There is no resistance from businesses in delaying the issue of a Decree on public property payments for BT projects

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Mr La Van Thinh

It is urgent and cautious to issue Decree

The Law on Public Property Management and Use took effect and was officially approved by the National Assembly from the beginning of 2018. Up to now, most of the guidelines under the Law have been fully promulgated. However, an important issue is that the Decree on using public assets to pay for investors implementing BT projects has not been approved by the Government.

Answering the question "Why hasn’t the Decree been issued?", Mr. La Van Thinh, Deputy Director of the Department of PublicAsset Management, Ministry of Finance said: “The formulation and issuance of this Decree is one of the projects announced by the Prime Minister in the list of legal documents guiding in detail the implementation of the Law on Management and Use of Public Property in 2017. Performing the responsibilities of the Ministry of Finance, for the first time, in October 2017, the Ministry of Finance submitted a report to the Government for consideration and issuance of this Decree.

"The drafting of this Decree is done in accordance with the process of developing legal documents, it has been sent for comments of ministries, branches, localities, business community,involved investors and co-investors in the form of BT. The draft has been commented on many times by the Government members, the draft Decree has been concerned to ensure that the legal framework is feasible and appropriate in implementation,"said Mr.La Van Thinh.

However, according to Mr. La Van Thinh, before issuance of the Law on Management and Use of Public Property in 2017, forms such as BT and BOT, internal laws of rights and obligations are not clear, so in the most practical implementation, the BT form has been understood and applied differently in other localities.

Infact, when the Law on Public Property Management and Use in 2017 was in force, the previous contracts must be handled. Therefore, by December 28, 2018, the Government issued Resolution 160/NQ-CP on using public assets to pay investors in the form of BT with the orientation of reviewing the signed contracts in the past to consider payments under the contract.

After issuanceof Resolution 160/NQ-CP, ministries, branches and localities must review the provisions of the contract and terms of payment with public assets as well as the valuation of public properties ensuring that similar to market prices, avoiding losses for the State. "The review of localities is very urgent and very cautious," said La Van Thinh.

It will be issued soon

Speaking more specifically about the difficult issues arising in the draft Decree, Mr. La Van Thinh said that the most difficult thing is making investors and enterprises complete infrastructure projects according to the objectives, but it must also beregulatedstrictly toavoid losses for the State. Because, in reality, there is a situation that the value of BT work and allocated land is not equal.

In fact, when investors build BT works, after they have invested, even just planning information, the market price of land increasesimmediately. Therefore, if handled poorly, it will cause great damage to investors.On the other hand, if it is not specifically considered, the State will lose. According to Mr. La Van Thinh, we have to harmonize the rights and interests of the State and not destroy the motivation of investors.

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Representatives of the Department of Public Asset Managementalso said that by March 13, 2019, the Ministry of Finance completed the final procedures to submit the Decree to the Government and it is possiblethat the Government will sign this Decreein the short-term.

Some reporters at the press conference asked: "Is there any resistance, especially from the enterprise, leading to this delay?"

Mr. La Van Thinh affirmed that in the process of implementing the draft, the drafting committee spoke to many sides, but there was no resistancefromenterprises.