Decree No. 15/2021/ND-CP dated March 3, 2021 on elaborating certain regulations on management of construction projects

THE GOVERNMENT ——-	SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM Independence – Freedom – Happiness —————
No. 15/2021/ND-CP	Hanoi, March 3, 2021

 

DECREE

ELABORATING CERTAIN REGULATIONS ON MANAGEMENT OF CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS

Pursuant to the Law on Organization of the Government dated June 19, 2015; Law on amendments to the Law on Organization of the Government and the Law on Organization of Local Governments dated November 22, 2019;

Pursuant to the Law on Construction dated June 18, 2014; Law on amendments to the Law on Construction dated June 17, 2020;

Pursuant to the Law on Investment dated June 17, 2020;

Pursuant to the Law on Public Investment dated June 13, 2019;

Pursuant to the Law on Public-Private Partnership Investment dated June 18, 2020;

Pursuant to the Law on Urban Planning dated June 17, 2009;

At the request of the Minister of Construction;

The Government promulgates a Decree elaborating certain regulations on management of construction projects.

Chapter I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1. Scope

This Decree elaborates certain regulations of the Law on Construction 2014 and the Law on amendments to the Construction Law 2020 (hereinafter referred to as Law No. 62/2020/QH14) on management of construction projects, including: preparation, appraisal, approval of projects, construction designs; construction survey; issuance of construction permits and construction order management; building special works and carrying out construction projects abroad; management of construction eligibility; methods of construction project management.

Article 2. Regulated entities

1. This Decree applies to domestic agencies, organizations, and individuals; foreign organizations and individuals engaged in construction investment within Vietnam’s territory.

2. Domestic organizations and individuals that engage in construction investment abroad shall comply with particular provisions in Section 2, Chapter V of this Decree and relevant law provisions.

3. For projects funded by official development assistance (ODA), concessional loans of foreign grant funding bodies shall comply with the provisions of this Decree and the law on management and use of ODA and concessional loans from foreign grant funding bodies; in cases there is any discrepancy between a signed international treaty on ODA and this Decree, the international treaty shall prevail.

Article 3. Interpretation of terms

1. “Main works of a construction project” mean the works with the scale and function deciding on the investment objectives and scale of the project.

2. “Works with great impact on community safety and benefits” mean the works under the list specified in Appendix X of this Decree.

3. “Work built by route” means a construction work which is constructed along a given route in one or multiple administrative divisions, such as: roads; railway; electric transmission lines; telecommunications cables; oil pipelines, gas pipelines and water supply and drainage pipelines; major dams of irrigation and hydropower works; irrigation and drainage canals; dykes, revetments and other similar works.

4.”Energy Efficiency Building” means a building that meets the national criteria and standards for energy efficiency.

5.”Resource Efficiency Building” means a building that applies technical solutions to use fewer natural resources such as soil, water, minerals and other natural resources.

6. “Green Building” means a building that, in its design, construction or operation, meets the energy- and resource-efficient criteria and standards; ensures amenities and quality of life inside the building and protects environment outside the building.

7. “Projects of national importance”, as prescribed in the Construction Law and this Decree, include projects of national importance that meet criteria stipulated by the law on public investment; projects subject to the National Assembly’s decision of project proposal as per the law on Public-Private Partnership investment; and projects subject to the National Assembly’s approval for project proposal as per the law on investment.

8.”Large-scale construction projects using other funds” requiring appraisal of feasibility study reports at construction authorities, including: construction projects of group A according to criteria prescribed by the law on public investment; construction projects subject to the National Assembly’s, the Prime Minister’s approval for project proposals; residence and urban area construction projects subject to approval for project proposals in accordance with the investment law.

9. “Construction project funded by state capital other than public investment capital” means a construction project funded by state capital according to the provisions of the law on procurement but exclusive of public investment capital as prescribed by law on public investment.

10. “Construction operating license” means a license issued to a foreign contractor winning a contract by the Vietnamese competent agency as prescribed in Vietnamese regulations of law.

11. “Front – End Engineering Design”, hereinafter referred to as FEED, is a design step established according to international practice for a project with a technological design after the project is approved to concretize requirements on technological lines, specifications of equipment and materials used mainly, construction solutions serving the preparation of selection of preferred bidders under EPC contracts or specific requirements to implement the next design step.

12. “Foreign contractor” means a foreign organization or individual that is legally capacitated and the individual must also have civil legal capacity to conclude and execute the contract. Passive legal capacity and active legal capacity of the foreign contractor shall be determined according to the law of the country of which the contractor holds the nationality. The foreign contractor may be a general contractor, contractor, joint venture contractor or sub-contractor.

