Resolution 98/2023/QH15 pilot implementation of special mechanisms and policies for development of Ho Chi Minh City

RESOLUTION

On experimentation of a number of special mechanisms and policies for development of Ho Chi Minh City^[1]

THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

Pursuant to the Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam;

Pursuant to Law No. 80/2015/QH13 on Promulgation of Legal Documents with a number of articles amended and supplemented under Law No. 63/2020/QH14;

RESOLVES:

Article 1. Scope of regulation

This Resolution provides the experimentation of a number of special mechanisms and policies for development of Ho Chi Minh City (below referred to as the City), regarding investment management; finance, state budget; urban management, natural resources, environment; business lines and professions prioritized for attraction of strategic investors into the City; science and technology management, innovation; and organizational apparatuses of the administrations of the City and Thu Duc city.

Article 2. Subjects of application

1. State agencies, political organizations and socio-political organizations.

2. Socio-political-professional organizations, social organizations and socio-professional organizations.

3. Other relevant organizations and individuals.

Article 3. Interpretation of terms

In this Resolution, the terms below are construed as follows:

1. Innovation start-up enterprises are those set up under law to materialize ideas on the basis of exploitation of intellectual assets, technologies, business models which are novel and capable of growing fast.

2. Intermediary organizations supporting innovation start-ups are organizations which promote business, organizations which support innovation start-ups, concentrated service zones which support innovation start-ups, technical establishments which support small and medium enterprises, nurseries of small and medium enterprises, common working zones which support small and medium enterprises for innovation start-ups, technology transfer promotion and support centers, innovation start-up support centers, and common-use equipment supply organizations.

3. Transit-oriented development (TOD) model means a model that takes the public transport system development orientation as the basis for urban planning and development; traffic hubs as population concentration spots, aiming to raise the efficiency of land use and public facilities, contributing to easing traffic congestion and reducing environmental pollution.

4. Build-Transfer contract (BT contract) is a contract concluded between competent agencies and investors, project enterprises (if any) to build infrastructural works; upon work completion, investors shall transfer such works to competent agencies and be paid with state budget funds to recover investment capital and earn profits as agreed upon in the contracts.

Article 4. Regarding investment management

1. The City People’s Council shall decide to allocate public investment capital in support of poverty reduction and employment through assigning the City People’s Committee to entrust the Social Policy Bank’s Ho Chi Minh City branch to implement the policy on loans in support of poor households, near-poor households, households newly escaped from poverty, and employment. The City People’s Council shall provide support criteria, conditions, contents, forms and duration.

2. To experiment the TOD model:

a/ The City People’s Council shall decide on the use of local budget for deploying independent public-investment projects aimed at performing compensation, support and resettlement work with regard to investment projects under specific urban designing blueprints, schemes on planning of urban centers in the vicinity of railway stations of the railway lines approved by competent authorities, the vicinity of traffic junctions along Belt Road 3 in the City’s area for land recovery, urban re-embellishment and development, resettlement, and creation of land funds for bidding to select investors for investment projects on urban, trade and service development in accordance with law;

b/ The investment and construction competence, order and procedures for compensation, support and resettlement projects mentioned at Point a of this Clause shall be the same as those applicable to Group-A public investment projects meeting the criteria specified by the law on public investment;

c/ For the vicinities of railway stations and traffic junctions defined at Point a of this Clause, the City People’s Committee may decide to adjust the construction density and norms of technical infrastructure and social infrastructure as compared with those specified in national technical standards on construction planning for existing urban centers but must ensure the requirements of technical infrastructure and social infrastructure systems and the architectural planning norms identified in the sectional planning blueprints and the general planning of the City;

d/ Land recovery for the projects mentioned at Point a of this Clause must fully meet the following conditions: projects with approved investment policy and included in medium-term public investment plan of the City; locations, boundaries, recovered land areas of the projects in the vicinities already determined in the urban planning blueprint, specific urban design blueprints, land use planning, annual land use plans at district level.

3. The City People’s Committee shall organize biddings to select investors for executing land-using projects that fully meet the following conditions:

a/ Being on the list of projects requiring land recovery in cases where the State recovers land for socio-economic development in the national interests or public interests as provided by the land law;

b/ Covering a State-managed land area within the project land lots;

c/ Ensuring that land not yet gone through ground clearance.

4. The State-managed land areas within land lots opened for biddings to select investors for executing the projects defined in Clause 3 of this Article are not required to go through the procedures for land and house rearrangement and handling provided in the law on public property management and use.

5. For public-private partnership investment projects (below referred to as PPP projects):

a/ Apart from the fields of PPP investment defined in the Investment Law, the City can apply the PPP investment form to investment projects in the sports and culture fields. The order and procedures for execution of projects defined at this Point must comply with the law on PPP investment and other relevant laws.

b/ The total minimum investment amounts of PPP projects in the health, education and training, sports and culture fields shall be set by the City People’s Council;

c/ The City can apply the Build-Operation-Transfer (BOT) contract to investment projects on upgrading construction, expansion or modernization of existing land road works in conformity with the approved planning for main thoroughfares and overhead roads.

Criteria, principles, conditions, order and procedures for project execution, and investor selection must comply with the law on PPP investment.

The City People’s Council shall promulgate the list of projects defined in this Clause. The City People’s Committee shall make public and transparent all information on projects for public supervision.

Where the ground clearance compensation expenses account for over 50% of the total investment amount of a project and the preliminary financial plan of the PPP project does not guarantee capital recover, the City People’s Council may consider and decide to increase the state capital ratio in the PPP project, but not in excess of 70% of the total investment amount for the project;

d/ The City may apply BT contracts.

