Why Investors Should Set-up Business in Phu Quoc?

The improvement in infrastructure system along with the preferential policies have stimulated investors to come to Phu Quoc to set-up company and do business.

Phu Quoc, an island in Kien Giang of Vietnam is in the top of three islands having tourism potential in Southeast Asia comparable to Phuket in Thailand and Bali in Indonesia. Phu Quoc has become a magnet for attracting huge investment flows from foreign investors in the area of real estate, entertainment, casinos, restaurant or food and beverage service business.

Phu Quoc has temperate weather throughout the year. There are also fresh and friendly forests – sea ecology and the modern transport system on the island with an international airport and international hospital. Moreover, many infrastructure projects and international schools are under construction, which are necessary and favorable conditions to invite and attract investors to Pearl Island for doing business.

Capital inflows to Phu Quoc have really exploded after the “knots” in investment were removed. The new airport went into operation that can welcome larger aircraft and serve more flights, in which there are more international direct flights from China, Singapore, Russia and Cambodia. The 51km long radial route on the island has been basically completed; the road around the island and the branch roads are also being deployed. The power grid was pulled from the mainland to the island, replacing the very high cost gasoline power in the past.

The real estate and tourism consultants all agree that Phu Quoc fully convergent elements of an attractive beach for tourists with year-round sunshine, many beautiful beaches such as Long Beach, Truong Beach, Khem Beach and immense virgin forest. Moreover, Phu Quoc has a strategic location with just 1-2 hours flight to the key tourism markets in Southeast Asia.

Both investment and tourism in Phu Quoc have entered the acceleration phase. By the end of July 2015, Phu Quoc had attracted nearly 200 investment projects, including 136 projects that are being implemented in the area of over 5,100 ha with total registered capitals of 6.5 billion USD. Just one part of those projects become reality then it will make Phu Quoc to become a leading tourist destination in Vietnam, ahead of Da Nang and Nha Trang, competing with the top destinations in the area as Phuket and Bali.

Some of the largest Vietnam corporations such as Vingroup, Sun Group, CEO Group, BIM Group are implementing huge projects that could alter the appearance of the island. In which the giant in the real estate sector – Vingroup has invested projects as: Vinpearl Resort on an area of 300 ha in Long Beach, the combining of golf course and safari zoo on an area of more than 2,000 ha, and the 80 ha commercial complex.

The improvement in infrastructure system along with the preferential business and legal environments i.e. favourable land rental rates, corporate income tax, exemption of visa for foreign tourists make Phu Quoc island of Kien Giang, Vietnam a new attractive place for investment.

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Work permit for foreign investors?

Vietnam is a country that has been having many policies to attract foreign investors to work in Vietnam. In particular, foreign investors are individuals with foreign nationality, organizations established under foreign laws and carry out business investment activities in Vietnam. When conducting business investment activities in Vietnam, many people wonder if a work permit is required? In this article, we will help you answer the above questions.

Foreign investors carry out business activities in Vietnam in one of the forms such as contributing, purchasing shares or capital contributions of economic organizations. If the investor is a foreign individual who is a capital-contributing member or owner of a limited liability company, he / she will be exempted from work permit under the provisions of Clause 1, Article 7 of Decree 11/2016/ND-CP.

However, this provision does not mean that all of investors are automatically exempted from work permits. Foreign investors who are not required to have a work permit must be certified by the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs before coming to work in Vietnam. Specifically, according to Article 8 of Decree 11/2016 / ND-CP, the employer requests the Department of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs where the foreigner is expected to work to confirm the foreign worker is not required to issue a work permit at least 07 working days in advance from the date the foreign worker starts working.

Dossier of request for certification not subject to issuance of a work permit, including: Written request for certification of foreign workers not subject to work permit and documents proving that the foreign worker is not subject to a work permit. Within 03 working days from the date of receipt of a complete application for certification not subject to a work permit, the Department of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs shall send a written confirmation to the employer. In case of non-certification, there must be a written reply clearly stating the reason.

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Danang city Builds the Business Relationship with Tochigi Province of Japan

On December 19th, 2019, the representative of Danang city met the president of Tochigi province, lead by Mr. Fukuda Tomikazu paying a working visit in Danang. At the moment, Japan is the top of country which invest in Danang.

Danang is receiving more than 130 investment projects and the total of investment capital is 800 million USD from Japan. The Japanese investors set up a company, obtained investment registration certificate the area such as: hi-tech, supporting services, education, medical. Besides, Danang signed the official memorandum of understanding on business cooperation with some cities of Japan such as: Kawasaki, Kansai, Yokohama, Kirsarazu,… Danang show wishes to cooperate with Japan in many fields such as: economy, cultural, education,..

At the meeting, the representative of Danang city introduced the economy-social of the city and in the recent years, the cooperation relationship of Danang and Japan has been developing in many fields.

Besides, the representative of ANT Lawyers met the representative lawyers from Utsunomiya law firm of Tochigi province at ANT Lawyers Danang office. At the meeting, the parties discussed about the cooperation of helping Japanese investors to enter Vietnam market with legal services. ANT Lawyers is the law firm in Vietnam, which has the offices in Hanoi, Danang and Ho Chi Minh City.

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Regulations on Online Civil Status Registration in Vietnam

On July 28th, 2020, the Government issued Decree No. 87/2020/ND-CP (Decree 87) regulating the electronic civil status database, online civil status registration i.e. birth certificate registration, marriage certificate registration, death certificate registration.

