Vietnam is expected to start building a law on public-private partnership (PPP) investment in 2018 to pave the way for future foreign investment inflows.

A law to replace simple decrees would be essential to facilitate foreign investment in PPP projects

Vu Quynh Le, deputy head of the Ministry of Planning and Investment's Public Procurement Department, made this statement at November 16 workshop at Vietnam-World Economic Forum Infrastructure Development Cooperation.

If everything goes smoothly, the draft law is expected to be submitted to the government and the National Assembly (NA) in late 2018.

At present, PPP investment is regulated by Decree No.15/2015/ND-CP and Decree No.30/2015/ND-CP. Despite improvements, the risk-sharing mechanism, exchange rates, and revenue guarantees, which are considered the topmost concerns among foreign investors, remain absent from the decrees.

The lack of this regulatory mechanism has discouraged foreign investors from joining transport infrastructure projects in Vietnam. Thus, up till now, no PPP transport infrastructure projects have been successfully done by foreign investors in Vietnam, despite their great interest.

"The decrees cannot help solve these problems, only a law can deal with them. We are proposing the government to build a PPP law," a senior official from the Ministry of Transport (MoT) told VIR.

Vietnam has been striving to attract private investment into infrastructure projects amid heavy budgetary constraints.

According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, Vietnam is estimated to need around $68 billion of foreign investment in the infrastructure sector in the next five years.

VIR