13. “President” means the title of an individual who is assigned to manage and coordinate all consulting tasks, including acting as a president in charge of designing construction planning; president in charge of construction survey; president in charge of construction design and construction design assessment.

14. “Chairperson” means the title of an individual who is assigned to perform specialized tasks, including taking charge of designing construction planning; taking charge of construction design or construction design assessment; taking charge of construction inspection; taking charge of budgeting, assessing and managing construction costs.

15. “Chief supervisor” means the title of an individual who is assigned by a construction supervision organization to manage the supervision of a specific work or package.

16. “Site manager” or “project manager of contractor” (hereinafter referred to as “site manager”) means the title of an individual who is assigned by a construction organization to manage the construction of a specific work or package.

17. “Project manager” means the title of an individual who is assigned to manage and coordinate a specific construction project by the Director of field-based or area-based project management board (PMB), the legal representative of the project management consultancy, the legal representative of the investor (in case the investor uses an affiliated entity or establishes a project management board).

18. “Appraisal applicant” means the investor or an entity designated by the investment decision-maker or the competent to perform pre-construction tasks, if the investor has not been identified, who applies for appraisal of feasibility study report or construction design.

19. “Practicing certificate code” means a 08-digit serial number that is used to manage an individual’s construction practicing certificate. Each individual involved in construction activities shall be granted a practicing certificate code when applying for the practicing certificate for the first time as prescribed in this Decree. The practicing certificate code shall remain unchanged when the individual applies for reissuance of or revision to the issued practicing certificate.

20. “Eligibility certificate code” means a 08-digit serial number that is used to manage an organization’s certificate of eligibility for construction activities. Each organization involved in construction activities shall be granted an eligibility certificate code when applying for the eligibility certificate for the first time as prescribed in this Decree. The eligibility certificate code shall remain unchanged when the organization applies for reissuance of or revision to the issued eligibility certificate.

Article 4. Construction project phases

1. The construction project shall have the following phases in compliance with Clause 1 Article 50 of the Law on Construction dated 2014 as follows:

a) Pre-construction: construction survey; formulation, appraisal of pre-feasibility study report, decision or approval of investment policy (if any); formulation, appraisal, approval of detailed construction planning to formulate feasibility study report; formulation, appraisal of feasibility study report for construction approval/decision and other necessary tasks related to pre-construction;

b) Construction: site preparation, demining (if any); construction survey; formulation, assessment and approval for design and construction estimate; issuance of construction permit (if required); selection of contractors and signing of construction contracts; execution of the works; supervision of work execution; advances or payments for completed works; commissioning; taking-over of the works; handover of completed works and putting into operation; and other necessary tasks;

c) Post-construction: finalization of construction contract, final accounts of the completed works, certificate of completed works, performance guarantees, handover of relevant documents and necessary tasks.

2. Phases of urgent construction projects shall comply with Article 58 hereof. Phases of public-private partnerships projects with construction component (hereinafter referred to as PPP projects) shall comply with law on public-private partnerships investment. As for remaining projects, depending on specific and technical requirements of the projects, the investment-decision maker shall decide the phases for the work items as prescribed in Points b and c Clause 1 of this Article shall be carried out whether in succession or coordinately.

3. According to the nature of the project and actual circumstances, the compensation, support, and resettlement shall be carried out in either the pre-construction or construction phase, in conformity with procedures of the land law.

Article 5. Classification of construction projects

Construction projects shall be classified, for management purpose, as prescribed in Article 49 of the Law on Construction 2014, amended in clause 8 Article 1 of the Law No. 62/2020/QH14, and in this Decree as follows:

1. The projects shall be classified by functions, fields, management purposes as specified in Appendix IV hereto.

2. The projects shall be classified by sources of funds, forms of investment, including: projects funded by public investment capital, projects financed by state fund other than public investment, PPP projects and projects funded by other funds. A construction project funded by mixed sources of funds shall be classified, for management purpose, as follows:

a) If the above project is partially funded by public investment capital, regulations on management of projects funded by public investment capital shall prevail; if the above project is a PPP project partially funded by public investment capital, regulations on management of PPP projects shall prevail;

b) If the above project is funded by state capital other than public investment capital and other funds: in case the rate of state capital other than public investment capital is greater than 30% or more than VND 500 billion of total investment, regulations on management of projects funded by state capital other than public investment capital shall prevail; in case of other circumstances, regulations on management of projects funded by other funds shall prevail.

