Legal update - Public-private partnership investment legislation 15 June 2021
21/06/2021 07:00
Prior to 1 January 2021 when the Law No. 64/2020/QH14 on Public-Private Partnership Investment (the PPP Law) came into effect, Public Private Partnership (PPP) investment activities had been primarily regulated by secondary legislation – Decree No. 63/2018/ND-CP (the Old Decree) and various other relevant laws and regulations. The overlapping and conflicting provisions across the old PPP regulatory framework gave rise to uncertainty and bankability issues from investors and financiers’ perspectives. The enactment of the PPP Law and, subsequently, its implementing decree – Decree No. 35/2021/ND-CP dated 26 March 2021 detailing and guiding the Law on Public Partnership Investment (the New Decree) is supposedly an attempt by the Vietnam Government in enhancing the transparency and certainty in the investment procedures of PPP projects by introducing a codified and unified PPP regulatory framework. At the same time, the PPP Law and the New Decree purportedly resolve some (but not all) of the issues of bankability and risk allocation between the State of Vietnam and investors with an aim to facilitate project financing particularly for the power generation and other infrastructure sectors with intensive capital requirements.
This Legal Update discusses a number of noteworthy points of the PPP Law and the New Decree.