Competence, order and procedures for formulation, approval, management of projects, investment costs, and construction quality of works and projects applying BT contracts are the same as those applicable to projects funded with public investment capital as provided by the public investment law and construction law. Projects will have their investment policies decided only when their capital sources and capital-balancing capability are determined. The total investment amounts of BT projects shall be determined like the projects funded with public investment capital as provided by the construction law; post-construction loan interest expenses and reasonable profits shall be accounted into the total project investment amounts.

Competence, order and procedures for selection of investors to execute BT projects are the same as those applicable to PPP projects as provided by the law on PPP investment. The selection of investors to execute BT projects shall be carried out after the construction designs are approved.

The City People’s Committee shall set the standards for evaluation of capability, experience, techniques and finance of the project execution investors.

The City People’s Council shall decide the use of the City’s budget capital, allocate capital for investment preparation, make annual budget estimates and arrange public investment capital in annual and medium-term public investment plans of the City for payment to investors after works or independent work components are completed with pre-acceptance tests, audited, based on the value and progress in the BT contracts, and oversee the implementation, ensuring the strict compliance with law.

The Government shall determine loan interests, reasonable profits, payment modes, and final settlement of BT projects.

6. The City People’ Council and the City People’s Committee shall, within the ambit of their tasks and powers, comply with the provisions of this Article and relevant law, ensuring the publicity and transparency; ensure the harmony of legitimate rights and interests of people, enterprises and the State as well as socio-economic efficiency; not cause losses and wastes, create public consensus, prevent the occurrence of complicate cases and matters or class complaints, causing insecurity, social disorder and unsafety.

Article 5. Regarding finance, state budget

1. Charge and fee policies are prescribed as follows:

a/ The City People’s Council may decide the application in the locality of charges and fees other than those on in the lists of charges and fees promulgated together with the Law on Charges and Fees; may adjust charge and fee levels or collection rates already decided by competent authorities with regard to charges and fees on the lists of charges and fees promulgated together with the Law on Charges and Fees, excluding court charges and fees and charges which are wholly remitted into the central budget.

b/ The City’s budget may enjoy the whole amount additionally collected from the revenue amounts resulting from adjustment of charge and fee policies specified at Point a of this Clause for investment in socio-economic infrastructure and other spending tasks of the City’s budget; these revenue amounts may not be used for determination of percentages (%) of revenues for division to the central budget and the municipal budget.

c/ The experimental application of charge and fee policies in the City, mentioned at Point a of this Clause, shall be implemented according to roadmaps and aligned with the City’s capability and development requirements; must create favorable a production and business environment for enterprises; ensure the market uniformity of market without obstructing the circulation of goods and services; rationally regulate commodities, services and lawful revenue sources of organizations and individuals in the City; and ensure publicity, transparency and reform of administrative procedures.

2. Based on the annual state budget estimates decided by the National Assembly and allocated by the Prime Minister and on the City’s practical conditions, the City People’s Council shall decide the estimates of and allocate the City’s budget, ensuring the conformity with the orientation of restructuring the state budget, socio-economic development and important fields as determined by the National Assembly and the Government.

3. The City may implement mechanisms to create sources for implementation of wage reform according to regulations. After the City’s budget ensures adequate sources for implementation of wage reform and social security policies for the entire period of budget stabilization as decided by competent authorities, the City People’s Council may decide:

a/ The use of surplus wage reform source of the City’s budget, allowing the lower-level budgets to use the surplus wage reform sources for investment in the development of socio-economic infrastructure under the spending tasks of the budget and for increased income payment on the basis of compliance with Point b, Clause 5, Article 9 of this Resolution;

b/ The appropriate ratios of deducted revenues left for creation of wage reform sources for attached agencies and units with large revenue amounts, adhering to the principle that these agencies and units shall themselves arrange sources for wage reform according to roadmaps decided by competent agencies; the state budget shall not supplement funds to these agencies and units for wage reforms;

c/ To permit the state administrative agencies, political organizations, socio-political organizations and public non-business units managed by the City to use the surplus wage reform sources to increase spending on their investment, procurements and specialized activities, and payment on increased income on the basis of compliance with Point b, Clause 5, Article 9 of this Resolution.

4. The City may borrow loans via the issuance of local-administration bonds, from domestic financial institutions, other domestic organizations and from the Government’s foreign loans for onlending to the City with the total outstanding loan debts not exceeding 120% of the budget revenues enjoyed by the City as decentralized. The annual total loan amount and budget deficit of the City shall be decided by the National Assembly under the State Budget Law. Annually, in the course of budget execution, the City People’s Council may proactively decide specific sources of domestic loans and sources of Government-guaranteed foreign loans within the total loan amount and budget deficit decided by the National Assembly and allocated by the Prime Minister.

5. Annually, the central budget shall provide targeted additional allocations for the City’s budget with an amount not exceeding 70% of the central budget revenue increase from revenue amounts shared between the central budget and the City’s budget as compared to the estimates allocated by the Prime Minister (the remaining amount after payment of rewards for surplus revenue as provided in Clause 4, Article 59 of State Budget Law No. 83/2015/QH13, with a number of articles amended and supplemented under Law No. 59/2020/QH14) and the revenue amounts wholly enjoyed by the central budget as provided at Points b, c, d, g, h, i and q of Clause 1, Article 35 of State Budget Law No. 83/2015/QH13 with a number of articles amended and supplemented under Law No. 59/2020/QH14 as compared to the estimates allocated by the Prime Minister, but not exceeding the total central budget revenue increase in the locality as compared with the previous year’s collected revenue and reducing the planned central budget revenue. The determination of targeted additional allocations shall be based on the total revenue amounts, but not be calculated separately for each revenue.

