Vietnam is cleaning up: Less bureaucracy for investors by 2025!

Vietnam is cleaning up: Less bureaucracy for investors by 2025!

The Vietnamese government presented a far-reaching bill to reform the investment law at the 9th session of the 15th National Assembly. The aim of this change is to eliminate numerous institutional bottlenecks that exist in the current legal framework. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh highlights the urgency of overcoming these challenges by 2025. To this end, standards and regulations should be developed by the administrative authorities and made available to the public in order to simplify and accelerate the implementation of the laws.

The draft law aims to resolve the existing conflicts between the Investment Law and other specialized laws. These conflicts are currently leading to legal uncertainty, which is making the process of approving investment projects significantly more difficult. Currently, investors are required to obtain multiple approvals, which often leads to delays. The list of conditional business lines includes over 200 areas, causing investors to experience harassment and hindrance to competition.

Need for reform in the legal framework

A key problem is the broad definition of the term “investment project”, which encourages speculation in the real estate market. In addition, many investment incentives are non-transparent and heavily dependent on official approvals. It is noted that in many developed countries there is no comprehensive investment law. Instead, there are legal regulations that investors must adhere to.

The government has set a target of eliminating at least 30% of unnecessary terms and conditions and reducing processing times for administrative procedures by 30%. In particular, the abolition of the Investment Law could reduce the implementation time of projects by 15 to 20%. A new institutional framework is intended to create clarity and coherence in the legal system so that investors can implement their projects without cumbersome procedures.

Future visions

In addition, it is planned to integrate the list of prohibited business areas into the company law. Vietnam has set ambitious goals and aims to become a high-income country by 2045, which requires far-reaching reforms in the legal environment. Experts and observers see the upcoming changes as a positive step towards a more attractive and transparent investment landscape in Vietnam.

For detailed information about the reforms in the Investment Law, please visit Vietnam.vn and further relevant background information can be found in the document Bundestag.de.