The Decree is the provisions on the building, management, updating, exploitation and use of the electronic civil status database; connecting and sharing data between the electronic civil status database with the national population database, the national public service portal, the public service portal, the provincial electronic one-door information system, other databases of ministries, branches and localities; issue copies of civil status extracts, certify civil status information; online civil status registration. Although an application can be submitted online, the person applying for civil status registration must still be present at the civil status registry to sign the civil status book and receive results in case of registration of the following procedures: birth certificate registration; marriage registration; guardian registration; recognition of parents, children; change, correct civil status, redefine ethnicity, supplement civil status information; death registration.

Upon receiving results at the civil status registration office, the requester for civil status registration must submit and present papers and documents that are part of the civil status registration dossier as prescribed.

Cases in which the requester is not present at the civil status registration office to sign the civil status book and receive the results, but still have to submit and present papers and documents that are part of the household registration dossier civil status according to the law on civil status, including: confirm civil status information; record in the civil status book the birth, marriage, divorce, marriage cancellation, guardianship, recognition of father, mother, child, identification of father, mother, child, adoption, change of civil status, death registration of Vietnamese citizens who have been settled at a foreign competent authority.

To perform online civil status registration, the requester needs to access the National Public Service Portal, the Provincial Public Service Portal to register an account and authenticate users according to the instructions. Upon successful account login, the requester must provide information in the available form; attach photocopies or electronic copies of papers, documents as prescribed; pay fees and charges through the online payment function or by other means as prescribed by law. After the submission of the dossier is completed, the system will automatically send a number of administrative documents for the requester to follow up, look up the progress of the application or access to complete the application when requested by the civil status registration agency.

Decree 87 will take effect from September 15, 2020. The construction of the civil status database, the development of online civil status registration, helps people to handle administrative procedures anytime, anywhere, without having to travel many times, without having to queue and not take time to wait, limiting crowds. In addition, the use of online public services also contributes to reducing the harassment, bureaucracy and troubles of a part of cadres and civil servants, increasing the publicity and transparency of the state agencies file handling.

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The Energy Sector Welcomes New FDI Inflows

The Politburo’s Resolution 55-NQ/TW in 2020 creates great hope for business expansion for FDI enterprises providing complete equipment, technology and solutions for Vietnam energy market.

According to Wärtsilä Vietnam Country Director, Resolution 55-NQ/TW aims to develop synchronously and reasonably, diversify types of energy, prioritizing the exploitation and use of all renewable energy sources, new energy, clean energy. This is the core business of Wärtsilä (from Finland, specializing in the development of sustainable and closed solutions for the energy market) for the past 184 years.

In the Vietnamese market, Wärtsilä is doing strong marketing with the hope of increasing sales by providing technology for power projects. Wärtsilä’s energy business is leading the transition towards a future using 100% renewable energy. Wärtsilä offers flexible power plants, energy management and storage systems, as well as closed services to increase effectiveness and ensure efficiency.

With the push of the Government, in recent years, renewable energy has developed extremely strong in Vietnam and this is a very good opportunity to invest in the energy sector in Vietnam.

Another supplier – Fortum Power and Heat OY Finland is also looking forward to the coming of Resolution 55-NQ/TW to come to life soon. This business provides technology to minimize harmful thermal power emissions, mixed energy system development solutions in many markets around the globe.

Fortum’s hydropower plant efficiency enhancement technology will enable efficient hydropower plant operation, minimizing overhaul and plant downtime. With coal-fired power, Fortum’s technology allows it to replace up to 40% of the required amount of coal in coal-fired thermal power plants… This is what is being considered in the Vietnam energy development process.

With the national electricity demand growth rate for the 2016 – 2020 period of 10.6% and 8.5% for the period of 2021 – 2025 and 7% in the period of 2026 – 2030, Vietnam becomes an attractive market for domestic energy investors and foreign direct investment (FDI) enterprises. Accordingly, Vietnam needs to mobilize an additional 5,000 MW from now to 2025, which means that each year, it needs to pour an additional 7 – 10 billion USD to invest in power projects.

There have been new moves to welcome FDI inflows into energy. Recently, the US Millennium Company has been allowed by the Management Board of Van Phong Economic Zone (Khanh Hoa) to survey and research projects in the Van Phong area to study the feasibility of the gas-power project complex.

According to Millennium, the LNG Center Project (over 10 million m3) and the Power Plant (capacity of 4,800 MW) has a total initial investment capital of 8 billion USD. In the future, the Company will increase the capacity of the power plant to 9,600 MW and the warehouse to 15 million m3, with an investment of 15 billion USD. Secretary of Khanh Hoa Provincial Party Committee affirmed that the idea of implementing the LNG Center and Power Plant Project of Millennium Company is suitable with the potential and orientation of industrial development in this area.

Previously, at the Vietnam Energy Summit 2020, a series of cooperation in the implementation of energy projects was signed. Typically, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP – Denmark) and Binh Thuan province have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the development of La Gam offshore wind power project with a total capacity of up to 3.5 GW, with an investment of 10 billion USD. This is one of the first large-scale offshore wind power projects in Vietnam, as a prerequisite for attracting other foreign investors to offshore wind power projects.

CIP is a pioneer in the offshore wind power industry in the Asia – Pacific, including projects in Vietnam, Taiwan, Korea, Japan and Australia. CIP operates 7 funds with more than 10 billion USD in committed capital. Funds have implemented more than 20 portfolios in energy infrastructure, with a total capacity of nearly 8 GW in the United States, UK, Germany, Spain and Taiwan. The funds also have more than 15 energy infrastructure projects that are in the process of preparing final investment decisions and are expected to commence within the next 2 – 3 years.

According to the founding member of CIP, with the project in Binh Thuan, CIP commits to continue to cooperate with local partners to turn this project into a model of a successful technology transfer project in parallel with making maximum use of local resources and expertise.

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