The biggest investment project among the newly licensed projects is the steel mill by the Republic of Korea’s (ROK) Posco in Ba Ria – Vung Tau, which has the registered capital of $1.2bil. The second- and third-biggest projects are the Doosan Heavy Industries Complex in Dung Quat Economic Zone (EZ), and the Mo Lao new urban area by Booyoung in Ha Tay, capitalised at $171mil.

The said projects would have been licenced by the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) if the Common Investment Law (CIL) had not gone into effect.

However, under the CIL and Decree 198, guiding the implementation of the CIL, which was issued on October 25, nearly $2bil worth of investments have been licenced by local authorities and IZ management boards.

A series of big investment projects are waiting to be licenced under the new licencing mechanism. These include the $221.9mil Bac An Khanh new urban area project submitted by a joint venture between the Vietnam Construction Import – Export Corporation (Vinaconex) and ROK’s Posco, and the project on Meiko Vietnam Electronics Company, which will be invested in by Japan’s Meiko Group, capitalised at $300mil.

Meanwhile, another five projects – the Nghi Son oil refinery, Van Phong EZ, Thach Khe steel mill, Mong Duong thermo power plant and Lam Dong bauxite exploitation project – are expected to be licenced in some days.

However, the decentralisation mechanism proves be a burden on local authorities. According to Le Hue, Deputy Head of the Dung Quat EZ management board, in the past, after receiving the application from the investor, the EZ management board would forward the file of the project to MPI for consideration and approval. Now the EZ management board does not have to do this any more, but it still has to consult with MPI and other relevant ministries about the projects. Therefore, Mr Hue said, it still takes time to licence projects, and it puts a heavier burden on IX and EZ management boards, lower-level entities in comparison with MPI.

Despite all these difficulties, Minister of Planning and Investment Vo Hong Phuc still stressed the need to decentralise investment management, saying that results of the decentralisation had been very satisfactory, showing the soundness of the mechanism.

Insiders said that at first the MPI still wanted to have the right to licence big investment projects, when it submitted draft decree 108 with a moderate decentralisation level. However, the Government, after consulting with experienced experts, has decided to apply a comprehensive decentralisation mechanism, giving IZ and EZ management boards the right to licence big projects like Posco.

Source: TBKTSG