3. Unless the investment-decision maker requires a feasibility study report, the following construction projects only require an economic – technical report:

a) Projects for religious purposes;

b) Projects for new construction, repair, innovation or upgrade with total investment of less than VND 15 billion (excluding land levies);

c) Projects primarily for procurement of goods, services, installation of equipment or projects for repair, renovation without impact on bearing structure of the works with the cost of construction component less than 10% of total investment and less than VND 5 billion (except for projects of national importance, projects of group A, PPP projects).

Article 6. Application of BIM and digital technology solutions

1. Encourage the application of Building Information Modeling (hereinafter referred to as BIM), digital technology solutions in construction activities and management and operation of works. The investment-decision maker shall decide the application of BIM, digital technology solutions when making a construction project decision.

2. The BIM file is a component in the construction design documents, the as-built documents for the BIM-applied construction projects and works. BIM content and extent of details shall comply with the agreement of the parties involved in the application of BIM in a construction contract.

3. The Prime Minister shall prescribe the roadmap for application of BIM and digital technology solutions in construction activities.

Article 7. Energy Efficiency Building, Resource Efficiency Building and Green Building

1. When investing in the construction of works, there must be technical solutions and management measures in order to efficiently use energy, save natural resources and protect the environment.

2. The State encourages the construction, development, evaluation and certification of Energy Efficiency Building, Resource Efficiency Building and Green Building.

3. The development of the buildings mentioned in Clause 2 of this Article shall comply with the applicable policies, plans and roadmaps set forth by the Prime Minister.

4. The Minister of Construction shall formulate standards for criteria and processes for the evaluation and certification of Energy Efficiency Building, Resource Efficiency Building and Green Building.

Article 8. Provisions on the application of international standards, regional standards and foreign standards (hereinafter referred to as foreign standards); basic standards; new materials and technologies in construction activities

1. The selection and application of foreign standards and basic standards must comply with the provisions of the Construction Law and other relevant law provisions.

2. In case of application of foreign standards:

a) The construction design notes or technical instructions (if any) shall contain the assessment of compatibility, uniformity and compliance with national technical regulations;

b) Foreign standards that are widely recognized and applied shall be preferred.

3. In case of application of basic standards:

a) When applying basic standards, there must be notes about the compliance with national technical regulations and the compatibility and consistency with relevant standards;

b) The announcement of the basic standards must strictly comply with the regulations and process specified in other relevant laws.

4. The use of new materials and technologies for the first time must comply with national technical regulations and relevant standards; ensure feasibility, sustainability, safety and efficiency.

Chapter II

PREPARATION, APPRAISAL, APPROVAL OF PROJECTS, MANAGEMENT OF CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS

Section 1. Preparation, appraisal and approval of construction project

Article 9. Formulation of pre-feasibility study report

1. The formulation of pre-feasibility study reports for decision or approval of construction investment policy shall comply with Clause 2, Article 52 of the Construction Law 2014, amended in Clause 10, Article 1 of Law No. 62/2020/QH14.

2. The preliminary design plan of the pre-feasibility study report is shown on the notes and drawings, including the following contents:

a) Preliminary drawings include: diagram of the construction site of project; preliminary master plan; drawings showing preliminary design solution of main works;

b) Notes of size and nature of the project; land plot existing conditions and boundaries; notes of conformity with the planning (if any), connection with surrounding traffic and infrastructure; notes of preliminary design solution;

c) Preliminary drawings and notes of technology lines and technology equipment (if any).

3. The preliminary total investment of the pre-feasibility study report shall comply with the Government’s regulations on construction cost management.

4. Contents of the pre-feasibility study report are specified in Article 53 of the Construction Law 2014, amended in Clause 11, Article 1 of Law No. 62/2020/QH14, in which, as required in a specific project, the notes of the pre-feasibility study report shall contain:

a) The eligibility of the project investor in accordance with relevant laws (if any), in case the investment policy and investor is approved concurrently;

b) Estimated area of ​​land for growing rice, protection forest land, special-use forest land to be converted to the type of land with other purpose of use to execute the construction project (if any);

c) The initiation of the project meeting the urban development objectives and orientations, and local residence development programs and plans in each period (if any), for an urban or residential area project; preliminary structure of residence products and the reserve of land for social residence development; a preliminary plan on construction and management of urban infrastructure in the project and connection with infrastructure outside the project’s scope, for an urban area project.

Article 10. Appraisal of pre-feasibility study report

1. The appraisal of pre-feasibility study report in the application for the approval of investment policy shall comply with the provisions of the Law on Investment; the appraisal of pre-feasibility study report with regard to public investment project, PPP project is done in accordance with the law on public investment, the law on public-private partnership investment.

