Foreign licenses in Vietnam regulated

Foreign licenses in Vietnam regulated

HANOI (AFP): Vietnam's State Committee for Cooperation and
Investment has set new rules for granting licenses for foreign
investment in the hotel, garment and footwear industries, press
reports said Saturday.

Under the new guidelines licenses for foreign investment will not
be granted where a project can be undertaken by local enterprises.

These include jobwork projects in the garment industry and hotels
that do not meet international "3-star" standards, the weekly Thoi
Bao Kinh The Vietnam (Vietnam Economic Times), said.

For the hotel industry, the committee set new criteria for the
number of rooms, floor space, amount of investment and period of
operation.

New hotels should have a minimum of 150 rooms, floor space of
8,000 square meters and an investment of US$8 million in Ho Chi
Minh City. The figures for Hanoi are 100 rooms, 5,000 square meters
and $5 million. New hotels in Haiphong, Vung Tau, Nha Trang and
Danang must have 50 rooms, 2,500 square meters and $2.5 million
investment.

Periods of operation have been set at 20 years for investments up
to $10 million, 25 years for $10-15 million, 30 years for $15-25
million, 35 years for $25-40 million, 40 years for $40-50 million,
and 45 years for more than $50 million.

For the garment and footwear industry, a minimum of 80 percent of
products from joint ventures or firms under economic cooperation
contracts must be exported. Where there is 100 percent foreign
investment, 90 percent of output must be exported.

Vietnam also set the maximum capital investment for garment
enterprises with a production capacity of one million units per
year at $2 million and at $3 million for shoe manufacturers.