From 2021, the Law on Investment 2020 has provided new regulations on the duration of investment projects in Article 44 as follows:
- No more than 70 years for 3 types of projects: first, projects in economic zones; second, investment projects in areas with difficult socio-economic conditions or areas with extremely difficult socio-economic conditions; second, projects with large investment capital are slow to recover capital.
- No more than 50 years for investment projects outside economic zones.
Note: In case the Investor is delayed in handing over the land, the time will be counted into the operation duration of the project. This content applies even before the Law on Investment 2020 takes effect, based on Clause 7, Article 77 of the Law on Investment 2020.
Upon expiry of the duration of an investment project, if the investor wishes to keep executing the investment project, the project operation duration may be extended for no more than a maximum of 70 years and 50 years for each project type as described above.
Conditions to satisfy for the extension of duration of an investment project’s operation are specified in Clause 4, Article 27 of Decree 31/2021/ND-CP:
- In accordance with the plan. In case the project is found to be unconformable with the planning, it can only be extended each year, the executive sprocedure only needs to be done in the first year.
- Eligible for land allocation/land lease
Cases that are not considered for project extension include:
- Investment projects using obsolete technology, potentially causing environmental pollution and natural-resource intensive;
- Investment projects in which the investor must transfer assets without refund to the State of Vietnam or the Vietnamese side.
Picture source: Smart Money Today