2. After the investment policy of a project is decided or approved by a competent authority under the provisions of Clause 1 of this Article, the investor or the agency assigned to perform pre-construction tasks shall complete the pre-feasibility study report as a basis for executing next steps in accordance with relevant laws.

Article 11. Content of feasibility study report

1. The content of pre-feasibility study report shall comply with Article 54 of the Construction Law 2014, amended in Clause 12, Article 1 of Law No. 62/2020/QH14.

2. For residence or urban area construction projects areas, a feasibility study report must clearly state the following contents:

a) The conformity of the project with the approved local residence development program/plan (if any);

b) Gross floor area of residence; rate and number of types of residence (semi-detached villas, apartments) and the compatibility of the number of residence types with approved population indicators;

c) Area of ​​land reserved for construction of social housing in accordance with regulations of law on housing;

d) Business plan for residence products and other products of the project;

dd) Conformity with the approved urban development orientation and urban development program (if any); plan to build and complete technical infrastructure works before operation of the residence (if any), social infrastructure works and other works in the project; plan and list of areas or amenities to be handed over in case of handover to the State;

e) Investment phasing plan to ensure consistency for projects having many construction works initiated for a long time that require investment phases;

g) For no-residence urban areas, the provisions of Points a, b, c and d of this Clause are not required.

Article 12. Appraisal of feasibility study report, economic – technical report by the investment-decision maker

1. The appraisal of feasibility study report of projects of national importance funded by public investment capital is done in accordance with the law on public investment.

2. The Appraisal Council or the unit assigned to appraise PPP projects shall appraise the feasibility study report of a PPP project in accordance with the law on public private partnership investment, and synthesize the appraisal result by the construction authorities according to the provisions of this Decree and submit them to the competent authority for approval of the project.

3. For projects not falling under the cases specified in Clauses 1 and 2 of this Article, the investment-decision maker shall assign the an affiliated specialized agency, or an organization/individuals with expertise suitable to the nature and contents of the project, if such an affiliated specialized agency is not available, to appraise the feasibility study report or economic – technical report. The investment-decision maker may assign a construction authority to act as an appraising agency in case there is an affiliated construction authority.

4. The appraisal applicant shall submit an application for appraisal of feasibility study report, economic – technical report to the appraising agency in accordance with the provisions of Clause 3 of this Article.

5. At the specific request of each project, the investor or the agency assigned to make preparation in pre-construction phase must carry out relevant procedures and fulfill requirements and submit to the appraising agency the following, as a basis for appraisal of the feasibility study report:

a) Agreements on power supply, water supply, wastewater drainage, traffic connection, other written agreements on infrastructure connection (if any);

b) A written approval for the height of the project according to the Government’s regulations on the management of the height of aerial obstacles and the airspace control and air defense system in Vietnam (if any);

c) Appraisal result of a project for preservation and restoration of historical-cultural relics, scenic beauties in accordance with the law on cultural heritage;

d) An appraisal or opinions on fire safety solutions in accordance with the law on fire safety;

dd) Result of environmental impact assessment in accordance with the law on environmental protection;

e) Notification of feasibility study report appraisal result by the construction authority;

g) Results of other procedures as prescribed by relevant law.

6. The appraising agency shall appraise the matters according to the provisions of Article 57 of the Construction Law 2014, amended in Clause 14, Article 1 of the Law No. 62/2020/QH14, in specific:

a) The appraising agency shall inspect implementation of relevant legal requirements as prescribed in Clause 5 of this Article;

b) For projects using technologies restricted from transfer or adversely affecting the environment using technology, the appraising agency shall send the application to the competent agency for technology-related consultation response or appraisal in accordance with the law on technology transfer, Articles 16 and 17 of this Decree;

c) The total investment of the project shall be determined in accordance with the Government’s regulations on construction cost management.

7. The appraising agency shall summarize the appraisal result of the construction authority; opinions of agencies in charge of relevant fields (if any) and then send them to investment-decision maker for approval of the project and/or decision of construction investment.

