People's Daily Online, September 11, 2006
Vietnam will empower the People's Committees of cities and provinces, and management boards of industrial parks and export processing zones nationwide to license nearly all kinds of domestic and foreign-invested projects.
Under a draft decree on guiding the implementation of the new Investment Law, taking effect in July, the committees and the boards will have the rights to either directly consider and license most of projects or indirectly license some projects which are earlier approved by the prime minister, local newspaper Youth quoted Pham Manh Dung, director of the Legal Department under the Ministry of Planning and Investment, as saying.
The prime minister is in charge of approving projects in some limited fields, including construction of airports, air transport, building and running national seaports, mineral exploration and exploration, broadcasting and television, and casino, Dung said, noting that if projects in the fields have already been listed in Vietnam's development plans, investors do not have to submit them to the prime minister for approval.
