Van Don in ​Quang Ninh ​province is a special administrative-economic zone which is expected to see sea changes under a proposed new law (Photo: qtv.vn) HCM City (VNA) - Theabolition of people’s councils, permitting casinos to be set up and allowingforeign investors to lease land for 99 years are among the main provisions of aproposed new law to govern the three special administrative-economic zones in Vietnam. Speakingat the 2017 M&A Forum organised in HCM City on August 10 by the Vietnam InvestmentReview, Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung said the SpecialAdministrative Economic Zone Law is expected to create a proper legal frameworkfor the three zones in Van Don (Quang Ninh Province), Van Phong (Khanh HoaProvince) and Phu Quoc (Kien Giang). It aims to create a new developmentmodel with breakthrough policies and mechanisms meant to improve the investmentenvironment and make Vietnam competitive in attracting investment. Thezones will only have an administrative committee and no people’s council, andthe people’s council’s role related to legislation and inspection would betaken over by provincial authorities, he said. “Toeffectively operate these special zones, we should remove unnecessary andinappropriate levels of special economic zones,” the minister said. Theministry has also proposed increasing the maximum land lease tenure to 99 yearsfrom the current 50-75, and allowing thezones to have casinos. Dungsaid the zones have been established to develop certain strategic industriesbased on their geographic conditions. Forinstance, Van Phong is the best place to develop a transit port in Vietnam andcan develop logistics while Van Don has great potential in healthcare,education and biology, he said. Allthree would welcome industries with high value-addition, which would beidentified for investment and announced soon, he said. Thebill would be tabled in the National Assembly for approval, according to Dung. The house will consider theirprovisions related to preferential treatment for investors in terms ofcurrency, land, manpower, tax and others. Businesses are proposed to be given atax waiver for four years, tax cuts for 30 more years, low land rents andflexible labour policies. Van Phong covers an area of 66,000hectares and is expected to become an international hub for marine transport,finance, tourism, medicine and education. The three zones are expected tocontribute billions of dollars to the economy from 2020, and enjoy average percapita income of 12,000-13,000 USD by 2030. The ministry said building the zoneshas become an urgent task since in the last 25 years, other models likeindustrial zones, processing zones, economic zones and hi-tech parks have notbeen sufficiently flexible. Besides, the current models are notattractive enough for foreign investors and face shortcomings related toadministrative procedures and poor human resources. Since 1942, many countries havesuccessfully developed special economic zones, special administrative zones,freedom cities and smart, industrial and hi-tech cities. Vietnam’s special administrative andeconomic zones would have positive effects on neighbouring countries too, theministry said.-VNA