In an official dispatch sent to the Ministry of Justice, the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) raised three major issues that need to be considered and revised in the draft Law on Investment and Business to create a more favorable and transparent business environment.

Firstly, the list of conditional business lines should not be reduced to a decree

The most worrying point, according to VCCI, is the proposal in the Draft to reduce the list of conditional business lines from the law level to the decree level.

VCCI analyzed that the regulation of the list of conditional business lines in the Investment Law from 2014 to present has been a great success. It ensures publicity and transparency, helping to strictly control the issuance of business conditions in sub-law documents. This is the spirit of "people and businesses are allowed to do what the law does not prohibit".

Meanwhile, the draft Law on Investment and Business proposes to reduce this list from the law level to the decree level. If this list is reduced to a decree level, VCCI is concerned that it will not be possible to control the situation where ministries and branches arbitrarily add more conditional business lines through other decrees.

Issuing decrees more easily and with less strict supervision than issuing laws can lead to a situation where conditional business lines and occupations will be added arbitrarily, without strict control, and businesses will not be able to recognize the conditional business and investment lines that actually exist.

"This situation may repeat the situation of the list of goods and services subject to conditional business under the 2005 Commercial Law, which has become outdated and has no applicable value," VCCI warned.

Therefore, to ensure the strong reform policy of the Party and State, VCCI proposes to maintain the current regulations on the list of conditional investment and business sectors in the Investment Law.

Secondly, it is necessary to clarify the regulations on investment policy approval

VCCI pointed out the lack of clarity and consistency in the regulations on investment policy approval procedures, especially for projects selecting investors through auctions and bidding.

Specifically, Article 26 of the Draft stipulates that projects that win auctions and biddings do not have to carry out investment policy approval procedures. However, Article 25 stipulates that auctions and biddings are carried out after investment policy approval. This contradiction is confusing and may lead to difficulties in implementation.

To ensure clarity, VCCI proposes to regulate in the direction that projects selecting investors through auctions and bidding will not need to approve investment policies, except for large, specific projects under the approval authority of the Prime Minister or the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee.

Thirdly, propose to remove the Certificate of Overseas Investment Registration

Regarding overseas investment activities, VCCI noted that the draft has had many positive reforms when removing the procedure for approving investment policies and limiting the need for overseas investment registration certificates to only projects of VND 20 billion or more.

However, VCCI believes that maintaining the requirement for this certificate is still an unnecessary procedural burden, especially for private capital sources. The management objective of this regulation is unclear, while actual investment conditions are regulated by the laws of the host country. If there are concerns about foreign exchange management, there are specialized regulations to regulate it.

According to VCCI, this requirement goes against the policy of encouraging Vietnamese enterprises to expand into the world. Therefore, VCCI recommends considering completely removing the mechanism of granting certificates of registration for overseas investment to truly facilitate enterprises.