Vietnam’s investment authority is urging local businesses with
investment ventures in Laos and Cambodia to pay heed to recent policy changes
in these countries.
Under a Ministry of Planning and
Investment’s Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) recent notice, Lao premier
recently enacted an instruction saying that it stopped considering and granting
new investment projects for mineral extraction and exploitation and planning
rubber and eucalyptus on a national scale.
The move is to review the
implementation and quicken pace of licenced projects. Time for temporary
cessation in new licence provision will be from June 11, 2012 to the end of
December 31, 2015.
Similarly, on May 7, 2012 the
Cambodian premier enacted a decree stipulating that Cambodian government would
temporarily halt allocating land for planting rubber. Accordingly, no further
land area will be given to such projects until December 21, 2015.
Later in September 4, 2012
Cambodia delivered a notice on stopping wood extraction in allocated land areas
hosting perennial forests except getting the government approval such as using
woods to build houses for war invalids or for police in areas near the border
lines.
These new policies may directly
affect Vietnamese outbound investments in these two countries, according to
FIA. In fact, the Cambodian government recently looked into land allocations
and land lease to foreign investors, including Vietnamese investors. It argued
that a vast project land has hosted perennial forests.
In this context, the MPI urged
local businesses with outbound investments in Laos and Cambodia to scale up
efforts to strictly observe their projects’ progress and targets and abide by
Vietnamese and host country’s laws.
“This is to shield investors’
legitimate interests and avert legal risks to their projects,” according to a
FIA source.
In respect to cash crop projects,
Vietnamese investors were urged to carefully study land allocation procedures
in the host country to ensure their projects’ legitimacy, in the meantime they
should gather and keep relevant documents associated with the costs of
materials and commodities they brought from Vietnam to Cambodia and Laos to
protect their interests.
“The Vietnamese Investors Associations
in Laos and Cambodia and Cambodia need to bring forth their supporting role to
help projects run smoothly and timely detect difficulties Vietnamese investors
face and deliver petitions to competent agencies in Laos and Cambodia to
support investors,” said the FIA, citing that the Vietnam Rubber Industry Group
needed to review entire investment projects planning rubber and cash crops
under contracts signed between Cambodia Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and
Fisheries and Vietnamese businesses.
The move was to ensure the
implementation of a memorandum of understanding signed between Vietnamese
government and Cambodian and Lao counterparts covering investment cooperation
in planning 100,000ha of new rubber areas.
By end of September 2012, Vietnam
saw 214 on-going investment projects in Laos with a total committed capital of
$3.45 billion.
In Cambodia by end of September
2012 there were 120 on-going Vietnamese projects worth $2.64 billion.
Nguyen Duc | vir.com.vn
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