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State Committee for    The  Socialist Republic of Vietnam
  Co-operation         Independence - freedom - Happiness
 and Investment                htmlhtmlhtml--
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Ref.: 260/UB-TD
                               Hanoi, 15 february 1995.

RULES fOR WORKING MECHANISM Of INTER-BRANCH EXPERT TEAMS fOR APPRAISAL Of PROJECTS WITH fOREIGN INVESTMENT CAPITAL

+ Having consulted with relevant government bodies; The State Committee for Co-operation and Investment hereby issues Rules for working mechanism of inter-branch expert teams for appraisal of foreign direct investment projects in Vietnam as follows.

I. Duties of inter-branch expert teams ("The teams")

+ To discuss, appraise content of projects, thus consulting SCCI, ministries and other government agencies.

+ To express their assessments and recommendations, but these shall not override written opinion of heads of the government agencies.

II. Division of work for the teams

1. Juridical status of the Vietnamese organisation and its capability to enter into a joint venture: provincial/municipal people's committee;

2. Juridical status of the foreign organisation and its capability to enter into a joint venture: the Ministry of Trade ("Mot") and SCCI;

3. Business objectives, production plan, consumer market (proportion between products for export and those for domestic market consumption), term of operation: the State Planning Committee ("SPC"), authorities of relevant supervising econo-technical branc h, the Ministry of Trade;

4. Invested capital, legal capital, loan capital and capital contribution of the Vietnamese party ("VP"): SPC, the Ministry of finance ("Mof"), the State Bank of Vietnam ("SBV");

5. Benefits for the State of Vietnam and the Vietnamese party, valuation of VP's assets to be contributed to a joint venture and any taxes, duties and land, water and sea surface rentals: Mof;

6. Techniques, technology, equipment and machinery to be used: authorities of relevant supervising econo-technical branch;

7. Environmental and ecological matters: The Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment ("MoSTE");

8. Efficiency of the use of land and proposal for vacancy compensation: the General Department of Land Management ("GDLM");

9. The gathering of ministries' and branches' opinions, the overall appraisal of the project and assessment of the compliance of law: SCCI.

The division of work defined above shall be a matter of relativity. Any expert may speak out his opinion relating to matters which are not within his scope of work. He may make any proposal on:

a) Issues to be amended or supplemented in the project file;

b) feasibility of the project, and decision whether to issue the investment licence or not.

III. Working mechanism

1. The submission of project file

Within 3 days following the date of its receipt, the project file shall be sent to the following:

+ The people's committee of the province or city where the project is to be realised if opinion of the same has not been obtained;

+ SPC;

+ Authorities of econo-technical branches;

+ Mof;

+ MoT;

+ MoSTE;

+ GDLM;

+ The Office of the Government and the Ministry of Construction ("MoC") if projects of Group A.

Besides, the project file shall, depending on its nature, be sent for consultation purposes to relevant government bodies, such as: SBV, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of National Defence and so on.

2. Working regime for the teams

+ Meetings for purpose of appraisal of projects shall be convened on Tuesday and Thursday every week. The Project Evaluation Department of SCCI shall schedule weekly and monthly agenda for such meetings and serve a notice of meeting 7 days prior to the da te of each meeting. In special cases, such meetings may be convened in a day other than Tuesday or Thursday.

+ None of the experts shall directly contact project investors. If the project is required to be adjusted or its content to be explained, the project investor shall be served a written notice or otherwise summoned to the team's office for that purpose;

+ Matters discussed on project evaluation meetings shall not be make public.

3. Procedure for projects of Group A

+ Within 20 days following the date of receipt of the project file, the relevant ministries shall make their opinion on the project and, if necessary, the expert team shall meet to discuss the same;

+ In case of necessity, SCCI shall, no later 25 days following the date of receipt of the project file, serve the project investors a notice requiring any amendment of or supplement to their project file;

+ Within 35 days following the date of receipt of the project file, the consultancy council shall meet to evaluate the project;

+ Within 40 days following the date of receipt of the project file, SCCI shall submit the documentation of the project to the Prime Minister;

+ If necessary, a number of various specialists and the project investors may be invited to attend meetings of the consultancy council.

4. Procedure for projects of Group B

+ Within 20 days following the date of receipt of the project file, the relevant ministries shall make their opinion on the project and the expert team shall meet to discuss particular matters requiring collective discussion;

+ No later than 25 days after receipt of the project file, SCCI shall notify the project investors of its refusal to issue the investment licence or its demand for the project to be amended or supplemented.

In implementation of stipulations of the Prime Minister, SCCI kindly requests that heads of ministries, ministry-level agencies, depending on their features, dispatch their expert(s) for appraisal of particular projects and appoint one of them to be a key person for the purpose of maintaining communications with the Evaluation Department of SCCI.

for State Committee Co-operation and Investment Chairman Minister

DAU NGOC XUAN