6. The budget expenditure estimates of district People’s Committees under the City may earmark between 2% and 4% of the total district expenditures for prevention, fighting and recovery of natural disasters, epidemics, calamities, hunger relief, important defense and security tasks as well as other necessary tasks. District People’s Committee presidents may decide the spending of these unallocated amounts, periodically report it to the City People’s Committee for further reporting to the City People’s Council at the nearest session.

7. The City People’s Council shall decide the use of the City’s budget for execution of land road projects and works of regional or inter-regional character, which are located on the administrative boundary between the City and other localities, highway and expressway projects running through the City; support for other localities in the country, and support for localities in other countries in case of necessity.

8. Ho Chi Minh City Financial Investment State Company (HFIC) is the single-member limited liability company with 100% state capital to function as the local development investment fund. HFIC’s operation is as follows:

a/ The City People’s Council may allocate revenue from the equitization of enterprises with 100% state capital with the City People’s Committee being the owner’s representative for supplementing  HFIC’s charter capital;

b/ HFIC’s profits after making deductions into various funds shall be retained for supplementing HFIC’s investment development fund as charter capital supplementation;

c/ Order and procedures for supplementing HFIC’s charter capital, specified at Points a and b of this Clause, are the same as the order and procedures for supplementing charter capital of Local Development Investment Funds;

d/ At the proposal of the City People’s Committee, the City People’s Council may allocate public investment capital from the City’s budget as interest support for investment projects financed with HFIC’s loans in the fields prioritized for socio-economic development in the City according to support subjects, conditions, order, procedures, levels and durations prescribed by the City People’s Council.

When providing loans to projects, HFIC shall comply with the law on Local Development Investment Funds;

dd/ HFIC shall abide by the principle of state capital conservation and development when implementing the contents prescribed in this Clause.

9. The City shall decide the collection of charges for maintenance and upgrading of industrial park and export processing zone infrastructures from enterprises located therein and may only use them for the purpose of improving utilities for enterprises and laborers, not for the purpose of profit. The City People’s Committee shall promulgate regulations on collection and use of charges for infrastructure maintenance and upgrading, specifying the subjects, principles, collection levels, mechanisms for management and use of revenues, ensuring transparency, rationality, and the financial autonomy mechanism of the Management Boards of export processing zones and industrial parks of the City. The money amount for infrastructure maintenance and upgrading defined in this Clause shall not be declared for value-added tax payment and shall be accounted as deductible expenses when determining corporate income tax.

10. The experimentation of financial mechanisms in implementing measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under carbon credit exchange and offset mechanisms is as follows:

Carbon credits formed from programs and projects under mechanisms for carbon credit exchange and offset with the City’s budget investment capital may be transacted with domestic and international investors. The City People’s Committee shall coordinate with the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ministry of Construction, and Ministry of Resources and Environment in determining the contribution ratios of reduced and absorbed greenhouse gas emission volumes in the City area for the national target of greenhouse gas emission reduction before trading carbon credits.

The City People’s Committee shall promulgate the order and procedures for and decide the selection of investors. The carbon credit trading revenue constitutes a budget revenue to be wholly enjoyed by the City; these revenue amounts may not be used for determining percentages (%) for revenue amounts divided between the central budget and the City’s budget.

The City People’s Council shall decide the use of revenues from carbon credit transactions for funding programs and projects to respond to climate change and develop green economy, digital economy and circular economy in the City.

11. The City People’s Committee shall decide the use of technically qualified roofs of the offices of administrative agencies, public non-business units, offices of agencies and units determined as public property in the City for installing solar power systems to supply electricity for operation of these offices. Any surplus electricity shall be used in accordance with the law on electricity.

The City People’s Committee shall organize the installation and management of the solar power systems, ensuring appropriate aesthetic and architectural elements and compliance with the law on environment.

Article 6. Regarding urban management, natural resources and environment

1. For projects using rice-growing land for other purposes, the City People’s Council shall decide the repurposing of rice growing land of under 500 ha in conformity with the land use planning and plans already decided by competent authorities.

The decision on repurposing rice-growing land shall be publicized for comments of people and subjects affected by the change and ensure the principles and conditions on repurposing rice growing land in accordance with the land law and other relevant laws.

Order and procedures for repurposing rice growing land of under 500 ha shall be specified by the City People’s Council.

2. Construction planning, urban planning are provided as follows:

a/ Based on the planning blueprints on construction of functional quarters and the urban planning approved by the Prime Minister, the Prime Minister shall decide the decentralization to the City People’s Committee to approve the sectional adjustment of general planning on construction of functional quarters, sectional adjustment of urban master plan, sectional adjustment of specialized technical infrastructure master plans according to the order and procedures specified by the Prime Minister, and report implementation results to the Prime Minister;

b/ Adjustment of construction planning, urban planning to serve community interests under the law on construction and urban planning may be carried out in one of the following cases: increase of quotas of social infrastructure, technical infrastructure; reduction of construction density; increase of average per-head flooring space. Such adjustment, however, must ensure the City’s housing development plan and may not increase the construction density and create overload on regional infrastructure; the cases specified in Clause 3 of this Article and Clause 2  of Article 4 of this Resolution; addition of public utilities and urban view improvement works aiming for higher living, daily-life and working conditions of local inhabitants.