Article 13. Appraisal of feasibility study report by the construction authority

The feasibility study report appraisal is carried out for the entire project, each component project, each construction work or a number of construction works according to the execution phase, investment phase of the project but it must ensure consistency between the appraisal results and suit the project schedule in the investment policy decision or approval. Except for projects of national importance funded by public investment capital, projects investment policy of which is decided by the National Assembly in accordance with the law on public private partnership investment, the power to appraise the feasibility study report by the construction authority is prescribed as follows:

1. For construction works under projects funded by public investment capital, the construction authorities shall appraise the projects under specialized management according to the provisions of Article 109 of this Decree, in specific:

a) The construction authority under the Ministry in charge of field-based construction works shall appraise projects assigned by the Prime Minister; group A project; group B projects with the investment decisions made by the heads of central agencies of political organizations, the Supreme People’s Procuracy, the Supreme People’s Court, State Audit, the President’s Office, Office of the National Assembly, ministries, ministerial-level agencies, Governmental organizations, central agencies of Vietnamese Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations (hereinafter referred to as central agencies) or other individuals authorized or delegated by the former people; projects located in 2 provinces or more; projects of group C under the specialized management, with investment decisions made by the Ministry in charge of field-based construction works (to which the construction authority is affiliated) or other agencies/individuals authorized or delegated by the Ministry in charge of field-based construction works; except for works specified at Point c of this Clause;

b) A construction authority affiliated to provincial-level People’s Committee shall appraise works under projects in the administrative area of ​​the province, except for projects specified at Point a of this Clause and projects requiring economic-technical reports;

c) A construction authority affiliated to the People’s Committee of Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City shall appraise projects with the investment decision made by the President of the People’s Committee of City or an individual authorized or delegated by the President.

2. For construction projects funded by public investment capital, construction authorities shall appraise projects of group B and higher, projects with great impact on community safety and interests, under specialized management according to the provisions of Article 109 of this Decree, in specific:

a) The construction authority under the Ministry in charge of field-based construction works shall appraise projects with investment policies approved by the National Assembly or the Prime Minister; group A projects; group B projects with the investment decisions made by Ministers, heads of central agencies, heads of economic groups or state-owned general companies established under decision of the Prime Minister (hereinafter referred to as economic groups, state-owned general companies) or other individuals authorized or delegated by the former people; projects with works of special class, class I; projects located in 2 provinces or more; projects of group C under the specialized management, with investment decisions made by the Ministry in charge of field-based construction works (to which the construction authority is affiliated) or other agencies/individuals authorized or delegated by the Ministry in charge of field-based construction works; except for works specified at Point c of this Clause;

b) A construction authority affiliated to provincial-level People’s Committee shall appraise projects in the administrative area of ​​the province, except for projects specified at Point a of this Clause;

c) A construction authority affiliated to the People’s Committee of Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City shall appraise projects with the investment decision made by the President of the People’s Committee of City or an individual authorized or delegated by the President.

3. For PPP projects, the construction authorities shall appraise the projects under specialized management according to the provisions of Article 109 of this Decree, in specific:

a) The construction authority under the Ministry in charge of field-based construction works shall appraise projects with project policy decided by the Prime Minister; projects approved by the heads of central agencies or other agencies in accordance with law on public-private partnership investment or other individuals authorized or delegated by the former people; projects with works of special class, class I; projects located in 2 provinces or more;

b) A construction authority affiliated to provincial-level People’s Committee shall appraise PPP projects in the administrative area of​​the province, except for projects specified at Point a of this Clause.

4. For construction projects financed by other funds, construction authorities shall appraise large scale projects as prescribed in clause 8 Article 3 hereof, projects with great impact on community safety and interests, under specialized management according to the provisions of Article 109 of this Decree, in specific:

a) The construction authorities under Ministries in charge of field-based construction works shall appraise projects with investment policies approved by the National Assembly or the Prime Minister; group A projects; projects with works of special class, class I; projects located in 2 provinces or more;

b) A construction authority affiliated to provincial-level People’s Committee shall appraise projects in the administrative area of ​​the province, except for projects specified at Point a of this Clause.

5. For a mixed project consisting of varied types of works, the appraisal competence of the construction authority is determined according to the specialized management specified in Article 109 of this Decree in conformity with the functions of the main works of a project or main works of highest class in case the project has many main works.

Article 14. Application for appraisal of feasibility study report by the construction authority

1. The applicant shall submit 1 set of application for appraisal to the construction authority. The application for appraisal shall be submitted in person or by post.

2. The application for appraisal shall ensure the legality and conformity with the matters seeking appraisal. The application for appraisal shall be considered valid when it has full contents specified in clause 3 hereof, is made in proper format, primarily written in Vietnamese and certificated by the applicant. The part of the architectural design documents in the construction design documents (if any) should comply with the provisions of the law on architecture.

