HOW DOES THE COMPANY CHECK WHETHER THE FIELD OF THE INVESTMENT PROJECT IS IN THE LIST OF APPROVED FOREIGN INVESTMENT PROJECTS? WHAT IS THE LICENSING PROCEDURE?

I. Conditions for foreign investors to invest in Vietnam 

Pursuant to the Law on Enterprise 2020 and the Law on Investment, for foreign investors to invest in projects in Vietnam, the following conditions must be noted: 

- Conditions on the form of foreign investment in Vietnam 

- Conditions on the percentage of charter capital ownership of investors from abroad 

- Conditions on the scope of investment activities 

- Conditions on the capacity of investors 

- Conditions on industries with market access for foreign investors or have not yet accessed the market according to the Decree 31/2021/ND-CP 

- Other conditions 

II. Procedures for applying for a foreign investment license in Vietnam 

(i) Step 1: Prepare application

- Written request for implementation of investment projects; 

- Lease/office contract for the implementation of investment projects; 

- Document verifying financial capacity. 

- An investment project proposal includes the following contents: investors implementing the project, investment objectives, investment scale, investment capital and capital mobilization plan, location, duration, investment progress, labor demand, proposal for investment incentives, impact assessment, socio-economic efficiency of the project. 

Note: For individual foreign investors, it is necessary to add: 

-A copy of the foreign investor's passport. For foreign investors being organizations, it is necessary to add: 

-A copy of the business registration certificate of the foreign organization; 

- Copy of ID card/CCCD/passport of the representative of the capital contribution to the foreign investment organization in Vietnam; 

- Financial statements within the last 2 years with audit of foreign organizations (must be consular legalized, valid within 90 days). 

Note: 

-Documents and reports sent to competent state agencies for approval should be sent in Vietnamese form; 

-In case if the dossier of application for an investment certificate in Vietnam contains documents in a foreign language, the documents must be consular legalized and have a valid Vietnamese translation attached to documents in a foreign language. 

(ii) Step 2: Submit the application 

-Submit directly at the Investment Registration Office 

– Department of Planning and Investment where the enterprise is headquartered 

(iii) Step 3: Wait for the results 

– Investment Registration Office 

– Department of Planning and Investment will process the application within a minimum period of 15 days from the date of receipt:  

-If the application is valid: Issuance of investment certificate to investors -If the application is not valid: Send a notice of additional instructions or edit the resubmitted dossier. 

-If the application is not approved: Return the application with a written notice specifying the reason for refusal. 

The above is an article that provides some basic information about Vietnamese legal regulations on checking whether the field of investment projects is on the list of approved foreign investment projects or not, procedures for licensing investment projects.

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For more information, please contact:

Hoang Pham (James) / Managing Partner at: hoang.pham@vselawyers.com

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Attention: This legal update is not an advice and should not be treated as such.