3. For investment projects on construction of social houses, it is provided as follows:

a/ The detailed planning task shall be formulated simultaneously with the detailed planning blueprint; the collection of population communities’ comments related to the task and detailed planning blueprint shall be carried out simultaneously. The appraisal and approval of detailed planning task shall be carried out in advance for use as the basis for appraisal and approval of the detailed planning blueprint;

b/ At the time of approving the investment policy, if the detailed planning and/or the sectional planning are not conformable with the general planning, it is allowed to approve the investment policy under the general planning, the sectional planning and the land use coefficient quota or construction density in accordance with the housing law.

Where the detailed planning is not yet conformable with the general planning and the sectional planning, it is allowed to approve the investment policy under the general planning, the sectional planning and the land use coefficient quotas or construction density in accordance with the housing law.

The sectional planning and detailed planning shall be approved or have their adjustments approved prior to the formulation of feasibility study reports on construction investment, and subsequent steps of projects;

c/ The City People’s Committee shall approve the planning and arrange social house land funds within commercial house projects or approve the planning and arranges social house land funds at other locations outside the commercial house projects, meeting the social house demands in the locality under the approved housing development programs and plans, ensuring the land area ratio for construction of social houses in accordance with the housing law and relevant laws. Investors shall organize the investment construction of social houses at locations planned for exchange and fulfill the land-related financial obligations for the exchanged land fund in the commercial house projects, ensuring compliance with the housing and land laws;

d/ Land for development of social houses include areas in the commercial house construction investment projects, which investors shall earmark for construction of social houses as provided by law; land allocated by the State; land leased by the State, and land under lawful land use rights of organizations, households and individuals in conformity with land use planning and plans, construction planning, urban planning already approved by competent state agencies.

4. The City People’s Committee shall formulate and submit to the City People’s Council for approval and promulgation the land price adjustment coefficient in conformity with the practical situation of the City for application to the calculation of land use levies and land rents for all land areas and land plots (disregarding the values calculated according to land price tables) in cases the land price tables contain the collected market information and are made for every land plot for application in the following cases:

a/ The State permits the change of land use purpose for land area in excess of quotas of households, individuals;

b/ The State leases land with annual land rent payment to organizations, individuals, except for cases where land is used for execution of commercial house construction projects.

5. Principles of land-related compensation when the State recovers land are as follows:

a/ The land-related compensation must ensure that people having land recovered have the residences and living conditions equal to or better than those in their former residential places.

The City shall consider support and create conditions for people having land recovered and owners of property attached to land to have jobs and incomes and stabilize their lives, production and business;

b/ The land compensation shall be carried out by allocating land with the same use purpose as recovered land, if there is no land for compensation, it can be compensated in cash according to the recovered land’s specific prices decided by competent People’s Committees at the time of approving the schemes on compensation, support and resettlement; for households and individuals having land recovered, if they demand to be compensated in cash, they shall be compensated in cash according to their aspiration already registered when the schemes on compensation, support and resettlement are formulated. For households and individuals having land recovered, if having the demand to be compensated in land with a use purpose different from that of the recovered land or in residential houses and the City have available land and/or residential house funds, they shall be considered for compensation in land with a use purpose different from that of the recovered land or in residential houses. The City People’s Council shall decide the exchange ratio, conditions for compensation in land with a use purpose different from that of the recovered land, or in residential houses, suitable to the practical local conditions, ensuring the lawful rights and interests of people.

6. The City may decide to permit economic organizations, which are leased land by the State with the annual collection of land rents not originating from the state budget, to mortgage, transfer or lease the rent rights in the land rent contracts, if the following conditions are met:

a/ Having the land use right certificates; the residential house ownership and residential land use right certificates; the certificates of the land use rights, residential house and other land-attached asset ownerships (below referred to as the land use right certificates);

b/ The assets attached to the leased land has been formed legally;

c/ Having completed the construction according to the detailed construction planning and the investment projects have been approved, except for cases of having to comply with legally effective judgments or decisions of the courts, decisions of the civil judgment execution agencies or competent inspection and examination state agencies;

d/ The land is dispute-free;

dd/ The land use duration has not yet expired;

e/ The purchasers or renters of land lease rights in the land lease contracts satisfy the following conditions: having financial capability to execute the investment projects; doing business lines relevant to the investment projects; having not breached the land law, for cases of having been allocated or leased land by the State for implementation of previous projects.

The purchasers or renters in the land lease contracts may continue using the land for the remaining land use duration, use the land for right purposes determined in the projects and shall carry out procedures for registering mortgage, transfer or lease of land rent rights in the land rent contracts; land registry offices shall register the land in the land use right certificates and cadastral dossiers, land databases on the basis of concluded contracts.

7. For BT projects applying BT contracts concluded legally before the Law on PPP Investment takes effect while the payment to investors has not been completed, the use of State-managed land funds in cases of restructuring and handling public property for payment to investors shall be carried out as follows:

a/ The City People’s Committee shall recover the land in the State-managed land funds, for the cases of restructuring and handling public property already determined in the BT contracts;

b/ The City People’s Committee shall decide and carry out investment procedures, construction planning procedures and land allocation or land lease procedures specified in concluded BT contracts, and land use planning already approved by competent authorities. The time for land allocation or land lease for payment shall be based on the work construction volume in the BT projects already completed on schedule, pre-acceptance tested by competent state agencies, and audited. Prices for calculation of land use levies and land rents shall be determined at the time of deciding the land allocation or land lease.

8. For land formed from expansion toward the sea, the City shall carry out land allocation or land lease procedures under the land law.

9. For investors purchasing the auctioned property or judgment execution property being agricultural land use rights from financial institutions, credit institutions or bailiff organizations for executing non-agricultural projects but having not yet carried out procedures for land allocation or  land lease by the State while the land use duration has expired or for project investors having been transferred with the agricultural land use rights for executing non-agricultural projects and currently carrying out procedures for land allocation or land lease by the State while the land use duration has already expired, the land use duration will be extended through June 30, 2024.

