The Law on Investment No. 143/2025/QH15 was approved by the National Assembly on December 11, 2025, effective from March 1, 2026. After the first amendment by Law No. 24/2026/QH16 dated August 24, 2026, the Ministry of Finance continues to develop a draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Investment 2025 (Draft),[1] which is expected to be submitted to the National Assembly at the 2nd Session in October 2026 and take effect from January 1, 2027.
The Law on Investment 2025 was promulgated in the context of Vietnam's promotion of administrative procedure reform, decentralization of authority and improvement of the investment environment.
The fact that a new law is proposed to be amended for the second time in a short time gives the impression that investment policy is unstable. However, the Draft dossier shows that this amendment is not merely aimed at overcoming technical errors or individual inadequacies of the Law on Investment 2025. The main impetus comes from the need to fundamentally change the way Vietnam attracts and manages foreign investment: from prioritizing the amount of registered capital to selecting project quality; from input incentives to outcome-based support; from record-based management to data-driven management; and from attracting single projects to forming supply chains, industry clusters and innovation ecosystems.
New law but changed policy requirements
The Law on Investment 2025 was promulgated in the context of Vietnam's promotion of administrative procedure reform, decentralization of authority and improvement of the investment environment. However, just a few months later, the Politburo's Resolution No. 10-NQ/TW dated June 8, 2026 on foreign-invested economic development has set a new, broader and significantly more ambitious policy framework.
According to this orientation, Vietnam not only needs to attract more capital but must also select projects that are capable of creating real value for the economy. Technology, research and development, technology transfer, training of Vietnamese workers, domestic value-added rate, development of domestic suppliers, green transformation, digital transformation and resource efficiency become the central criteria.
The State recognizes quite frankly that the quality and efficiency of the foreign-invested sector are not commensurate with the potential. The localization rate is still low; the link between foreign-invested enterprises and domestic enterprises is not tight; research, development and technology transfer activities are still limited. Many projects still rely on labor, land, natural resources, energy or focus on processing and assembly. The situation of transfer pricing and competition to attract investment by volume in some localities has also not been thoroughly handled.
Therefore, the second amendment does not necessarily come from the fact that the Investment Law 2025 has become "outdated" after just a few months. Rather, this law cannot fully reflect the new orientations established after the time the law was passed, especially Resolution No. 10-NQ/TW.
This is also the reason why the draft is proposed to be developed according to the simplified order and procedures and added to the program of the October 2026 Session with the desire to attract 200-300 billion USD of registered foreign investment capital, increase the implemented capital to 150-200 billion USD, increase the number of Fortune 500 corporations investing in Vietnam and attract at least three of the world's leading technology corporations to set up their headquarters, offices or research and development centers in Vietnam.
Tax incentives are no longer competitive
Another important reason is that the space for traditional tax incentives is shrinking, especially under the impact of the global minimum tax.
In the long run, corporate income tax exemption and reduction is one of the main tools for Vietnam to compete to attract investment. However, when multinational corporations have to ensure a minimum tax rate on a global scale, the benefits from tax incentives in the host country may be significantly reduced or withdrawn in other countries. At that time, high tax incentives on paper may not create a practical advantage for investors.
The draft therefore proposes to add four forms of investment support, including support for supply chain development; support for production, product and technology improvement; support for initial investment and creation of fixed assets; support for cooperation between enterprises and education, vocational training, science and technology institutions.
For projects eligible for special investment incentives and supports, the State may support the cost of training Vietnamese workers; research and development; investment in social infrastructure works; production of high-tech products; improving the capacity of domestic enterprises participating in the supply chain; and investment in machinery, equipment, lines and technologies in case foreign-invested enterprises use profits that have not yet been repatriated to expand investment in Vietnam.
This change shows that the investment attraction policy is being shifted from "reducing the obligation to pay" to "sharing costs to create the desired results". The State not only gives incentives because investors meet the initial conditions of the industry, area or capital size, but also aims to support activities that directly create technology, human resources, production capacity and domestic linkages.
Support must be accompanied by commitment and post-inspection
If investment support is expanded without a control mechanism, the risk of widespread incentives, competition between localities and inefficient use of the budget may increase. Therefore, a pervasive content of the draft is to associate incentives with the results of the implementation of investors' commitments.
Investors entitled to special incentives and supports must fully implement the registered commitments and periodically report. Commitments may be related to technology transfer, research and development, training of Vietnamese human resources, support for Vietnamese enterprises to participate in supply chains, digital transformation, green transformation, circular economy, environmental protection, efficient use of land, resources and energy.
If the investor fails to implement or does not fully implement, the competent authority may consider adjusting or revoking incentives and supports. The maintenance of policies throughout the life cycle of the project, therefore, no longer depends only on the content recorded at the time of licensing.
The draft also proposes a mechanism for the Government to decide on outstanding incentives and support packages for particularly important projects that have a great impact on socio-economic development. If it exceeds the authority of the Government, the issue will be reported to the National Assembly Standing Committee for consideration and decision.
According to the Ministry of Finance, in recent years, a number of large corporations such as LG Chemical, Samsung, Intel and SK have proposed to consider support packages associated with specific commitments. However, the processing is prolonged because of the lack of a flexible enough legal basis. This is a gap that the draft wants to overcome in order to avoid missing out on strategic projects in the process of competition to attract investment between countries.
