In 6 Months, Da Nang Attracted Over 80 Million USD of FDI

In the first 6 months of 2020, Da Nang City has attracted over 13.2 trillion VND of domestic investment capital, more than 80.2 million USD of FDI in Danang.

According to Department of Planning and Investment of Da Nang City, although affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, the situation of attracting investment in the city achieved positive results.

Accordingly, in the first 6 months of 2020, Da Nang has attracted more than 13.2 trillion VND of domestic investment capital, more than 80.2 million USD of FDI capital. In particular, the investment capital for projects outside the Industrial Park has increased to a record, only 4 projects with a total capital of over 10.8 trillion VND, increase by nearly 600%. So far, Da Nang city has 337 domestic investment projects with a total capital of over 115 trillion VND, 855 FDI projects with a total capital of over 3.4 billion USD.

Set-up company in Da Nang

Real estate lawyers in Da Nang

According to Director of Planning and Investment Department of Da Nang, the above result is thanks to the city has well implemented the disbursement of public investment, implemented many motivational infrastructure projects. With more than 12.4 trillion VND of public investment approved for 2020, Da Nang has issued a series of policies to remove obstacles in terms of ground and procedures. A series of motivational projects have been implemented such as roads and bridges crossing Co Co River, West Ring Road 2, Eastern Son Tra district water environment improvement project, Hoa Lien water plant, project to renovate the cluster of intersections west of Tran Thi Ly bridge, Center for neurosurgery, trauma and plastic burns i- Danang Hospital…

Da Nang City has also granted investment certificates for the project of manufacturing synthetic rubber specialized for machine manufacturing, electricity and electronics, Table Table Asia management consulting project, Ubisoft Viet Co., Ltd, Kansei Kindergarten in Danang.

Da Nang City is currently promoting major projects such as Bilingual Intermediate School, International Center for Diagnosis and Treatment, International Hospital for Cancer and Infertility, Getaway Complex with investment of 2 billion USD, Downtown Duty Free project… While also dealing with problems related to procedures of land allocation and land lease related to the Nam O Ecological Tourism projec; Extending the implementation schedule of the FPT Urban Area project; Vinacapital Danang Golf Course project…

In the coming time, Da Nang will focus on organizing well the Investment Forum, expected in September 2020. The city will also promote investment in the form of online, maintain connection with international organizations such as JETRO, KOTRA, AMCHAM, AUSCHAM, SBF, IE Singapore, AHK… to connect businesses, cooperation on investment promotion. The investment attraction orientation of Danang in the coming time will be directed at large, high-tech, modern, environmentally friendly multinational corporations.

Read More

Wind Power: The Inevitable Trend of Sustainable Development

With the increasing demand for electricity, Vietnam is also gradually considering investing in renewable energy, including wind power as the key to addressing energy security, contributing to the realization of the country’s green development strategy.

Energy is one of essential human needs and an indispensable input of economic activity. As the living standards of the people are improving, the level of production of the economy is more modern, the demand for energy is also growing, and satisfying this demand is a real challenge for almost every country.

The race to exploit fossil fuels at all costs of human beings is reaching the limits of nature’s endurance, causing polluted living environments, climate change, causing unrest for the welfare of the community and become one of the global non-traditional security issues, threatening the survival of humanity.

Being aware of that, many countries around the world have been switching from fossil fuel to renewable energy for sustainable development. In many areas, power source from renewable energy projects is equivalent to those from fossil fuel projects, breaking the threshold that we believed to be impracticable.

Currently, in Europe, nearly 50% of new power development projects are wind power projects. In China – the most populous country, in March 2017, the Government shut down its last coal-fired power plant in Beijing to switch to renewable and gas electricity and.

According to the IEA latest report, globally, in 2016, investments in wind and solar power have doubled investments in fossil-fuel power. Furthermore, it is estimated that wind, solar and gas powers will completely replace coal power in the next 25 years.

In Vietnam, the development of the economy has made demand for electricity surge while supply capacity has not developed in time. The Ministry of Industry and Trade has forecasted that average electricity production growth rate of Vietnam in the period 2016 – 2020 is 10.7% per year and the period 2021 – 2025 is 8.6% per year.

