The new draft decree once comes into force will replace the Decree No.30 in 2015, detailing a number of articles of the Bidding Law regarding investor selection, stated in the government's instruction released on March 20.
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The MPI is tasked with coordinating with the Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Justice to quickly resolve differences concerning the draft decree, especially in selecting investors to carry out public-private-partnership (PPP) projects.
Along with the review of Decree No.30, the government has instructed related agencies in revising the Decree No.15, which provides a single legal framework for private investments in the public infrastructure sectors. Both decrees after revision are expected to remove bottlenecks for efficient implementation of PPP projects.
In reality, Decree No.30 consists of numerous shortcomings, leading to a series of PPP projects failed to materialize.
Notable change in draft decree is the inclusion of new payment methods for built - transfer (BT) project's financial mechanism, instead of only exchanging land for infrastructure as before.
Specifically, in addition of paying in the form of land use rights, the draft decree proposed new payment methods such as rights to explore business opportunities from the new infrastructure. The draft decree also introduces in detail new method in viability gap funding regime, which allows the use of state capital to bridge the gap between the project's investment and its return, in order to make the project financially viable for investors.
According to the Deputy PM, investment in the form of build-operate-transfer (BOT) contracts has been carried out under Government Decree 77 in 1997, which has been amended and supplemented several times to conform with international PPP investment practices.
However, the implementation of PPP projects is regulated by different laws, including the Law on the State Budget, Public Investment Law, Law on Enterprises, Land Law and Construction Law, leading to some problems of inconsistent and unclear provisions, including the difference between the concepts of PPP and "mobilization of social resources" for investment.
Therefore, a government decree to unify all PPP regulations to ensure uniform implementation of PPP projects should be enacted as soon as possible.
