Vietnam – New Draft Decree On Foreign Cooperation And Investment In Education.

10 July, 2017

 

On 14 February 2017, the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training circulated a draft decree on foreign investment in education (“Draft Decree”) for comments. This Draft Decree was introduced with the objective of countering the existing legal contradictions created by its predecessor, Decree 73/2012/ND-CP (“Decree 73”) with other prevailing laws and ultimately simplifying investment procedures and boosting the nation’s competitiveness.

 

Below are some of the key features of the Draft Decree:

 

1. The Draft Decree removes the restriction that the number of Vietnamese students in foreign-invested primary and middle schools must not exceed 10% of the total student population and the number of Vietnamese students in foreign-invested high schools must not exceed 20% of the total student population.
2. The minimum investment capital (inclusive of both equity and loan capital) required to establish a foreign-invested university is increased from VND 300 billion (around US$13.2 million) to VND 1 trillion (around US$44.1 million) under the Draft Decree.
3. The Draft Decree removes the condition that foreign-invested education institutions with the registered operation term of 20 years or more are required to have a plan to build their facilities and to obtain the State authority’s agreement on leasing or allocating land to them to build their facilities. Under the Draft Decree, all foreign invested education institutions are free to lease facilities on a term of at least 5 years.