Outward investment to be tightened

The Ministry of Planning and Investment’s Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) said a outbound investment decree on would be amended with stricter controls over the state funds outflows to be in place.

FIA director general Do Nhat Hoang said a chapter governing state-funded investments would be supplemented to Decree 78/2008/ND-CP on Vietnamese investment abroad.

Hoang said regulations on procurement, selecting consultants and construction and installation activities of state-funded investments abroad would be core of the new chapter.

He added that the new regulations would be complied with the government’s current bidding rules.

“These [draft regulations] are aimed to enhance state investment efficiency,” noted FIA’s Outbound Investment Division head Vu Van Chung. Chung said particular state organisations would be responsible for evaluating and monitoring the investments to secure their smooth implementation.

Doan Tho Nam, acting Vietnamese economic and cultural counselor in Laos, said supervision of Vietnam’s overseas investment projects need to be intensified and closer cooperation with relevant bodies in the host countries were  crucial to ensuring the projects’ effective management and timely settlement of their difficulties.

Vietnam Investment Review Editor-in-Chief and former FIA deputy director general Nguyen Anh Tuan also emphasised the importance of post-licencing inspection over the investments which had been given the green light to go ahead abroad.

Referring to the $8 billion registered to invest abroad by Vietnamese companies, Tuan noted that the disbursement efficiency sparked a big concern. 

“The $8 billion is an huge amount… Assuming it is totally disbursed, the question would be how they can benefit the Vietnamese economy,” he said.

Vietnamese investors have registered to pour over $8 billion in more than 500 oversea projects, according to FIA figures. Roughly 60 per cent of the registered capital falls under the state ownership.