Amended Construction Law helps remove difficulties in construction investment

The law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Construction Law passed at the 9th session, the 14th National Assembly, is expected to remove difficulties and obstacles for enterprises in construction investment activities.

Overcoming many limitations and shortcomings

According to the Ministry of Construction, the Law amends and supplements a number of articles of the Construction Law in order to improve the investment and business environment, simplify administrative procedures in construction investment activities, create favorable conditions, transparency and equality for citizens and businesses; overcome the limitations and shortcomings in the practice of construction investment; as well as ensure the uniformity and uniformity of the legal system.

The law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Construction Law takes effect from January 1, 2021. The law amended and supplemented 66 articles and replaced the term in 13 of the 168 articles of the Construction Law. In particular, there are many notable changes.

Specifically, the law amends and supplements a number of regulations on granting construction permits in the direction of reviewing objects that are exempted from construction permits to suit management requirements; simplifying conditions and dossiers granting construction permits; strengthening the decentralization of the Ministry of Construction’s authority to grant special construction work permits to the provincial People’s Committee and shortening the time of construction permits.

This content has attracted the attention of the public, especially construction and real estate businesses, because the law has reduced some processes in construction licensing, in which the design evaluation after the basic design of construction in housing projects has been integrated when carrying out the procedures for granting construction permits.

This new regulation overcomes the inadequacies of the 2014 Construction Law, specificallyin the case of a housing project (above 24 storeys), in the pass, the former investor must submit to the Department of Construction Activities (Ministry of Construction) for appraisal of both steps, basic design and technical design. So far, it has been shortened in the process of granting construction permits.

In addition, the integration of the licensing process will greatly reduce the time for businesses, and the cost of construction investment will be significantly reduced.

Many people think this change is considered to be very positive, but in the future, the Ministry of Construction should continue to study and reduce technical regulations and standards in construction investment activities, synchronized with the articles and clauses of the law, helping businesses reduce difficulties in production and business activities.

Positive changes

The law has amended and supplemented the regulations on formulation, appraisal and approval of construction investment projects in the direction that the subjects must prepare pre-feasibility study reports on construction investment in accordance with the law on investment, public investment and public-private partnership investment.

At the same time, the law amended and supplemented the regulations on the form of management of construction investment projects in the direction of stipulating the forms of project management considered and decided by the person determining investment under the scale, nature, capital sources and conditions for execution of construction investment projects.

In this regard, the law specifies the form of specialized and regional project management units applicable to projects using public investment capital when the investment decider is assigned to manage multiple projects simultaneously or concurrently and continuously to overcome the situation where ministries and branches with few construction investment projects still have to set up specialized and regional project management boards which will be inefficient and increase their payroll.

In addition, the law amending and supplementing regulations on appraisal and approval of construction designs after basic designs in the direction of clarifying design steps to be appraised and approved; reducing objects subject to evaluation of construction design at specialized construction agencies; simplifying administrative procedures; integrating the construction design evaluation procedure into construction licensing steps for works using other capital.

The law also amended and supplemented the regulations on management of construction investment expenses in the direction of the system set by competent state agencies (the Ministry of Construction, the Ministry managing specialized construction works, the provincial People’s Committee) as a basis for project investors to use public investment capital to identify and manage construction investment costs.

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The Ministry of Construction said that many regulations aimed at solving difficulties and promoting economic recovery after the Covid-19 pandemic, such as exempting construction permits for work that has been appraised and approved by specialized construction agencies after basic designs, abolishing the authority of the Ministry of Construction and assigning provincial-level People’s Committees to grant construction permits for special constructions which will be effective from August 15, 2020.