Therefore, the Government of Vietnam considers the exploitation and utilization of renewable energy resources have special and strategic meaning in terms of socio-economic, national security and defense, energy security, sustainable development and minimizing environmental impact.

Most experts said that Vietnam has enormous potential for wind power. According to a study by the World Bank, Vietnam has the largest wind energy potential in the region, surpassing Laos, Cambodia and Thailand.

Accordingly, Vietnam’s wind reserve is estimated at 513,360 MW, more than 6 times the estimated total capacity of the electricity sector by 2020. The World Bank study also showed that 8.6% of Viet Nam’s land area is very potential, convenient for the installation of large wind turbines. The corresponding figure of Cambodia is 0.2%, Laos is 2.9% and Thailand is 0.2%.

Understanding the general trend of the world as well as encouraging investment incentives of the Government, about 50 wind power projects have been registered for investment in Vietnam and there are 4 projects with total capacity of 159.2 MW has gone into commercial operation.

Most recently, the Phuong Mai 3 Wind Power Project in Nhon Hoi Economic Zone (Quy Nhon – Binh Dinh), has a capacity of 21 MW – 28 MW, including 14 turbines with a total investment of 40 – 50 million USD are invested by HALCOM Company and its international partners. With an area of 140 hectares, the project is expected to supply about 72 million kWh of electricity per year and reduce emissions by 40,000 tons of CO2 per year. According to representatives of HALCOM, the project will be implemented in 2017 – 2018. Once completed, the estimated revenue can reach 150 billion VND per year.

1. 
   

Read More

Thai Giant Acquires Solar Power Project in Vietnam

Many foreign investors have chosen Vietnam as a destination to invest in solar power project in Vietnam.

Together with the explosion of solar power projects, 2019 is considered to be the peak year of the ‘underground waves’ surrounding the race for additional licenses for solar power planning in all levels from central to local. The situation of license trading, project transfer to foreign investors also appeared.

Along with the rush of solar power projects, in recent days, a series of news that many weak investors still have acquired large-scale renewable energy projects, then quickly transferring to foreign investors to make profit gradually appearing in many forums about renewable energy. Even, according to the announcement of foreign investors, the transfer of solar power projects in Vietnam is taking place very excitingly.

Most recently, the Board of Directors of Super Energy Corporation Company Limited (Super Energy) of Thailand announced that at the end of March 2020, they have sent a letter to the Thai Securities Commission announcing the decision to spend no more than 456.7 million USD to invest in 4 solar power plant projects, including Loc Ninh 1 (200 MW), Loc Ninh 2 (200 MW), Loc Ninh 3 (150 MW) and Loc Ninh 4 (200 MW) in Binh Phuoc province (Vietnam).

According to the announcement, the investment in Loc Ninh 1 solar power project is 99.7 million USD; in Loc Ninh 2 is 140 million USD; in Loc Ninh 3 is 105 million USD and in Loc Ninh 4 is 112 million USD. In order to raise the ownership rate at businesses implementing the 4 solar projects, the Super Energy project has to pay a total of 72.9 million USD as scheduled. In particular, the amount paid in March 2020 is more than 5.7 million USD. Specifically, the payment in March 2020 was 13,667 million USD. The amount payable in June 2020 will be 32.4 million USD and the amount payable in November 2020 will be 11.6 million USD. Under the agreement, if the purchase price is different from the forecast of 7.09 US cents/kWh, the value of the stock will be adjusted according to the actual purchase price.

However, according to initial information, not all Vietnamese partners (many believe that subsidiaries of Hung Hai Group) will receive all this money. Currently the first payment took place with the amount of 5,732 million USD. The remaining payments will be accompanied by detailed conditions such as when there is land lease decision, construction permit, grid contract, land use right certificate, or certificate of eligibility for commercial electricity generation with the purchase price of electricity is 7.09 UScents/kWh…

Notably, before the acquisition of the 4 mentioned projects, the Thai energy company owned 6 solar power projects in Vietnam. As of March 2020, these 6 projects alone had a total capacity of up to 286.72 MW, equal to half of the total capacity of 100 solar power projects in Thailand that SEC owns.

A special feature is that all 6 power projects in Vietnam that Super Energy acquired earlier only had the return on investment (EIRR) of 12-13%. And power projects under Loc Ninh project cluster have much higher EIRR, from 16.59% to 17.4%. In addition to solar power projects, the SEC also owns 4 wind power projects in Vietnam, in Bac Lieu, Soc Trang, Phu Yen and Gia Lai provinces. These projects are expected to be fully or partially operational from Q4/2021.

