The State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV) has approved a plan to remove or simplify 257 business conditions under its management.

Vietnam should undertake more ambitious reforms to tackle remaining distortions and capacity constraints, increase investment and reduce the external surplus amidst strong economic growth, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recommended in its 2018 Article IV consultation with Vietnam released recently.

The Ministry of Transport (MoT) has proposed to raise the foreign ownership limit for airlines to 49 per cent, as well as removing the difference in charter capital between international and domestic airlines.

Italian businesses are flocking to Vietnam to find opportunities in a wide range of fields, from footwear to interior design products.

Amid narrowing credit sources and rising lending interest rates, property developers have been diversifying their capital mobilisation channels, including calling for foreign investment.

New preferential policies have encouraged both local and international firms to invest in renewable energy, according to authorities.

Many foreign giants have invested in Viet Nam’s leading e-commerce platforms even as they incur big losses, as they continue to see the long-term potential of the country’s rapidly expanding online shopping sector.

The lack of flexibility in tax incentive policies and the authorities’ delays in helping foreign investors to complete licensing procedures are two factors hindering foreign investors in Vietnam.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) refused granting an investment registration certificate to Hong Kong investor OneEnergy Asia Limited to develop the Vung Ang 2 thermal power plant.

Hau Giang Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company, DHG Pharma, has completed the procedures to lift the foreign ownership cap from its current rate of 49 per cent to 100 per cent, effectively abolishing the cap altogether.

Nine new laws will become effective on July 1, 2018, including the Law on Public Debt Management; Law on amendments and supplementations to some articles of the Law on Overseas Representative Missions of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam.

Valuating assets and examining damage in the State’s compensation liability; increasing basic salary; supporting enterprises with projects in the lines of technology transfer are among the newly issued policies that take effect in July 2018.

Soaring foreign investment in the M&A sector may turn the tides of continuously decreasing FDI inflows in the first six months of the year, especially with the appearance of billion-dollar projects.

Together with Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia, Vietnam is one of the first priorities of foreign investors in infrastructure and real estate development.

Since June 19, public-private-partnership (PPP) investment projects have been implemented according to Decree 63/2018/ND-CP (Decree 63). This decree, was signed by the Prime Minister on May 4, replaces Decree 15, which was in effect from April 10, 2015. Decree 63 prescribes the fields, conditions, order and procedures for investment in the form of PPP. Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Vu Dai Thang talks with Thoi bao Kinh te Viet Nam (Vietnam Economic Times) about this issue.

Viet Nam’s total import and export turnover this year reached an estimated US$204.72 billion by June 15, up 13.2 per cent over the same period last year, the General Department of Customs reported.

Besides calling for capital in the form of public-private partnership (PPP), Ho Chi Minh City is deploying multiple experimental investment models to mobilise private capital to invest in medical projects.  

Japan overcame 86 countries and territories to become the largest foreign investor in Vietnam in the first six months of this year, with 6.47 billion USD, or 31.8 percent of the total registered capital.

Businesses are worried that paying 0.5 to 1 per cent of their sales revenue to a health fund or the state budget prescribed by the Draft Law on Alcohol Harms Prevention would prove too much, as they are already charged with high special consumption tax. They want to conduct CSR activities to reduce the harmful use of alcohol by themselves.

For many Vietnamese companies, especially small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), restructuring is a way to improve their competitiveness at a time when the country is integrating rapidly, experts have said.