Hanoi (VNA) – Legal authority for approving inprinciple a Public-private Partnership (PPP) project would be given to theNational Assembly (NA) or the Prime Minister, according to the bill on PPPinvestment being crafted by the Ministry of Investment and Planning.
Accordingly, the NA would have legal authority to grantin-principle approval to PPP projects with public investment of 10 trillion VND(430.34 million USD) or more; those having or potentially having detrimentalimpacts on the environment, including nuclear power plants; those requiring conversionof land use of national parks, nature reserves, landscape protection areas, andforests for scientific research and experiment of 50 hectares or more; andthose requiring land use conversion of protective forests of 50 – 500 hectaresor more and production forests of 1,000 hectares or more.
Legal authority would also be given to the NA for approvingprojects requiring conversion of paddy growing land of 500 hectares upwards orthose requesting relocation of 20,000 people or more in mountainous regions or50,000 people or more in non-mountainous regions.
A PPP project would be approved in principle under the authorityof the Prime Minister if it requires the relocation of 10,000 people or more inmountainous regions or 20,000 people or more in non-mountainous regions; usescentral budget and has total investment equivalent to an A-class projectstipulated in the Law on Public Investment; or uses ODA and soft loans providedby foreign sponsors.
The Prime Minister would also have the authority to approve projectsto construct airports as well as airport’s runways, passenger and cargoterminals and first-class seaports.
The draft law is set to be submitted to the ninth sitting ofthe 14th National Assembly for review./.