Except for the investment projects approved by The National Assembly and The Prime Minister, People’s Committees shall grant approval for investment guidelines of the following investment projects.

• Investment projects that request the State to allocate or lease out land without auction or bidding for or receipt of land use rights, and investment projects that request permission to repurpose land, except for cases of land allocation, land lease, or permission for land repurposing by family households or individuals not subject to the written approval by the provincial People’s Committee as prescribed in the law on land;
• Projects on the construction of residential housing (for sale, lease, or lease-purchase) and urban areas that use at least 50 hectares of land or less than 50 hectares of land but with a population of at least 15,000 people in an urban area; or that use at least 100 hectares of land or less than 100 hectares of land but with a population of at least 10,000 people in a non-urban area; or investment projects regardless of the area of land used or population within a restricted development area or within a historic inner area (determined in accordance with urban area planning projects) of a special urban area;
• Investment projects on construction and operation of golf courses;
• Investment projects of foreign investors and foreign-invested business entities executed on islands or in border or coastal communes; in other areas affecting national defense and security.

Important Notes: Unless projects on construction and operation of golf courses, other projects above executed in industrial parks, export-processing zones, hi-tech zones, and economic zones in conformity with planning approved by competent authorities shall be approved by management boards of such industrial parks, export-processing zones, hi-tech zones, and economic zones.

Except for the investment projects approved by The National Assembly, the Prime Minister shall grant approval for investment guidelines of the following investment projects.

1. Investment projects regardless of capital sources in any one of the following cases:

• Investment projects that require relocation of 10,000 people or more in mountainous areas or 20,000 people or more in other areas;
• Investment projects on construction of: airports and aerodromes; runways of airports and aerodromes; international passenger terminals; cargo terminals of airports and aerodromes with a capacity of at least 1 million tonnes per year;
• New investment projects on passenger air transport business;
• Investment projects on construction of ports and wharves of special seaports; ports and wharves in which investment is at least VND 2,300 billion within the category of Class I seaports;
• Investment projects on petroleum processing;
• Investment projects which involve betting and casino services, excluding business in prize-winning electronic games for foreigners;
• Projects on the construction of residential housing (for sale, lease, or lease-purchase) and urban areas that use at least 50 hectares of land or less than 50 hectares of land but with a population of at least 15,000 people in an urban area; or that use at least 100 hectares of land or less than 100 hectares of land but with a population of at least 10,000 people in a non-urban area; or investment projects regardless of the area of land used or population within the safety perimeter of relics recognized by the competent authority as the national and special national relics;
• Investment projects on construction and operation of infrastructure in industrial zones and export processing zones.

2. Investment projects of foreign investors in the following fields: provision of telecommunications services with network infrastructure; afforestation; publication, press;

3. Investment projects which at the same time fall within the power of at least two provincial People’s Committees to grant approval for investment guidelines;

4. Other investment projects subject to approval for their investment guidelines or subject to the issuance of decisions on investment guidelines by the Prime Minister as prescribed by law.

1. Projects that have significant effects on the environment or potentially have an effect on the environment, including:

• Nuclear power plants;
• Projects that require repurposing of special-use forests, headwater protection forests or border protection forests of at least 50 hectares; of sand-fixing and windbreak coastal forests or protection forests for wave prevention of at least 500 hectares; or production forests of at least 1,000 hectares;

2. Investment projects that require repurposing of land meant for wet rice cultivation during with 02 or more crops of at least 500 hectares;

3. Investment projects that require relocation of 20,000 people or more in mountainous areas or 50,000 people or more in other areas;

4. Investment projects that require the application of a special mechanism or policy that needs to be decided by the National Assembly.

Except for projects under the law of public investment law, there are 3 authorities that will be in charge of the decision of investment approval including the National Assembly, the Prime Minister, and the People’s Committee of provinces depended on the projects.

Those projects that are out of the lists approved by the National Assembly, the Prime Minister, and the People’s Committee of provinces are not needed for approval for investment guidelines.

Those projects shall be approved by the Department of Planning and Investment (DPI) or Industrial Zones Authority in consideration of the approval of relevant Ministries in case of the business activities which are out of the WTO commitments

“Approval for investment guidelines” means a competent authority approving the objectives, location, scale, schedule and duration of a project; investor or form of a selection of investor and special mechanisms or special policies (if any) to execute an investment project.

Projects that require State’s decision are often significant projects which affect national defense, security, politics, economy, culture, and society. Therefore, for these projects, investors must proceed to apply for decisions on investment policies before carrying out the procedures for obtaining Investment Registration Certificates as other projects.