3. An application for appraisal of feasibility study report includes: Application form for appraisal using the form No. 01 of Appendix I hereto, feasibility study report and legal documents attached, in specific:

a) Investment policy document as per law on investment, public investment, public-private partnerships investment;

b) Decision on selection of architectural design plan through the examination according to the regulations and the selected design plan enclosed (if required);

c) The approval document/decision and enclosed drawings (if any) of one of the following planning types: Construction detailed planning approved by a competent authority; plannings of other specialized fields in accordance with the planning law; route plan, site location approved by a competent authority for works built by routes; construction zoning planning in case no construction detailed planning is required;

d) Written opinions on fire safety solutions of the basic design; written results of environmental impact assessment in accordance with the law on environmental protection (if required under the law on fire safety, and environmental protection);

Procedures for fire safety and environmental protection shall be completed in parallel, no relevant document is required at the time of submission of the appraisal application, but the completion of fire safety and environmental protection procedures must be sent to the construction authority before the deadline for notification of appraisal result. In case the investor requests to seek opinions on fire safety solutions of the basic design following the interlinked single-window system when appraising the feasibility study report at the construction authority, the investor shall submit an additional set of documents in accordance with the law on fire safety;

dd) Agreement and certification of technical infrastructure connection of the project; a written approval for the height of the work according to the Government’s regulations on the management of the height of aerial obstacles and the airspace control and air defense system in Vietnam (in case the project is not in the area or subject to request for consultation on the work elevation management surface at the stage of construction planning approval) (if any);

e) Other relevant legal documents (if any);

g) Approved construction survey documents; notes to feasibility study report; basic design or other designs according to international practice for the preparation of feasibility study report (including drawings and notes); list of standards mainly applied to the project;

d) List of contractors, together with construction eligibility certificate codes of the survey contractor, construction design contractor, assessment contractor (if any); construction practice certificate codes of the titles of construction survey president, design or investment estimate president, chairperson; assessment president, chairperson;

i) For projects funded by public investment capital or state capital other than public investment capital that require consideration of total investment, in addition to the contents specified above, the application submitted for appraisal must contain the following details: total investment; relevant information and data on prices and norms to determine total investment; quotes, valuation results (if any).

Article 15. Process of appraisal of feasibility study report by the construction authority

1. The construction authority shall receive and verify if the application for appraisal is complete and valid as prescribed in Article 14 of this Decree. Within 05 working days from the day on which the application is received, the construction authority shall:

a) Request the applicant in writing for supplemental documents (where necessary, such a request is only made once during the appraisal process). In a case where consultation from relevant agencies is needed, the appraising agency shall request the applicant for supplemental documents on consultation matters;

b) Return of appraisal application in case specified in clause 2 hereof;

c) Send a request to the fire safety authority to seek consultation on fire safety solution of the basic design upon request of the investor.

2. The construction authority shall reject the following applications for appraisal:

a) The application falls beyond the competence of appraisal of the construction authority or the application is not submitted by a duly authorized applicant as prescribed in this Decree;

b) The application is not required to be appraised at the construction authority;

c) The application does not ensure the legality or validity as required in this Decree;

d) For applications received by post as prescribed in points a, b and c hereof, the construction authority shall provide the applicants with explanation in case of rejection.

3. Within 20 days after receiving the above request of the construction authority, if the applicant fails to supplement the documents required, the appraising agency shall suspend the appraisal and the applicant shall re-submit an appraisal application upon further request.

4. The construction authority shall carry out the appraisal following the interlinked single-window system as prescribed in clause 2 Article 58 of the Construction Law 2014, amended in clause 15 Article 1 of the Law No. 62/2020/QH14; ensure the time required in Clause, Article 59 of the Law on Construction 2014, amended in Clause 16, Article 1 of Law No. 62/2020/QH14.

5. During the appraisal process, the construction authority has the right to suspend the appraisal (not more than one time) and promptly notify the appraisal applicant of errors and misstatements in the application which leads to ineligibility to make an appraisal conclusion. In case the above-mentioned errors and misstatements are not corrected within 20 days, the construction authority shall stop the appraisal, and the appraisal applicant shall re-submit an application for appraisal upon request.

6. The appraisal result must contain the evaluation and conclusion on satisfaction of requirements for each appraisal matter as prescribed in clause 2 Article 58 of the Construction Law 2014, amended in Clause 15, Article 1. of Law No. 62/2020/QH14; requirements for the investment-decision maker, investor, and the competent agency for the PPP project. The appraisal results are sent concurrently to the local construction management authorities for management.

The form of a written notice of the feasibility study report appraisal result is specified in Form No. 02, Appendix I to this Decree.

