VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnam is a promising market for education investors, but it is difficult to invest in the sector because of unreasonable policies.

Vietnam is a promising market for education investors

There are more than 110,000 overseas Vietnamese students in 47 countries, according to a report. Vietnamese families are willing to spend 35 percent of income on children’s education, while the country spends $3 billion each year on overseas study. 

Under the Investment Law, education is among the fields with high encouragement level. Foreign investors can hold up to 100 percent of capital in education establishments.

However, Decree 73 on international cooperation and foreign investment in the education sector sets a limitation on the number of Vietnamese students that foreign education establishments can receive. 

The number of students must not be higher than 10 percent of total students of primary and secondary schools and 20 percent of high schools.

A lawyer said this is an unreasonable regulation because the number of Vietnamese students allowed to be admitted into international schools depends on the number of foreign students at the schools.

Nguyen Kim Dung from the Vietnam Business Forum (VBF) commented that the regulation prevents Vietnamese students from approaching an international education environment.

Investors complained that they meet many difficulties when making investments in the education field because of complicated time-consuming procedures and impractical business condition requirements. 

To build a school, investors have to obtain three kinds of licenses, including investment , establishment and operation licenses. Of the three procedures, the second license is the most difficult to obtain because it needs to get approval from many departments and agencies.

Nguyen Xuan Khang, headmaster of Marie Curie School, said the provisions of Decree 46 that guides the implementation of the amended Education Law causes difficulties for primary schools.

An educator said administrative procedures are now more complicated. Some years ago, it took him nine months to fulfill all procedures to establish a school, but now he has to spend three years to get a license to open one branch.

The decree stipulates that upon establishment, investors must show the lists of teachers, managerial officers and workers, profiles and labor contracts.

Khang admitted that in 2014, when setting up Marie Curie, he had to fabricate the documents.

Mai Thi Anh, deputy director of the Legal Department under the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), said MOET has proposed to cut 110 business conditions to create more favorable conditions for investments.

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