Chương 1 Luật Khuyến khích đầu tư trong nước sửa đổi 1998: Những quy định chung

Chapter I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1.- The State protects, encourages, treats equally and creates favorable conditions for organizations and individuals to invest in the socio-economic domains on the territory of Vietnam under the Vietnamese laws.

Article 2.- In this Law, the following terms are construed as follows:

1. "Domestic investment" means the use of capital for production and business in Vietnam by organizations and individuals defined in Article 5 of this Law.

2. "Investors" are organizations and/or individuals using capital to make investment as defined in Article 4 of this Law.

3. A "build-operate-transfer (BOT) contract" is a document signed between a competent State agency and an investor to build and do business with an infrastructure project within a given duration agreed upon by the two sides; when such time-limit expires, the investor shall transfer without indemnity such project to the State.

4. A "build-transfer-operate (BTO) contract" is a document signed between a competent State agency and an investor to build an infrastructure project; upon the completion of the construction, the investor shall transfer such project to the State. The competent State agency that has signed the contract shall reserve for the investor the right to do business with such project for a given duration agreed upon by the two sides.

5. A "build-transfer (BT) contract" is a document signed between a competent State agency and an investor to build an infrastructure project; upon the completion of the construction, the investor shall transfer such project to the State. The competent State agency that has signed the contract shall create conditions for the investor to implement other project(s) in order to recover the capital and earn profits.

6. "Vietnamese residing overseas" are Vietnamese citizens and people of Vietnamese stock residing, working and/or living permanently in foreign countries.

7. "Foreigners permanently residing in Vietnam" are citizens of foreign countries and people without nationality, who reside, work and/or live permanently in Vietnam.

8. "Geographical areas with difficult socio-economic conditions" are areas inhabited by people of ethnic minorities; mountainous areas; areas with underdeveloped infrastructure; and areas with unfavorable natural conditions.

9. "Geographical areas with particularly difficult socio-economic conditions" are high-mountain areas inhabited by people of ethnic minorities; islands; areas with poor infrastructure; and areas with extremely unfavorable natural conditions.

Article 3.- The investors may use capital in the following currencies and property to invest in Vietnam:

1. Vietnamese currency, foreign currencies;

2. Gold, transferable securities;

3. Buildings and workshops, constructions, equipment, machinery and other production and/or business facilities;

4. Land use right value as prescribed by the land legislation;

5. The value of the intellectual property rights, technical secrets and/or technological process;

6. Other lawful assets.

Article 4.- Governed by this Law shall be the following investment activities:

1. Investing in setting up production and/or business establishments of all economic sectors;

2. Investing in the construction of production chain(s), scale expansion, technological renewal, the improvement of ecological environment, removal of production establishment(s) from urban areas, the raising of production and/or business capacity, production restructuring, diversification of production/business lines and/or trades as well as products;

3. Buying stocks of enterprises, contributing capital to enterprises of various economic sectors;

4. Investment in the form of "build-operate-transfer", "build-transfer-operate" or "build-transfer" contracts.

Article 5.-

1. Objects of application of this Law include:

a) Investors being Vietnamese organizations or individuals;

b) Investors being Vietnamese residing overseas;

c) Investors being foreigners permanently residing in Vietnam.

2. The Prime Minister shall decide specific cases where foreign investors shall be permitted to contribute capitals to or buy shares of Vietnamese enterprises at a level not exceeding 30% of the concerned enterprise's statutory capital.