Prominent regulations of Vietnam in effect from September 2016 (Part 2)

1. Guidance on the procedures for investment certificates

Circular No. 06/2016/TT-BKHDT, in effect as of 20 September 2016, provides guidelines for the Decree No. 15/2015/ND-CP on investments under public private partnership.

Accordingly, the guideline on investment registration is given as follows:

– 05 sets of application file (01 set of originals and 04 sets of copies) shall be submitted to the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

– Application file shall be prepared as per requested by Section 1, Article 14 of the Circular.

– In 02 working days upon receiving an application, the Ministry of Planning and Investment shall verify the validity of documents (and send any written requests for amendments, if required, once to investor).

– Within 03 working days upon receiving a valid application file (according to purposes and scale of the project), the Ministry of Planning and Investment shall inquire ministries, relevant agencies and the people’s committee of the province where the project is about to occur.

– Within 07 working days upon receiving inquiries from the Ministry of Planning and Investment, relevant agencies shall provide opinions intra vires.

– Within 25 days upon receiving a valid application file, the Ministry of Planning and Investment shall verify details and issue investment registration certificate to investor.

2. New points on accounting policy for small and medium enterprises

On 26 August 2016, the Ministry of Finance issued Circular No.133/2016/TT-BTC providing guidance on accounting policy for small and medium- enterprises (SMEs).

Accordingly, the registration of new accounting regime for accounting system is implemented by enterprises as follows:

– Must obtain a written approval of the Ministry of Finance prior to supplementing level -1 account or level-2 account; amending the information of level -1 account or level-2 account on name, symbol, content and accounting method for its special economic transactions.

– The registration of level-1 account or level-2 account, in case of the account being not specified as level-1 account or level-2 account in the list of accounting system in Appendix 1 of this Circular, is not required to obtain any approval of the Ministry of Finance.

Circular No. 133/2016/TT-BTC comes into effect for the fiscal year commences or after 01 January 2017.

3. Conditions for granting ODA for projects

The Ministry of Planning and Investment issued Circular No.12/2016/TT-BKHDT on guidelines for the Decree No. 16/2016/ND-CP on the management and use of official development assistance (ODA) and concessional loans from foreign sponsors.

Accordingly, the conditions for programs and projects enjoying ODA according to (5-year) medium-term public investment plan, concessional loans and counterpart funds are:

– On the list of programs and projects of (5-year) medium-term public investment plan;

– bonded by a specific international treaty or an agreement on ODA, concessional loans signed in the period of the 5-year plan;

– The concessional loans must be guaranteed by a sufficient counterpart fund for the program or project completion in progress as agreed in the signed international treaty or agreement on ODA, concessional loans;

– The legal regulations on the principles and criteria for capital allocation for public investment projects must be complied.

Circular No.12/2016/TT-BKH takes effect as from 22 September 2016 and replaces Circular No. 01/2014/TT-BKH.

4. 05 groups of complicated bankruptcy cases

This is an important content guided by Resolution No.03/2016/NQ-HDTP providing guidance on the implementation of several articles of the Law on Bankruptcy of 2014.

Accordingly, complicated bankruptcy cases include cases other than those mentioned in Points a, b, c Clause 1 Article 8 of the Law on Bankruptcy, and cases where an enterprise or co-operative which requested to initiate bankruptcy proceedings:

– has at least 300 employees or has at least VND 100 billion dong in charter capital;

– is a credit institution, or a business or co-operative providing public utility products and services; or is a business servicing national defense and security;

– is an economic group, a state corporation, or a foreign-invested enterprise;

– has debts guaranteed by the Government or is involved in the implementation of international treaties to which the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a signatory, or written agreements on investment with foreign agencies or organizations;

– has a transaction subject to any claim for being declared invalid according to Article 59 of the Law on Bankruptcy.

Resolution No. 03/2016/NQ-HDTP takes effect as of 16 September 2016.

5. Linking domestic infrastructure with ASEAN infrastructure networks

According to Decision No.1734/QD-TTg dated 06 September 2016 of the Prime Minister, the goals to develop synchronous domestic infrastructure, linking with ASEAN infrastructure networks until 2020, are as follows:

– Up to 2020, completing 2000-2500 kilometers of highways, in total of about 6400 kilometers of highways planned to invest.

– Upgrading Hanoi – Ho Chi Minh City railway line, increasing the speed up to 80-90 km per hour for passenger trains and to 50-60 km per hour for freight train.

– Focusing on developing Ninh Thuan I nuclear power plant and  Ninh Thuan II nuclear power plant; strive to increase the total capacity of power supply up to about 10,700 MW by 2030.

– Building 02 or 03 information technology parks in Hanoi, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City.

– The State facilitates and shares risks all business engaging in infrastructure investment and development; support in finance, taxes, fees and charges, franchise … to increase the commercial of projects.

Decision No.1734 / QD-TTg takes effect as of 06 September 2016.

6. Improve access to banking services

Decision No. 1726/QD-TTg on approving the plan on improving the economy’s access to banking services takes effect as of 5 September 2016

Accordingly, primary goal to be attained by 2020 is to improve access to basic banking services especially for the inhabitants of rural, remote areas small- and medium-sized enterprises. Details are as follows:

– 70 percent of Vietnamese adults will have bank accounts;

– The percentage of branches and transaction offices of commercial banks in rural areas reaches 15%;

– Approximately 35-40 percent of rural adults will open saving accounts at credit institutions;

– Approximately 50-60 percent of small- and medium-sized enterprises will get easy access to bank loans;

– The rate of income arising out of non-credit services in the total income of commercial banks increases by 2 times.