Vietnam – Draft Decree Amending Business Conditions Under The Management Of The Ministry Of Industry And Trade With Respect To A Number Of Important Sectors (Such As Electricity, Coal And Minerals).

(i)  In relation to the coal and minerals sectors:

 

The Draft Decree introduces the following new conditions for exporting and importing coal and minerals (in addition to the current conditions provided in Article 1 of Decree 77/2016/ND-CP of the government dated 1 July 2016 amending and supplementing several articles on business conditions for international trading, chemicals, industrial explosive materials, fertilizers, gas industry, and food industry under the management of Ministry of Industry and Trade):

 

(a)  coal and minerals must have been processed and must meet the quality standards provided for in the relevant Appendix of the Draft Decree;

 

(b)  coal and minerals must have lawful origins, including:

 

•   being mined or extracted from mines, mine sites or landfills having a certificate of mining or exploitation issued by relevant authorities;
•   being legally imported (the relevant declaration of imported goods must be certified by the border-gate customs); or
•   being confiscated and cleared by the relevant authoritie

 

(c)  With respect to the export of minerals containing 0.05% or more of thorium or uranium by weight, traders must also obtain the permit for exporting radioactive materials issued by the Ministry of Science and Technology in accordance with the laws on atomic energy.

 

(ii)  In relation to the electricity sector:

 

The Draft Decree provides further clarification on certain conditions currently imposed on electricity companies’ personnel by Decree No. 137/2013/ND-CP dated 21 October 2013 of the Government providing detailed guidance on the Law on Electricity (Decree 137) and Decree No. 08/2018/ND-CP dated 15 January 2018 of the Government amending some decrees in relation to business conditions under the management of the MOIT (Decree 08).

 

Business conditions for services related to hydropower plants (such as consultancy on the building of hydropower plants or plants construction supervision) are now also applied to wind power and solar power plants related services, as prescribed under this Draft Decree.

 

In addition, the specific conditions applicable to consultancy business activities in the electricity power sector (based on a classification table on the scale of these projects currently provided in relation to hydropower plants, thermal power plants (coal, gas, oil, biogas and hard waste), wires systems and transformer stations) are now extended by the Draft Decree also to consultancy business activities in relation to wind power plants and solar power plants.

 

The Government has not yet announced the targeted effective date of the Draft Decree.