Law on Investment (amended) to leverage excite investors

Do you have any comments for the draft of Law on Investment Law (amended) that presented to the National Assembly this time?

This is an opportunity, I would not like to say the last but near the last. If we do not have a breakthrough in constructing and implementing the Law on Investment to close to market, with the innovation in parallel with the region then opportunities to grow will be very little. So I expect a lot with this amendment, because this is the center law of many such as Law on Business Real Estate, Law on Construction, Law on Housing, Law on Enterprises, Law on Vocational etc., this is the fundamental for other laws to develop.

However, I believe that the Law on Investment (amended) should clarify clearly policies for investment incentives such as location, industry etc. to leverage excite investors. For example, to promote rural investment will require policies to encourage the implementation of large fields. Recently, Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group invested and made high profits from agriculture. In Nghe An, TH Corporation are also investing and it starts to show the efficiency in Nghe An. Those are very realistic models and rewarding for the State to put research into policy and support for the transition to restructure the economy.

* Law on Investment is already open for investment aboard, however investing abroad seem still facing a lot of difficulty, do you see the same?

The oversea investments, from my surveys from different locations, such as in Myanmar, I have met Vietnamese enterprises have successes and highly rated abroad such as FPT, Hoang Anh Gia Lai etc. In Myanmar, the social environment and people are very friendly, the Government is favor of Vietnamese enterprises, I see this is “cleanse environment”.

However, we still have to study Japanese and Korean. The State should organize their support with the model of support using Investment promotion organization to go first, then work with the Government of that country to establish the corporation and collaboration with enterprises, distribute information to enterprises. If we leave each enterprise to go abroad and set up everything themselves would be very expensive, lack of information. State must once again provide support to guide the enterprise, distribute information to enterprises, creating a foundation for enterprise etc.

In specifically, when investing abroad, what are all the procedures that your company facing, it seems very cumbersome?

The first thing I need to understand how the laws of that country are. The second thing is to know which project suits me or not, effective or not etc.

* Is this correct that there is a current difficulty for Vietnamese enterprise to bring money abroad for investment, since they have to follow Law on Credit Institutions, The Ordinance on Foreign Exchange which is transferring money for overseas investment still quite difficult, with many procedures. According to you, whether Government should resolve these barriers?

I think this is not the problem, and can be resolved. The actual problem is that this company can actually do it or not, are they actually understand the requirements from overseas.

The thing is you must have a project, project must be feasible. Then you can spread payments step-by-step. If we are not careful with transferring money overseas issue then it’s likely to create gaps, to be used to transfer money overseas illegally, resulting in foreign exchange management will be complicated.

* Because of this concern that number of Deputies suggest that we should tighten foreign investment. How is your opinion?

I think we need to be cautious and should plan a move, but it should not too open, since it could result difficulties when we want to tighten. Because when it is too open, as I actually know in enterprise forum, they also want to transfer money here and there, buy a mortgage or carry out their personal investment etc. We currently “lack of” foreign currency, if we let it loose then it will be very difficult.

* But the 2013 Constitution also define regulations for freedom of business rights. In fact some enterprises investing abroad have brought high profits for the country. So why do not we encourage instead of tightening, making investment only flow domestically?

In some developed countries, the currency exchange is very comfortable. There are also countries, such as Thailand right next to us is very tightly managed for foreign exchange. It’s not easy to bring money out of the country. This is needed to calculate, since the foreign currencies are not balanced within the country. Furthermore, in some BOT projects, we work with foreigners but we still cannot commit to let them bring their project out of the country. We can only open to those who actually do it, but for those want to take advantage, we must have certain technical barriers to maintain stable foreign currency.

* From the actual operations of the company, what would you see as the problems during investment process?

There are still number of difficulties so what we looking for this time, the Law on Investment should have breakthroughs, to make procedure more transparent in the future. So that we have support from the Government, from the Law, in case that low levels personnel want to "making law" or "zigzagging" with a company, they will be punished.

For the Law on Investment (amended), we hope it will have breakthrough in terms of the overall policy, to allow enterprises do actual business can have the most support. As model of Samsung, they invest in chain, pouring billions of dollars into Vietnam in electronics, power plant, airport etc.  This not only creates economic efficiency, but also on other aspects that they will move to protect their interests in Vietnam if the country faced problems. I think, by attracting as much large corporations like Samsung, or corporations of G7 countries, as we will have more voice around the world to protect our country.

Besides, I think the State should really be a “midwife”, not only to facilitate the enterprises, but also to go one step ahead, laying the red carpet for Vietnamese companies. As for the companies, it is admitted that the community of Vietnam in general and Vietnam companies in particular is not high compared with other countries. That we have to adjust, not only from companies themselves but we also have to adjust from school textbooks, we could not just only gather our strength in wars, but fragment in peace, then we cannot create power.

As I understand, Chinese investment in Vietnam is not much, about $7 billion USD, but this is still not fully disbursed, only around 2/3. We borrow their loan and have to pay them interest, our children and grandchildren also have to repay, but they take the jobs. Although Chinese invests heavily in different countries, but their actual investment capital in Vietnam is only around $ 5 billion USD. Because they have long-term plan, sinister. They take the fresh cash. Invest one they have jobs, with dozens % of profit. On the other hand their technology is very average, and finally we and our children will have to suffer the consequences.

I think we have to keep track of investors, if they dedicate to the country, even sometimes we draw on something, but win on something else. If places such as our capes like Quang Ninh, Phu Quoc, we allow foreign enterprises to invest into, then if they naturally touch them meaning they touch their countries, they will have a voice in the UN Security Council immediately. It is unquestionable "comb set" strategy with mixture between economic and national defenses that I really concerned about, since I was a soldier before, so I always want to do something certain.

 Thank you!

Minh Anh – Customs News