10. The general conditions on grant of definite-time construction permits for public facilities, including parking houses or yards and public toilets on the State-managed land are as follows:

a/ They are located in areas with sectional planning, sectional planning on construction of functional quarters or detailed planning, functional quarter construction detailed planning approved and issued by competent state agencies, but not yet implemented;

b/ Their sizes conform with construction standards, not overloading the infrastructure and ensuring urban landscapes, the facilities’ existence duration complies with the plan for implementation of sectional construction planning, functional quarter construction sectional planning or detailed planning, functional quarter construction detailed planning already approved by competent state agencies;

c/ Upon the expiry of the facilities’ existence duration prescribed in the definite- time construction permits or upon the request of competent state agencies, the investors shall commit to dismantle the facilities themselves, if not they shall be subject to coercive dismantlement and bear all costs thereof. If the construction planning is not realized beyond this time limit, the investors can continue using the facilities until competent state agencies notify the request to dismantle them.

Conditions other than general conditions on grant of definite-time construction permits, the order, procedures and competence for grant of definite-time construction permits and management of order in construction must comply with provisions of the construction law.

11. Investors implementing projects on treatment of daily-life solid waste and voluntarily shifting the projects’ entire technology to treatment of daily-life solid waste with energy recovery shall be considered and decided for addition of daily-life solid waste volumes in form of order placement by the City People’s Committee. The City People’s Council shall issue criteria, standards, roadmap for technology shifting, conditions, quotas, unit prices and order placement prices related to the daily-life solid waste volumes supplemented on order, ensuring publicity and transparency.

12. The preparation of recovery of land for a number of projects in the City shall be carried out as follows:

a/ For projects on construction of industrial parks, hi-tech zones, national or local technical infrastructure, transport, community culture, sport and entertainment areas, which fall into cases of State recovery in accordance with the land law and have an area of 300 ha or over, or have 1.000 households, individuals and organizations or more having land recovered, independent public investment projects with compensation, resettlement support specified at Point a, Clause 2, Article 4 of this Resolution, based on the district-level land use planning and district-level annual land use plans, the City People’s Council shall issue the list of target projects before investigation, survey, measurement, tally, verification of origins of land, assets attached land according to the order and procedures specified in this Clause;

b/ Based on the list of projects specified at Point a of this Clause, the State agencies competent to recover land in accordance with the land law shall issue notices of the organization of investigations, surveys, measurement, tally, verification of origins of land and assets attached to land.

The notices of investigations, surveys, measurement, tally and verification of origins of land and assets attached to land shall be sent to every land user and publicized in the mass media, posted up at commune-level People’s Committee offices, and public places of the population quarters concerned;

c/ Based on the notices defined at Point b of this Clause, organizations performing compensation and ground clearance work may carry out investigation, survey, measurement, tally and verification of origins of land and assets attached to land before competent state agencies issue land recovery notices.

Commune-level People’s Committees shall coordinate with the compensation and ground-clearance organizations in carrying out investigation, survey, area measurement, and inventory of houses and other assets attached to land for formulating compensation, support, resettlement schemes.

Land users shall coordinate with the compensation and ground-clearance organizations in carrying out investigation, survey, measurement, and inventory of houses and other assets attached to land for formulating compensation, support and resettlement schemes;

d/ After the selection of investors for project implementation. the state agencies competent to recover land under the land law shall issue notices of land recovery and use results of investigation, survey, measurement, tally, verification of origins of land and assets attached to land, as provided at Point c of this Clause, as the basis for formulating compensation, support and resettlement schemes.

The formulation, appraisal, approval and implementation of compensation, support and resettlement schemes and land recovery decisions must comply with the land law;

dd/ The City People’s Council shall decide the use of local budgets for implementing the contents of Point c of this Clause and promulgate order and procedures for implementing the provisions of this Clause.

13. The control of transportation emissions is as follows:

a/ The City People’s Council shall promulgate policies to encourage, support and provide incentives for individuals, households, cooperatives and enterprises that change their means of transport running on fossil fuels to those on clean energy, and the implementation roadmaps; make compulsory purchases or change of old means of transport to new ones running on clean energy to reduce environmental pollution; invest in developing public means of transport in combination with the roadmap to restrict personal vehicles to control traffic congestion;

b/ The City People’s Council shall decide to use the City’s budget for implementing the contents of Point a of this Clause and promulgate criteria, roadmaps and procedures for implementing the provisions of this Clause;

c/ The City People’s Committee shall base on the provisions of Points a and b to organize the restriction of land motor vehicles running on fossil fuels to run on the road.

Article 7. Regarding business lines and trades prioritized for attraction of strategic investors into the City

1. Lists of business lines and trades prioritized for attraction of strategic investors into the City include:

a/ Investment in construction of innovation centers, research and development (R&D) centers; investment in research and support of hi-tech transfer in the fields of information technology, bio-technology, automation technology, new-material, clean energy technologies, worth VND 3,000 billion or over;

b/ Investment in projects in the field of semi-conductor integrated circuit industry, technologies for designing and manufacturing components, integrated circuits (IC), flexible PE, chips, new technology batteries, new materials, clean energy technology valued at VND 30,000 billion or over;

c/ Investment in building Can Gio international transit port as planned, with the investment capital of VND 50,000 billion or over.

