On June 06, 2018 the government issued Decree No.86/2018/NĐ-CP provides on cooperation and investment of foreign investor in education field. This Decree takes effect from August 01, 2018.
Accordingly, Decree No.86/2018/NĐ-CP regulates on investment in the field of education, as follows:
1. Type of educational establishment with foreign owned capital
– Short-term training and fostering establishments.
– Pre-school education institution.
– General education establishments (primary schools, junior high schools, upper secondary schools, multi-level general education schools).
– Higher education institution.
– Branches of foreign-invested higher education institutions in Vietnam.
2. Operation duration: Project implementation time is not exceeding 50 years, counting from the date of issuance of the investment registration certificate but not longer than the land lease term.
3. Conditions of capital for establishing education institution with foreigner owned capital
– Investment project of establishing a pre-school education institution has to have amount of invested money is 30 million Vietnam dongs/a child at least (exclude land using fees). Total of investment capital is counted base on the time of the highest expected scale. The plan of investment capital must be fit with the expected scale of each period.
– Investment project of establishing a general education institution has to have amount of invested money is 50 million dongs/student at least (exclude land using fees). Total of investment capital is counted base on the time of highest expected scale, but it is not lower than 50 billion dongs.
– Investment project of establishing a short-term training and fostering institution must has to have amount of invested money is 20 million dongs/leaner at least (exclude land using fees). Total of investment capital is counted base on the time of highest expected scale.
– Investment project of establishing a higher education institution has to have total of investment capital is 1.000 billion dongs at least (exclude land using fees). Foreign-invested economic organizations being project investors shall prove their financial capability according to the provisions of the Investment Law. By the time of appraisal, universities must be allowed to invest more than 500 billion VND.
– Investment project of establishing branches of foreign-invested higher education institutions in Vietnam have to amount of invested money is 250 billion dongs at least (exclude land using fees). By the time of appraisal, branches must be allowed to invest more than 250 billion VND.
– For foreign-invested educational establishments which do not build new material foundations but they are only sub-lease or contribute by the Vietnamese parties with material facilities available for operation, the minimum investment level must meet 70% of the above levels.
Thus, compared with period document, Decree No.86/2018/NĐ-CP sets higher requirements for investment capital, in order to improve the stability of foreign investment projects in the field of education.