Outward investment means the implementation of business investment activities outside the territory of Vietnam, aiming to expand the business market, integrate with the economies of countries around the world. These days, many Vietnamese investors conduct outward investment activities due to the fact that the Vietnam Government is strongly encouraging outward investment activities to exploit, develop and expand the market; increase the ability to export goods and services; access to modern technology, improve governance capacity and supplement resources for socio-economic development of the country.

Therefore, Hong Bang Law Firm would like to share with you some essential information about the procedures of conducting outward investment.

Legal basis

• Investment Law 2020
• Decree 31/2021/ND-CP guidance on the Law on Investment

Requirements

Investors carry out outward investment activities in the following 5 forms:

• Establishment of a business entity in accordance with the law of the host country;
• Making investment on the basis of an overseas contract;
• Contribution of capital to, purchase of shares or stakes of an overseas business entity to participate in management of such business entity
• Trading in securities, other financial instruments, or making investment via securities investment funds and other intermediary financial institutions in a foreign country;
• Other forms of investment prescribed by law of the host country.

Projects that do not have to conduct approval procedures: overseas investment of which capital is less than 20 billion VND.

The Prime Minister approves the policy on outward investment in the following cases:

• Investment projects in the banking, insurance, securities, press, radio, television and telecommunications fields with outward investment capital of VND 400 billion or more
• Outward investment projects from VND 800 billion to VND 20,000 billion.

The National Assembly approves the policy on outward investment in the following cases:

• Investment projects with outward investment capital of VND 20,000 billion or more;
• Investment projects that require application of a special mechanism or policy that needs to be decided by the National Assembly.

Procedures 

Step 1: Submit application

Investors submit investment project dossiers to the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

• For projects under the approving competence of the Prime Minister:

Within 03 working days from the date of receipt of complete dossiers, the Ministry of Planning and Investment shall send the dossiers for appraisal opinions of competent related state agencies. 

• For projects under the approval competence of the National Assembly:

Within 05 working days from the date of receipt of complete dossiers, the Ministry of Planning and Investment shall submit to the Prime Minister for decision the establishment of a State Appraisal Council.

Step 2: Appraisal and verification

• For projects under the approving competence of the Prime Minister:

The consulted agency shall give written appraisal opinions on the contents under its management. Then, within 30 days from the date of receipt of the dossier, the Ministry of Planning and Investment shall organize the appraisal and make an appraisal report to submit to the Prime Minister.

• For projects under the approval competence of the National Assembly:

Within 90 days from the date of establishment, the State Appraisal Council shall organize the appraisal and make an appraisal report to submit to the Government.

No later than 60 days before the opening of the National Assembly session, the Government sends a dossier of request for approval of the outward investment policy to the agency in which the National Assembly is in front of verification.

The Government and relevant agencies, organizations and individuals are responsible for providing sufficient information and documents to serve the verification; explain issues related to the investment project’s contents at the request of the agency in charge of verification of the National Assembly.

Step 3: Review for approval of outward investment

• For projects under the approving competence of the Prime Minister:

The Prime Minister shall consider and approve the policy of outward investment.

• For projects under the approval competence of the National Assembly:

The National Assembly considers and approves the policy of outward investment.

Dossier

• An outward investment registration form;
• A document concerning the legal status of the investor;
• A proposal for the investment project containing at least: form, objectives, scale, and investment location; preliminary determination of investment capital, capital raising plan and structure of capital sources; project execution schedule, investment phases (if any); preliminary analysis of the efficiency of the project;
• Document(s) proving the financial capacity of the investor including at least one of the following documents: the investor’s financial statements for the last two years of the investor; a parent company’s commitment to provide financial support; a financial institution’s commitment to provide financial support; guarantee for the investor’s financial capacity; other document proving the investor’s financial capacity;
• A commitment to itself/himself/herself balance sources of foreign currency or a commitment of an authorized credit institution to provide foreign currency for the investor;
• A document issued by the agency representing the owner which approves the investor to carry out outward investment activities, and report on internal appraisal of the outward investment proposal of the state-owned enterprise;
• For conditional outward investment projects (banks; Insurance; Securities; Newspapers, radio and television; Real estate business) the investor shall submit a document to the competent state agency on the meeting of conditions for outward investment in accordance with relevant laws (if any).

Services provided by Hong Bang Law Firm 

Hong Bang Law will accompany clients in the whole process of implementing overseas investment projects with consulting support services such as:

• Receive requests of Vietnamese investors wishing to transfer capital abroad for investment;
• Guide customers to prepare documents to open a capital transfer account. Advising on legal procedures related to account opening.
• Coordinate with clients and partners providing legal services in the investment country to prepare necessary documents;
• Prepare complete dossiers, carry out consular legalization, consular certification of documents in accordance with the law.
• Submit dossiers at state agencies, continuously update and monitor information about dossiers, solve all problems in the process of carrying out procedures; explain and supplement documents upon request.
• Receive and hand over the results to the client.

If you need more detailed advice and answers as well as how to access this service, please contact directly the Deputy Director of Sales: Lawyer Nhat Nam via hotline: 0912.35.65.75, 0912.35.53.53 or call the toll free legal consultation hotline 1900.6575 or send a service request via email: lienheluathongbang@gmail.com

Wishing you and your family good health, peace and success!

Best regards!