On April 19th, 2019, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 18/2019/QD-TTg regulating the import of used machinery, equipment and technology lines. This decision takes effect from June 15th, 2019.
Accordingly, Decision No. 18/2019/QD-TTg has specified the Import Criteria for used technological lines, which are allowed to be imported when meeting the following criteria:
1. Produced according to standards:
a) Compliance with regulations of national technical regulations (QCVN) on safety, energy saving and environmental protection;
b) In case there is no national technical regulation (QCVN) related to imported technology lines, the technological line must be produced according to standards in accordance with the technical criteria of the national standard ( TCVN) of Vietnam or the national standard of one of G7 and South Korea countries on safety, energy saving and environmental protection.
2. Capacity (in terms of the number of products produced by the technology line in a unit of time) or the remaining efficiency must be 85% or more of the design capacity or efficiency.
3. The consumption of raw materials, materials and energy must not exceed 15% of the design.
4. Technology of technological lines not on the list of technologies banned from transfer and the list of technologies subject to transfer restriction specified in Decree No. 76/2018 / ND-CP detailing and guiding the implementation of one Number of articles of the Law on Technology Transfer.
5. Technology of technology lines must be used in at least 03 production facilities in the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Thereby, it can be seen that, from the date of June 15th, 2019, the Prime Minister has clearly defined import criteria for used technology lines and import permits.
This regulation has contributed to solving problems of investors when they have a need to import used technology chains, facilitating investors to import according to clear and transparent criteria and contribute part to promote industrial production, reduce the cost of investment for investors and businesses.