2. Strategic investors are those who meet the conditions defined in Clauses 3 and 4 of this Article.

3. Strategic investors must satisfy one of the following conditions:

a/ Having the charter capital of VND 500 billion or over when executing the investment projects specified at Point a, Clause 1 of this Article and the experiences for project investment in similar fields with a total investment capital of VND 2 trillion or over;

b/ Having the charter capital of VND 5 trillion or over, or the total asset value of VND 25 trillion or over when executing the investment projects specified at Point b, Clause 1 of this Article and having experiences for project investment in similar fields, with a total investment capital of VND10 trillion or over;

c/ Having the charter capital of VND 9 trillion or over when executing the investment projects specified at Point c, Clause 1 of this Article and experiences for project investment in similar fields, with a total investment capital of VND 25 trillion or over.

4. The strategic investors shall commit in writing on human resource training and development, meet the conditions on national defense and security maintenance and environmental protection in accordance with Vietnam’s law.

5. Strategic investors defined in Clause 2 of this Article, who are selected according to the order and procedures specified in Clause 7 of this Article for implementation of investment projects on the lists of business lines prioritized for attraction of strategic investors defined in Clause 1 of this Article, are entitled to investment incentives and have the obligations specified in Clauses 8 and 9 of
this Article.

6. Based on lists of business lines prioritized for attraction of strategic investors specified in Clause 1 of this Article, investors or competent state agencies shall propose investment projects. For projects subject to investment policy approval, authorities competent to approve the investment policy shall carry out and procedures for approval of investment policy under the investment law and Clause 7 of this Article.

7. Order and procedures for registration of project implementation and selection of strategic investors for projects other than those specified in Clause 4, Article 29, of the Investment Law, are as follows:

a/ Based on decisions to approve the investment policy of projects specified in Clause 6 of this Article, the competent investment registration offices of the City shall publicize on the Vietnam National E-Procurement System the information on projects, preliminary requirements on investors’ capability and experiences and conditions on identification of strategic investors;

b/ Based on the published information defined at Point a of this Clause, the investors shall prepare and submit dossiers for registration of project execution. Such dossiers must comprise project execution registration documents; files on investors’ legal capacity, capability and experiences, documents testifying to the satisfaction of the conditions specified in Clauses 3 and 4 of this Article and other relevant documents (if any);

c/ When the project execution registration duration expires, the competent investment registration offices of the City shall organize the preliminary assessment of project execution dossiers submitted by investors. Based on the preliminary capability and experience assessment results, persons competent to decide on the selection of investors shall decide to organize the implementation in one of the following cases specified at Points d, dd and e of this Clause;

d/ In case only one investor registers or multiple investors register but only one satisfies the preliminary requirements on capability and experience, such investor shall be accepted in accordance with the investment law;

dd/ In case 2 or more investors meet the preliminary requirements on capability and experience of whom 1 is regarded as meeting the conditions on strategic investors defined at Point a of this Clause, that strategic investor shall be approved in accordance with the investment law;

e/ In case 2 or more investors meet the preliminary requirements on capability and experiences of whom 2 or more are regarded as meeting the conditions on strategic investors specified at Point a of this Clause, the competent state agencies shall apply the bidding law in order to select the investor among those identified to satisfy the conditions on strategic investors;

g/ The City People’s Committee shall issue specific forms of publication of information on projects for attracting strategic investors, including the preliminary requirements on investors’ capability and experiences, and project implementation registration dossiers.

8. Strategic investors are entitled to the following incentives:

a/ To calculate deductible expenses for determining taxable incomes for R&D activities which are equal to 150% of actual costs of such activities when calculating enterprise income tax. The actual R& D costs shall be determined in accordance with the law on accountancy;

b/ To be entitled to priority customs procedures in accordance with the customs law and priority tax procedures in accordance with the tax law for exports and imports of investment projects implemented by strategic investors in the City when meeting the conditions on application of priority regimes in accordance with the customs and tax laws, excluding the condition on export and import turnovers.

9. Strategic investors have the following obligations:

a/ To implement projects according to the contents of the investment registration certificates or investment policy-approving decisions;

b/ To disperse investment capital within 5 years from the date of grant of the investment registration certificates or investment policy-approving decisions. During this period, the strategic investors may not transfer the projects;

c/ To financially support vocational training of affected laborers in the project areas; to prioritize the admission of local laborers to work at the projects; to commit to applying and transferring advanced technologies, new technologies, high technologies (if any).

10. In the course of investment project implementation, if strategic investors fail to meet the conditions on capital, capital disbursement progress and other conditions on strategic investors, they shall not be entitled to the incentives provided in this Resolution. The investors shall be responsible for consequences of the non-fulfillment of their commitments.

Article 8. Regarding science and technology management, innovation

1. The support for innovation and start-up activities in the City’s priority fields is provided as follows:

a/ Exemption from enterprise income tax for 5 years from the date payable incomes are generated, for incomes from start-up innovation activities of innovation start-up enterprises, science and technology organizations, innovation centers and intermediary organizations supporting start-up innovations arising in the City;

b/ Exemption from personal income tax, enterprise income tax of individuals or individuals earning incomes from transfer of capital contributions, rights of capital contribution to innovation start-up enterprises in the City;

c/ During the implementation of this Resolution, experts, scientists, talented persons, and innovation start-up individuals working at innovation start-up enterprises, science and technology organizations, innovation centers and intermediary organizations supporting innovation start-up in the City will be exempt from personal income tax for 5 years with regard to their salaries and remunerations;

d/ Hi-tech parks, technology parks and innovation centers in the City may conduct controlled experimentation of new technological solutions;

dd/ Non-refundable supports from regular expenditure sources of the City’s budget for spending on innovation, innovation start-up nursery projects include: expenses on organization of project selection; expenses for hiring of experts; direct remunerations; services in support of innovation and start-up; costs of using technical infrastructure, nursery establishments and common working areas;

e/ The City People’s Council shall specify priority fields, criteria, conditions, contents of innovation start-up activities of subjects specified at Points a, b and c of this Clause; criteria, new solution experimentation fields and support contents (if any) specified at Point d of this Clause and support levels specified at Point dd of this Clause.

