With the experience in the field of investment consultancy for the foreigner investor, SBLAW would like to provide some information about term of the project as follows:
Under Vietnam Law, maximum project term granted for a foreign investment project is 50 years. However, in practice, project term granted for foreign investment project shall very much depend on subjective opinion of the competent authority who grants the license (Vietnam Law on Investment does not provide any principal or guidance how to determine the permissible term granted for an investment project, except for investment project engaged with leasing land use right from competent authority in which term of project must not exceed leasing term of land use right).
That is the reason why there are always different interpretation on investment project term between different provinces/cities in Vietnam.
In Hanoi, subjective opinion on term of project, especially those relating to foreign investment in service field regularly changed depending on Head of Foreign Investment Division. For example, 05 years ago, almost of foreign investment project in service field shall enjoy 20 years (renewable). In the year 2013, foreign investment in the field of trading goods whose investor is foreign citizen shall only enjoyed 05 years (renewable).
At presence, in Hanoi, almost investment project in service field shall enjoy 10 years (renewable). Foreign Investment in the field of manufacturing can enjoy up to 50 years
