One of the issues of biggest interest at the government’s press conference on October 1 was the time of establishment of the first cargo air carrier in Vietnam, IPP Air Cargo, and the verification of nationalities of the airline’s shareholders.

Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Tran Quoc Phuong said checking nationalities of IPP Air Cargo is a proposal by the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) in its document to MOT.

MPI believes that identifying nationalities of shareholders is normal, and not a complicated matter. It is necessary for two reasons.

First, Vietnam identifies the nationalities of shareholders to know what type of status the business belongs to.

According to Phuong, under the Investment Law and the legal documents that guide the implementation of the law, in a business where there are many shareholders and at least two of them have foreign nationalities, the treatment would be different compared with domestic enterprises.

“The policies are different for 100 percent domestically owned and foreign invested enterprises,” Phuong explained.

Second, under the 2014 Law on Nationality, in some cases, Vietnamese can hold two nationalities.

The legal documents that guide the implementation of the Investment Law also specify how to treat investors with two nationalities, including Vietnamese, so as to set procedural requirements in specific cases.

“Therefore, defining the nationalities of shareholders, especially founding shareholders, in order to treat them properly is a necessity before licensing,” Phuong added.

Tho of MOT said after MPI made suggestions, MOT assigned the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) to check application documents.

“The documents were submitted to the Prime Minister on September 26. The PM has not given an official opinion about the investment. After he gives an opinion about this, we will begin the licensing procedure,” Tho said.

One month ago, Johnathan Hanh Nguyen, President of IPP, a well known businessman with the nickname "branded goods King", told the press that he hoped the air carrier would take off in November.

Though IPP Air Cargo has not been licensed yet, two electronic component manufacturers which have factories in the north have signed exclusive sale contracts with IPP Air Cargo. Each of them has registered to use two cargo airplanes of IPP Air Cargo.

If the air carrier gets permission to fly in November as expected, it would take off for the first time from Cat Bi Airport in Hai Phong as reported by local newspapers.

The government has asked six ministries to give their opinion about the licensing of IPP Air Cargo.

Quang Phong - Thu Hang