7. The stamping and archival of appraisal applications at the construction authorities are done as follows: <0}

a) Application submitted for appraisal after modification and completion shall be inspected by a construction authority, stamped to certify the appraised matters on relevant drawings of 01 set of construction design documents. Specimen of appraisal seal is specified in form No. 08 of Appendix I hereto. The drawings bearing the appraisal seal shall be returned to the appraisal applicant; the appraisal applicant is responsible for keeping the drawings according to the law on archive and promptly responding to the request of the construction authority when it is necessary to consider these drawings. The appraisal applicant is responsible for submitting the photocopy (.PDF format) of the feasibility study report, the construction design with the appraisal seal to the construction authority;

b) At the end of the appraisal, the construction authority is responsible for archiving and preserving a number of documents, including: application for appraisal; conclusions of organizations and individuals participating in the appraisal; written consultation from relevant agencies and organizations; notice of appraisal results; copies of documents bearing the appraisal seal as prescribed at Point a of this Clause.

8. In the appraisal process, in necessary cases, the construction authority may request the appraisal applicant to select qualified organizations or individuals to verify necessary information related to the appraisal as follows:

a) The selection of organizations, individuals to assess construction design is done in the form of direct contracting and under the simplified direct contracting process prescribed in the law on procurement;

b) The assessment consulting organization shall be legally and financially independent from the investor and construction design consulting contractors;

c) The drawings which have been assessed must bear a seal as prescribed in Form No. 08 of Appendix I hereto.

Article 16. Competence for technology-related consultation response or appraisal for construction projects using technologies restricted from transfer or construction projects using technologies with great impact on the environment under the Law on Technology Transfer

1. Projects funded by public investment capital:

a) The State Appraisal Council shall appraise technologies of projects of national importance;

b) Line ministries shall appraise technologies of projects with investment policy decisions made by the Prime Minister, heads of central agencies, heads of state agencies and public sector entities under management of ministries, central agencies;

c) The specialized agency affiliated to the People’s Committee of the province to advise the People’s Committee of the province on the state management of a sector or field (hereinafter referred to as a specialized agency of the People’s Committee of the province) shall appraise technologies of projects with investment policy decisions made by the People’s Council, President of People’s Committee, head of state agency or public sector entity under local management.

2. Projects funded by state capital other than public investment capital:

a) Line ministries shall take charge and coordinate with the Ministry of Science and Technology to give technology-related consultation responses and relevant agencies and organizations on projects with investment policy approved by the National Assembly or the Prime Minister.; projects of group A and group B under the investment decision of the heads of central agencies, economic groups or corporations; project with great impact on the safety and benefits of the community of special and level I class; construction projects located in 02 provinces or more; projects decided by ministries;

b) The specialized agency affiliated to the People’s Committee of the province shall take charge and cooperate with the specialized science and technology agencies in giving technology-related consultation responses about the remaining projects not falling into the case specified at Point a of this Clause.

3. Regarding construction projects funded by other capital sources:

a) Line ministries shall take charge and coordinate with the Ministry of Science and Technology to give technology-related consultation reposes on projects with investment policy approved by the National Assembly or the Prime Minister.; projects of group A; projects with great impact on the safety and benefits of the community of special and level I class; construction projects located in 02 provinces or more;

b) The specialized agency affiliated to the People’s Committee of the province shall take charge and cooperate with the specialized science and technology agencies in giving technology-related consultation reposes about the remaining project not falling into the case specified at Point a of this Clause.

4. For PPP projects, the Appraisal Council or the unit assigned to appraise PPP projects shall organize an appraisal of the technology when evaluating the feasibility study report according to the provisions of the law on public-private partnership investment.

Article 17. Procedures for technology-related consultation response or appraisal for construction projects using technologies restricted from transfer or construction projects using technologies with great impact on the environment

1. For projects of national importance funded by public investment capital, the process of technology appraisal of the State Appraisal Council shall comply with the provisions of the law on public investment.

2. For construction projects other than those specified in Clause 1 of this Article:

a) Within 05 working days from the day on which the complete project application is received, the appraising agency shall send a written request for appraisal or consultation on technology together with the feasibility study report and legal documents related to agencies competent to appraise or give technology-related consultation reposes. The contents of a feasibility study report must contain the technology explanation as prescribed in Clause 2, Article 16 of the Law on Technology Transfer 2017;

b) The competent agency shall give technology-related consultation response or appraisal as prescribed in Clause 2 Article 19 and Article 20 of the Law on Technology Transfer 2017;

c) The period of technology-related consultation response or appraisal is 30 days for projects approved by the National Assembly, 20 days for projects of group A, 15 days for projects of group B, 10 days for group C projects and projects that only require economic – technical reports from the date of receipt of complete applications; in cases where it is necessary to extend the time for give a technology-related consultation response, the extended time must not exceed the time limit prescribed for each type of project mentioned above. The foregoing agency shall notify the appraising agency of the extension in writing and clearly stating the reason;

d) If the said agency is also the appraising agency of the project, the time limit for technology-related consultation response or appraisal shall be included within the time limit for appraisal of the feasibility study report.

