests, sand-blocking protection forests, wave-blocking protection forests, and sea encroachment forests with an area of ​​500 hectares or more; production forests with an area of ​​1,000 hectares or more;
• Investment projects requiring conversion of land use purposes for rice cultivation from 2 crops or more, with a minimum scale of 500 hectares;
• Investment projects requiring resettlement of 20,000 or more people in mountainous areas and 50,000 or more people in other areas;
• Investment projects requiring the application of special mechanisms and policies must be approved by the National Assembly.

Application for investment policy approval

1. For investment projects proposed by investors

2. For investment projects established by competent state agencies

Note:

Documents proving the legal status of the investor include:

• Certified copy of passport/ID card/CCCD of individual investor; 
• Certified copy of the decision to establish/register business of the investor being an organization;

Documents proving the investor’s financial capacity can be one of the following documents: 

• Parent company’s commitment to financial support;
• Or the investor’s financial statements for the last 2 years or other equivalent documents.

In cases where the law on construction requires the preparation of a pre-feasibility study report, the competent state agency may use the pre-feasibility study report instead of the investment project proposal.

In addition, investors also need to prepare other relevant documents according to the provisions of law.

Procedures for approving investment policies of the Provincial People’s Committee

Number of documents to prepare: 4 sets.

Place of submission: Investors or competent authorities submit applications at the Department of Planning & Investment of the province where the investment project is implemented.

Within 35 working days after receiving the application, the Department of Planning and Investment (DPI) is responsible for notifying the investor of the results.

The procedure for requesting approval of investment policy from the Provincial People’s Committee is as follows:

• Within 3 working days from the date of receiving complete and valid documents, the Department of Planning and Investment shall send the documents to relevant state agencies for appraisal;
• Within 15 working days, the consulted agency shall provide feedback to the Department of Planning and Investment;
• Within 25 working days from the date of receiving the dossier, the Department of Planning and Investment shall prepare an appraisal report and submit it to the Provincial People’s Committee;
• Within 7 working days from the date of receiving the dossier and appraisal report of the Department of Planning and Investment, the Provincial People’s Committee shall approve the investment policy. In case the Provincial People’s Committee refuses, it must issue a written notice stating the reasons.

Procedures for approving investment policies by the Prime Minister

Number of documents to prepare: 8 sets.

Place of submission: Investors or competent authorities submit applications at the Ministry of Planning & Investment.

The procedure for requesting approval of investment policy from the Prime Minister is as follows:

• Within 3 working days from the date of receiving complete dossiers, the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) shall send the dossiers to relevant state agencies for appraisal opinions;
• Within 15 working days, the consulted agency shall provide feedback to the Ministry of Planning and Investment;
• Within 40 working days from the date of receiving the dossier, the Ministry of Planning and Investment shall appraise the dossier, prepare an appraisal report and submit it to the Prime Minister;
• Within 7 working days from the date of receipt of the appraisal report from the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Prime Minister shall approve the investment policy.

Procedures for approving investment policies of the National Assembly 

Number of documents to prepare: 20 sets.

Place of submission: Investors or competent authorities submit applications to the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

The procedure for requesting approval of investment policy by the National Assembly is as follows:

• Within 15 working days from the date of receiving complete documents, the Ministry of Planning and Investment shall report to the Prime Minister to establish a state appraisal council;
• Within 90 working days from the date of establishment, the state appraisal council shall organize the appraisal of the project investment policy and prepare a report to submit to the Government.
• At least 60 days before the opening date of the National Assembly session, the Government shall prepare and submit a dossier requesting approval of the project investment policy to the National Assembly’s appraisal agency.

Some questions about investment policy approval procedures

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