2. The City People’s Council shall specify following contents:

a/ Salaries, remunerations, welfare regimes and other preferential policies for leading titles in public science and technology organizations, which shall be determined on the basis of qualifications, capabilities and working requirements;

b/ Royalties for performance of scientific and technological tasks;

c/ Criteria, subjects and conditions for entitlement to preferences specified at Points a and b of this Clause.

Article 9. Organization of the City’s administrative apparatus

1. The City People’s Council shall set up the Food Safety Department as a specialized agency attached to the City People’s Committee; define its functions, tasks, powers and organizational structure on the basis of transferring the functions of state management of food safety, inspection, examination and handling of administrative violations related to food safety, grant of quarantine certificates for products and animals exiting the City from the Health Department, the Agriculture and Rural Development Department and the Industry and Trade Department to the Food Safety Department.

2. District People’s Committees under the City may have no more than 3 vice-chairpersons each. For wards, communes and townships with a population of 50,000 people or more each, the ward, commune and township People’s Committees may have no more than 3 vice-chairperson each.

3. The election, recruitment, management and employment of cadres and civil servants working at communes and townships and ward officials must comply with the provisions of law on election, recruitment, management and employment of cadres and civil servants within the annually assigned payrolls of cadres and civil servants of district or higher levels.

4. The City People’s Committee chairperson may authorize heads of other administrative agencies under the City People’s Committee, heads of public non-business units under it to perform one or a number of its tasks or powers within a definite duration on specific conditions. The authorization shall be made in writing, clearly defining responsibilities of authorizers and authorized persons, ensuring publicity, transparency and efficiency.

5. The City People’s Council has the following powers:

a/ Based on the population size, economic activities and local characteristics, to decide the composition, the number of cadres and civil servants working in communes, wards, townships; decide on number of, titles, regimes and policies for, part-timers in communes, wards, townships, ensuring the elite and tidy apparatus.

The City People’s Council shall promulgate criteria, standards and quotas on quantity of cadres and civil servants in communes, wards and townships;

b/ To decide on the City’s budget allocation for payment of additional incomes for cadres, civil servants and part-timers in communes, wards and townships, laborers in the state management sector, political organizations, socio-political organizations, public non-business units, a number of specific associations and centrally run agencies in the City, according to performance efficiency outside the payment of additional incomes under current provisions of law on financial autonomy mechanism applicable to administrative agencies and public non-business units, not in excess of 1.8 times of the rank, grade, position wages and payment of additional incomes not exceeding 0.8 time of the basic salary fund of cadres, civil servants, public employees and laborers under management;

c/ To decide on income levels for experts, scientists, persons with special talents of the City; decide on principles, standards, conditions, process, income levels and other policies for recruitment of civil servants, public employees from outstanding graduate students, persons with high qualifications suitable to the City’s recruitment demands.

6. The City People’s Committee has the following powers:

a/ To decide on the establishment, reorganization and dissolution of public non-business units under the City People’s Committee, ensuring the principles, criteria and conditions specified by law;

b/ To decide on the transfer of a number of functions, tasks and powers from professional agencies under the City People’s Committee to other specialized and administrative agencies under the City People’s Committee, the district and rural district People’s Committees, and Thu Duc city.

7. Boards of Management of Municipal Hi-Tech Parks, Municipal Export Processing Zones and Industrial Parks may appraise, approve, approve the adjustment of tasks and detailed construction planning blueprints of 1/500 within the hi-tech parks, export processing zones and industrial parks assigned for management after obtaining the written comments of the construction planning management body under the City People’s Committee; appraise, approve results of appraisal of reports on assessment of environmental impacts under the City People’s Committee’s competence; grant, renew, re-grant, adjust and revoke environment permits under jurisdiction of the City People’s Committee, the People’s Committees of districts and Thu Duc city, within hi-tech parks, export processing zones and industrial parks assigned for management.

Article 10. On the organizational apparatus of Thu Duc city

1. Thu Duc People’s Committee has the following powers:

a/ To assign the attached specialized agencies to appraise investment policies and project-approving decisions;  to submit to Thu Duc People’s Council investment policy decisions, decide the project approval, the organization of selection of investors and conclude contracts on Group-B and Group-C projects of investment by public-private-partnership mode prescribed in this Resolution and the law on investment by mode of public-private partnership in Thu Duc city;

b/ To assign attached specialized agencies to appraise and submit to it for investment policy approval non-budget-funded investment projects of domestic investors in Thu Duc city under the City People’s Committee;

c/ To assign attached specialized agencies to appraise and submit to it for approval, or to approve task adjustment and sectional planning blueprints, detailed planning on schemes in Thu Duc city under its approving competence, excluding the contents defined in Clause 7, Article 9 of this Resolution;

d/ To assign attached specialized agencies to appraise and submit to it for approval schemes on use of public assets being buildings and land for the purpose of lease, joint venture, alignment in Thu Duc city after seeking opinions from Thu Duc People’s Council;

dd/ To perform the tasks of spending on scientific and technological research.

2. Thu Duc People’s Committee and its chairperson may decentralize and authorize attached specialized units, heads of attached specialized units, ward People’s Committees and their chairpersons a number of its/his/her tasks and powers.

3. Thu Duc People’s Council may decide the organizational apparatus, the quantity, functions and tasks of specialized sections and boards, units of Thu Duc city.