However, this is also a group of regulations that need to be carefully completed. Many issues still need to be clarified, such as the criteria for identifying particularly important projects; support ceilings; agencies evaluating the fulfillment of commitments; the order of adjustment and revocation of incentives; how to handle force majeure cases; and a mechanism to ensure the accountability of investors. If these criteria are not transparent, flexible policies can become an individual negotiation mechanism or create a "begging – giving" risk.
Opening the market to foreign investors
The draft proposal gives the Government the authority to consider easing market access conditions in industries and trades that restrict market access for foreign investors, based on socio-economic conditions and management requirements in each period.
It is worth noting that the relaxation may be related to conditions stipulated in laws, resolutions of the National Assembly, ordinances, resolutions of the National Assembly Standing Committee, decrees of the Government and international treaties on investment. The goal is to create a faster policy response rather than having to wait for each document to be amended when Vietnam needs to open up an industry or adjust foreign ownership limits.
This mechanism can support the process of upgrading the stock market, expanding investment capital flows and increasing foreign investors' access to the market. However, this is also one of the most controversial proposals.
The question is how far the Government's decision-making power is limited, especially when market access conditions are stipulated in the law or associated with sensitive fields such as finance, data, communications, security and defense. The Ministry of Finance said that the relaxation will be carried out by industry, profession, legal document and generally applied to investors who meet the conditions, instead of deciding for each project. However, to ensure predictability, the law still needs to clearly define the criteria, scope, impact assessment process and mechanism to control the implementation of this authority.
Special procedures must go beyond concentrated areas
The Law on Investment 2025 has a mechanism for investment registration according to special procedures for a number of projects in industrial parks, export processing zones, high-tech parks, concentrated digital technology parks, free trade zones, international financial centers and functional zones in economic zones.
This draft proposes to expand that mechanism to projects in the fields of special incentives and support when using land areas managed by state agencies and organizations, even if the project location is outside the above-mentioned areas.
The proposal reflects a practical requirement: data center projects, research and development, semiconductors, artificial intelligence, logistics, or energy storage are not always suitable for location in industrial parks or economic zones. Special procedural limitations by geographical boundaries may prevent strategic projects from enjoying expedited processes simply because of the choice of a location outside the centralized area.
In addition, the draft handles another gap related to the project requesting the State to allocate the sea area. The current law does not clearly delineate which cases must be auctioned and bid and which cases are approved for investment policies and investors. The addition of regulations is expected to remove obstacles for wind power, infrastructure projects and projects that both use land and sea areas.
The draft proposes the application of accelerated depreciation to machinery, equipment, lines and technologies serving the transformation of eco-industrial parks.
From case management to data governance
A notable pillar of the draft is the establishment of a national investment single window portal. This is identified as a digital platform for state management, implementation of investment procedures, updating, storing and sharing data on domestic investment, outward investment, investment promotion, industrial parks and economic zones.
Project information stored on the National Investment Information System is determined to be original information with legal validity. Ministries, sectors, localities and investors are responsible for updating data completely, accurately and promptly.
If properly implemented, this mechanism can overcome the situation where investors have to provide the same information to multiple agencies, while reducing repetitive due diligence. The state can also track project progress, commitments, incentives and effectiveness on the same platform, instead of managing with independent systems and distributed records.
More importantly, the One-Stop Portal is the necessary infrastructure for the "incentives according to results" model. Without synchronous data, it will be difficult to assess the level of technology transfer, labor training, localization or supplier development will be difficult to avoid subjectivity.
However, this regulation is only effective if it clarifies the scope of data, responsibility for updating, the right to exploit and confidentialize information, the connection between databases and the elimination of the obligation to report duplicately. If only one more electronic portal is added but the process is not changed, businesses may have to perform additional obligations instead of reducing procedures.
Encouraging green investment and empowering localities
The draft proposes the application of accelerated depreciation to machinery, equipment, lines and technologies serving the transformation of eco-industrial parks. Projects on construction and business of eco-industrial park infrastructure can also be applied with an operation term of up to 70 years.
This is how the State shares a portion of the costs of the green transition without necessarily spending the budget directly. However, the policy needs to be closely coordinated with tax and depreciation laws to determine eligible assets, depreciation rates, application periods, and how deductible costs are calculated.
The draft also allows provincial-level People's Councils to decide on the use of local budgets to support the cost of labor training at training institutions of domestic and foreign enterprises. This mechanism helps localities respond more flexibly to the requirements of strategic projects.
On the other hand, strong decentralization can also lead to preferential competition between localities or create uneven levels of support. Therefore, local policies need to be placed within a framework of openness, transparency, and the ability to balance budgets and have a common coordination mechanism.
Quick fixing, but not at the expense of stability
The second amendment to the Law on Investment 2025 reflects the rapidly changing pace of the international investment environment and increasing competitive pressures. Vietnam needs a more flexible mechanism to attract technology, supply chains, research centers, data, logistics and strategic projects. At the same time, the State needs to move from only granting licenses and granting incentives to monitoring actual performance throughout the project life cycle.
However, the speed of law revision should not cause investors to constantly adapt to a volatile legal framework. The draft still has contents that need to be completed, especially the criteria for easing market access, limiting outstanding support packages, the mechanism for revoking incentives, the relationship between the central and local budgets, the right to access data and the transition clause.
