Regulation on Grid Connected Solar Power Investment Project | ANT Lawyers

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has recently issued Circular 16/2017/TT-BCT on project development and the model purchase contract for solar power projects.

Accordingly, the grid connected solar power investment projects are regulated as follows:

– The investor can only set up a solar power investment project included in the provincial and national level solar-power development plan; or provincial and national power development plan that are approved.

– The contents of the solar power investment project must comply with the regulations on management of investment in construction and the following requirements:

+ Evaluate the impact of solar power project connection plan on the power system in the area.

+ Having equipment connected to the SCADA system or moderation information so that the forecast information on electricity output can be transmitted per hour to the regulated agency.

– The equity ratio of grid connected solar power projects should not less than 20% of the total investment.

– The area of long-term land use shall not exceed 1.2 ha/01 MWp.

Circular 16/2017/TT-BCT takes effect on October 26th 2017.

FDI Disbursement 2018 Continues to Reach Record | ANT Consulting

The data has recently been published by the Foreign Investment Agency (Ministry of Planning and Investment) showed that FDI disbursement continued to achieve an impressive growth of 9.1% to set a new record with disbursed capital of 19.1 billion USD.

Three consecutive years of setting new record of disbursing foreign direct investment (FDI) has affirmed that Vietnam continues to be an attractive investment destination.

Only in the last 3 years, the amount of disbursed foreign investment has reached more than 50 billion USD (17.5 billion USD – 2017; 15.8 billion USD – 2016). This is an important additional source of capital for development investment in Vietnam, contributing to changing the economic face, creating growth, employment, and income for workers.       

Meanwhile, regarding the registered capital, according to the data of the Foreign Investment Department, as of December 20th 2018, the total foreign investment capital into Vietnam, including newly registered capital, increased and contributing capital to buy shares of foreign investors is 35.46 billion USD, equaling 98.8% compared to the same period in 2017.

In which, there are 3,046 new projects were granted investment registration certificates with total new registered capital of nearly 18 billion USD, equaling 84.5% compared to the same period in 2017.

Besides, there are 1,169 projects registered to adjust investment capital with total registered capital increased of 7.59 billion USD, equaling 90.3% compared to the same period in 2017. And 6,496 times of capital contribution and share purchase of foreign investors with total capital contribution of 9.89 billion USD, increase by 59.8% compared to the same period in 2017.

According to data recently shown by the Foreign Investment Agency, in 2018 there were 112 countries and territories with investment projects in Vietnam. Japan has held the first position in the two consecutive years with a total investment of USD 8.59 billion, accounting for 24.2% of the total investment capital. Korea ranked second with total registered capital of 7.2 billion USD, accounting for 20.3% of total investment capital in Vietnam. Singapore ranked third with a total registered investment capital of 5 billion USD, accounting for 14.2% of total investment capital…

The processing and manufacturing industry is still the field attracting the attention of foreign investors with a total capital of 16.58 billion USD, accounting for 46.7% of the total registered investment capital. Real estate business ranks second with total investment of 6.6 billion USD, accounting for 18.6% of the total registered investment capital. The third is the wholesale and retail sector with the total registered investment capital of 3.67 billion USD, accounting for 10.3% of the total registered investment capital…

In terms of project scale, if in 2017, the attention is paid to 3 BOT thermal power projects, in 2018, large projects belong to real estate and manufacturing industries.

It is possible to mention the Smart City project in Hai Boi, Vinh Ngoc, Dong Anh Hanoi, with a total investment of 4.138 billion USD invested by Sumitomo Corporation (Japan) with the goal of building a smart urban area with synchronous technical infrastructure and social infrastructure… ; Laguna (Vietnam) Co., Ltd project, invested by Singaporean investor in Thua Thien Hue has adjusted to increase investment capital by 1.12 billion USD on May 25th 2018; Lotte Mall project in Hanoi; LG Innitek Hai Phong factory project (Korea), adjusted to increase investment capital of 501 million USD on February 23rd 2018; LG Display Hai Phong project (Korea), adjusted to increase investment capital of 500 million USD…

In addition, there are a number of projects in other areas such as the polypropylene (PP) manufacturing factory and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) underground storage project in Vietnam, with a total registered capital of 1.201 billion USD, invested by HYOSUNG CORPORATION (Korea) in Ba Ria – Vung Tau…

Super Energy Invests in 4 Solar Power Projects | ANT Consulting

The Board of Directors of Thailand’s Super Energy Corporation Company Limited (Super Energy) in late March 2020 sent a letter to the Thai Securities Commission announcing the decision to spend 456.7 million USD to set up business in Binh Phuoc, specifically into 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).

Previously, when approving this investment in the meeting on March 25th 2020, the Board of Directors of Super Energy stated that the above projects will help enhancing the business competitiveness of the enterprises. 

According to the announcement, the investment in Loc Ninh 1 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. 

Specifically, only 72.9 million USD is planned to buy shares. 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 a land lease decision, construction permit, grid connection contract, land use right certificate, or certificate of eligibility for commercial electricity generation with the purchase price of electricity of 7.09 UScents/kWh… 

Thus, the remaining amount (383.8 million USD) is for the implementation of specific project construction.

The 456.7 million USD investment of Super Energy in 4 projects is estimated at 26.23% of the Company’s total assets. 

According to solar investors, the acquisition of projects or shares in this field is quite popular in recent years, because foreign investors want to shorten the time to process procedures in Vietnam because they are often not as fluent as the local businesses. 

Due to its experience in all fields and industries, and local understanding, many Vietnamese private enterprises have certain advantages in persuading the authorities to supplement the project that they proposed to the Power Planning when the competitive bidding mechanism to select project developers has not been applied since the Decision 11/2017/QD-TTg on solar power development, which was issued on April 2017.