The City People’s Committee shall consider and decide the establishment, define the functions, tasks, organizational structures of the Construction Inspectorate and Land Fund Development Center under Thu Duc People’s Committee.

4. Thu Duc People’s Council shall decide the establishment of the Urban Committee attached to it. It must have no more than 2 vice-chairpersons and no more than 08 full-time deputies. Thu Duc People’s Committee must have no more than 04 vice-chairpersons.

Position allowances for leading titles of Party offices, mass organizations, administration of Thu Duc city are provided in the Appendix attached to this Resolution.

Article 11. Organization of implementation

1. The Government has the following responsibilities:

a/ To promulgate a decree guiding the provisions of Point d of Clause 5, Article 4, Points a and b of Clause 1, Article 8 and Clause 3 of Article 9 of this Resolution;

b/ To organize within the ambit of its tasks and powers the implementation of this Resolution; organize the review of three years’ implementation of the Resolution and report thereon to the National Assembly at the 2026 year-end session and the final review of the implementation of the Resolution and report thereon to the National Assembly at its 2028 year-end session;

c/ To direct relevant agencies to coordinate with the City in administrative reform, shortening the time of handling matters not yet decentralized to the City;

d/ To promulgate mechanisms and policies according to competence, aiming to adjust and supplement appropriate regulations for handling inadequacies arising in practical management and development of the City. To expand the decentralization and authorization of powers to the City People’s Council and People’s Committee as compared to current regulations.

2. The Prime Minister shall provide the decentralization of powers, order and procedures for sectional adjustment of general planning on construction of functional zones, sectional adjustment of general planning on urban centers, sectional adjustment of specialized technical infrastructure planning.

3. The City People’s Council has the following responsibilities:

a/ To promulgate criteria, conditions, support levels, contents and duration of supports prescribed in Clause 1, Article 4; sizes and lists of projects defined at Points b and c of Clause 5, Article 4; the list, level. rates of charges and fees defined at Point a, Clause 1, Article 5; subjects, conditions, order and procedures, levels and duration of support defined at Point a, Clause 8, Article 5; order and procedures prescribed in Clause 1, Article 6; criteria, standards, roadmap, conditions, quotas, unit prices, order placement prices defined in Clause 11, Article 6; order and procedures prescribed at Point d, Clause 12, Article 6; policies of encouragement, support, preferential treatment, implementation schedule, criteria, order and procedures prescribed at Points a and b of Clause 13, Article 6; domains, criteria, conditions, contents and levels defined at Point e, Clause 1, Article 8; criteria, subjects and conditions defined in Clause 2, Article 8; and criteria, standards and quotas defined in Clause 5, Article 9 of this Resolution;

b/ To oversee the implementation of this Resolution as provided by law.

4. The City People’s Committee has the following responsibilities:

a/ To promulgate standards, regulations, order, procedures land price adjustment coefficients, detailed regulations on forms of promulgation of information on projects for attracting strategic investors, defined at Point d, Clause 5 of Article 4, Clauses 9 and 10 of Article 5, Clause 4 of Article 6, Point g of Clause 7, Article 7, and to perform the tasks assigned in this Resolution, ensuring publicity, transparency, and law compliance;

b/ For matters involving different contents not yet prescribed in any law and resolutions of the National Assembly, in order to meet the urgent requirements in attracting strategic investors and mobilizing domestic and foreign resources for socio-economic development investment, the City People’s Committee may propose the Government to submit to competent authorities mechanisms and policies for submission to the National Assembly for consideration and decision; or between two sessions, submission to the National Assembly Standing Committee for consideration and decision and report thereon to the National Assembly at its nearest session.

The formulation and promulgation of documents concretizing the policies defined at this Point shall be carried out according to the fast-track order and procedures.

5. The National Assembly, the National Assembly Standing Committee, Vietnam Fatherland Front, the Nationalities Council, Committees of the National Assembly, the National Assembly Deputies’ Delegation and National Assembly deputies of the City shall, within the ambit of their respective tasks and powers, oversee the implementation of this Resolution.

Article 12. Implementation provisions

1. This Resolution takes effect on August 1, 2023.

Resolution No. 54/2017/QH14 of the National Assembly will cease to be effective on the date this Resolution takes effect.

2. After this Resolution ceases to be effective, the policies, projects and other subjects decided by competent agencies for implementation under the mechanisms and policies defined in Clause 1, Clause 2, Point a, Clause 5 of Article 4, Point d of Clause 8, Article 5 and Point c of Clause 3, Article 6 of this Resolution and not yet terminated shall continue to be implemented under promulgated decisions.

For BOT and BT investment projects already contracted under mechanisms and policies defined at Points c and d, Clause 5, Article 4 of this Resolution, they shall continue to be executed after this Resolution ceases to be effective until the end of the contractual term.

3. Projects defined in Article 7 of this Resolution, which have their investment policy approved or investment registration certificates granted in the period this Resolution takes effect, are entitled to investment incentives specified in Article 7 of this Resolution until their completion.

4. After this Resolution ceases to be effective, if the tax exemption duration for subjects specified at Points a and c, Clause 1, Article 8 of this Resolution has not expired, the tax exemption will continue until the tax exemption duration expires.

5. If there are different provisions on the same matter between this Resolution and laws or other resolutions of the National Assembly, the provisions of this Resolution shall apply. Where other legal documents prescribe more favorable mechanisms and policies than this Resolution, the eligible subjects may opt to enjoy the highest benefits.-

This Resolution was adopted on June 24, 2023, by the 15^th National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam at its 5^th session.

Chairman of the National Assembly
VUONG DINH HUE