According to research, through the form of joint venture, transfer of shares with Vietnamese enterprises, many foreign energy and investment corporations have owned dozens of solar and wind power projects and enjoyed preferential prices of 9.35 UScents/kWh for 20 years in Vietnam.

Among these are the two solar power plants TTC 1 and TTC 2 in Tay Ninh, invested and operated by Thanh Thanh Cong Group and Gulf Energy Group (Thailand), operated in the middle of 2019. At that time, Thai group owns 49% of the capital but in the latest change, Gulf has increased its holding to 90%. Apart from the solar power projects in Tay Ninh, Thai group also holds wind power projects in Ben Tre with 95% ownership.

In addition to the above mentioned projects, Super Energy has also invested in the form of buying shares in solar power projects in Ninh Thuan, An Giang… In addition to Thailand, many investors come from Singapore, China, Philippines… also owns dozens of solar and wind power projects in Vietnam through shares and joint ventures.

Read More

How to distinguish a Limited Liability Company and a Joint Stock Company?

Vietnam Law allows the establishment of a company in Vietnam in various forms. It is an important step in investment process.

Investors could choose different forms depending on the needs and capacity on the ability to raise capital and sharing the risk in business as well as the management and operating costs. Each form will have its own organizational structure, operating mechanism, rights and obligations specified under Law on Enterprise 2014.

Currently, Limited Liability Company (“LTD”) and Joint Stock Company (“JSC”) are two popular enterprise forms operating in Vietnam.

What is the difference between these two forms of companies?

I. Organizational Structure

Number of members/shareholders:

LTD

-Single member LTD: Having only one member (member can be an organization or an individual);

-Multi members LTD: Having at least 2 members and not exceed 50 members (member can be an organization or an individual).

JSC

Joint Stock Company has at least 3 shareholders and not limit the maximum number.

Management structure

LTD

-Single member LTD

Single member LTD owner by an organization shall be organized under two models: Company president, Director/General director and Supervisor; (OR) Members Council, Director/General director and Supervisor.

Single member LTD owner by an individual shall be organized as follows: Company president, Director/General director.

-Multi members LTD

Multi members shall be organized by: LTD Council members, Chairman of the Members Council and Director/General director;

Multi members LTD having 11 members or more shall establish the Board of Supervisors.

JSC

JSC can be organized under two models: General Meeting of Shareholders, Board of Directors, Board of Supervisors and Director/General director; (OR) General Meeting of Shareholders, Board of Directors (Board of Internal Supervisors under Board of Directors) and Director/General director.

II. Capital Contribution

Raising capital

LTD

-Single member LTD: Owner increases charter capital

-Multi members LTD: Members increase their charter capital, or increasing the number of capital contributors

JSC

Different from LTD, JSC can raise its capital by various methods as follows: Selling shares to existing shareholders; Selling shares individually to non-shareholders; Issuing shres on the stock market.

Transfer of contributed capital

LTD

-Single member LTD: Owner transfers a part of contributed capital to other persons and this could lead to changes of the type of business or other procedures if all capital is transferred (for instance in a M&A deal).

-Multi members LTD: Offer the stakes to other members in proportion to their stakes in the company under the same conditions; The stakes could only be transferred to other persons if the members do not buy or do not buy completely within 30 days from the offering date.

JSC

The shareholders of JSC are free for transfer their contributed capital after 03 years from the establishment.

Having said that, LTD is a type of enterprise that the capital contribution is not the only link between the members of the company but they are also linked together by relationship. They may be acquaintances and trust each other to jointly contribute capital to establish an enterprise. Therefore, the management of the LTD is as complicated as JSC. With the larger the number of shareholders, the level of capital mobilization, voting power to decide on issues of the company based on the ratio of capital contribution of each shareholder, the management and operation of the JSC is more complex.

The ability to raise capital of a JSC is higher than a LTD. Because, JSC can issue shares to the public in the form of securities. When the stocks are listed on stock exchange, the information of company’s business operations must be public and more transparent.

The procedure to set up a company in form of an LTD or a JSC has not much differences.

Read More