Vietnam: 11 sectors proposed to be off-limits for foreign investors

• Sep 23, 2020

While foreign investors will see easier access to many sectors, they will be prohibited from some sensitive sectors.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment’s Department of Legislation has just proposed the list of the 11 sectors that foreign investors are not allowed to join to the minister for approval. Once the proposal is approved, the draft will be released for public comments. The 11 sectors are:

· Trading items and services exclusive to the state;

· Media and collecting news/information in any way;

· Fishing and seafood exploitation;

· Services related to securities;

· Judicial administrative services like judicial assessment, property auction, notary services, and acting as trustees;

· Taking employees to work overseas;

· Operation of cemetery and park cemetery;

– Polling services;

· Use of explosives in mining;

· Inspection and certification of means of transport;

· Importing and scrapping used ships.

These areas have yet to be stipulated in the Decree No.118/2015/ND-CP guiding some articles of the Law on Investment, a gap the draft decree will fill.

In addition to the 11 sectors of prohibition, as many as 40 sectors will be subject to business conditions for foreign investor involvement, with little apparent changes compared to current conditional business lines. VIR

Nguyen Huong

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/en/business/11-sectors-proposed-to-be-off-limits-for-foreign-investors-675946.html