On the afternoon of November 6, Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung explained and clarified a number of issues regarding the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Planning, the Law on Investment, the Law on Investment under the public-private partnership model and the Law on Bidding.
The Minister said that for the Law on Planning, the proposal to supplement and adjust the simplified procedures has been carefully evaluated to simplify administrative procedures and shorten time.
Planning adjustments must still ensure the principle of not changing the goals and orientations in the proposed planning, ensuring consistency, inheritance and systematicity in planning at all levels.
At the same time, it clearly identifies the cases that are adjusted, promptly meeting development requirements. Thus, Minister Nguyen Chi Dung said that the subjects have been relatively clear and transparent.
Regarding the Investment Law, Minister Nguyen Chi Dung cited that in China, it takes only 11 months to build a billion-dollar automobile factory, and 68 days to build a hundred-million-dollar shopping mall; Dubai built a 600-hectare city with 500 buildings, worth 20 billion USD, in exactly 5 years. In their country, there are no complicated regulations or procedures, and an entire project like this is completed on schedule without missing a single day.
Regarding design and planning, Minister Nguyen Chi Dung said that in Vietnam, from planning, project design, and budgeting, it takes a whole year, but in Dubai they only give two simple, easy-to-understand requirements.
“The King of Dubai only approved the design task with two conditions. One is that no house can be the same as another. Second, in the planning design, the architecture from one point to another is not a straight line, and the investor is free to design whatever he wants,” said Mr. Nguyen Chi Dung.
From the above evidence, Minister Nguyen Chi Dung said that it is necessary to issue standards and regulations, then let investors freely implement them, which will be convenient for people, shorten time and attract investment.
From there, high-tech projects located in industrial parks, export processing zones, and economic zones are allowed to register for investment but do not need to issue investment certificates. They only need to register for investment and must be issued within 15 days.
"Once the license is granted, you commit to implementing the three issues of construction, environmental impact assessment, fire prevention and fighting according to the regulations we have issued and just do it. Later, if there are any violations, I will conduct a post-audit and you will be responsible. This time, we will do it strongly and we want to do it even more strongly," Minister Nguyen Chi Dung emphasized.
Regarding Da Nang, Mr. Dung said he will supplement and clarify the free trade zone and concentrated information technology zone to consider this as a subject to apply special cases.
Regarding the Law on Bidding, Minister Nguyen Chi Dung agreed with the delegates that it is necessary to study and expand the subjects that are eligible for bidding. It is necessary to increase the limits and the bidding packages that are eligible, not to let it be 200 million VND or 300 million VND. The Ministry of Planning and Investment will study and possibly increase it further to ensure long-term stability, otherwise we will have to revise it again after we have finished amending it.
Regarding drug bidding, the Minister of Planning and Investment basically agrees with the idea that pharmacies should be given autonomy, self-determination, and self-responsibility. If they commit wrongdoings, collude, or raise prices, the law will deal with them.
"Whether to bid or not is up to people to decide, whether to buy directly or how to buy is up to them to choose," Mr. Dung emphasized.