Article 18. Approval for project and construction decision

1. The appraising agency shall have to consolidate the appraisal results and submit it to the investment-decision maker for approval of the project or construction decision. The competence to decide construction investment shall comply with Article 60 of the Construction Law 2014, amended in Clause 17, Article 1 of Law No. 62/2020/QH14.

2. The approval of a PPP project by the competent agency shall comply with the provisions of law on public private partnership investment.

3. The decision on construction investment of the investment-decision maker is shown in the decision on approval for the construction project, including the following main contents:

a) Project name;

b) Investment-decision maker; investor;

c) Construction objectives and scale;

d) Consulting organization to prepare feasibility study report (economic – technical report) on construction investment, organize construction survey (if any); basic design consulting organization;

dd) Location and area of land used;

e) Project group and type; type and class of main work(s); design life of main work(s);

g) Number of design steps, list of mainly selected standards;

h) Total investment; the value of the cost items in the total investment;

i) Time for performance of the project, investment phases (if any), term of the project (if any);

k) Sources of funds for investment and planned arrangement of capital according to the project schedule;

l) Forms of project management applied;

m) Requirements for resources, exploitation and use of natural resources (if any); compensation, support and resettlement plan (if any);

n) Order of construction investment for construction works involving state secrets (if any);

o) Other contents (if any).

4. The form of the decision on approval for the construction project funded by public investment capital or state capital other than public investment capital is specified in Form No. 03, Appendix I to this Decree.

Article 19. Adjustments to the construction project

1. Construction projects funded by public investment capital or state capital other than public investment capital shall be adjusted according to the cases specified in Clause 1, Article 61 of the Construction Law 2014, as amended in Clauses 18 and 64, Article 1 of Law No. 62/2020/QH14. The adjustment to PPP projects is done in accordance with the law on public private partnership investment. Adjustments to projects using other funds comply with Clauses 3 and 4, Article 61 of the Construction Law 2014.

2. For adjusted construction projects, the construction authority shall appraise modified feasibility study reports in the following cases:

a) Adjustment to the project that has a change in the purpose, scale of land use, or scale of construction investment;

b) When there is any change in the planning and architecture items of the project in the approved detailed construction plannings, other specialized technical plannings or investment policy decision/approval;

c) When the adjustment leads to an increase of the total project investment for projects funded by public investment capital, projects funded by state capital other than public investment capital;

d) When there is a change to the solution of arrangement of major functions in the works, which leads to the need to re-evaluate the design solutions to ensure construction safety, fire safety, and environmental protection, and the project’s compliance with technical regulations.

3. Competence and procedures for appraisal of adjusted feasibility study reports of construction authorities comply with Articles 13, 14 and 15 of this Decree.

In case the project adjustment changes the project group or the construction work class of the project, the competence to appraise the adjusted feasibility study report is determined according to the competence of the project group or work class after adjustment.

4. Appraisal of adjusted feasibility study reports by the construction authority, appraisal and approval of adjusted construction projects by the investment-decision maker or competent agency for PPP projects include the adjusted content or all of the project’s contents after adjustment.

Section 2. MANAGEMENT OF CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS

Article 20. Selection of forms of construction project management

1. For a project funded by public investment capital, the investment-decision maker shall select the project management form specified in Clause 2, Article 62 of the Construction Law 2014, amended in Clause 19, Article 1. Law No. 62/2020/QH14, in specific:

a) The investment-decision maker decides to apply the form of field-based PMB, area-based PMB on the basis of the number and progress of projects in the same field, in the same route, in an administrative area or at the request of the fund granting body;

b) In case the form of project management under Point a of this Clause is not applied, the investment-decision maker shall decide to apply the form of single-project PMB or the investor shall manage the project by itself or engage a project management consultant to do it.

2. For a project funded by state capital other than public investment capital or other funds, the investment-decision maker shall select the project management form specified in Clause 1, Article 62 of the Construction Law 2014, amended in Clause 19, Article 1. Law No. 62/2020/QH14, in accordance with management requirements and project specific conditions.

3. With regard to projects funded by ODA or concessional loans granted by foreign donors, organizations in charge of CPM shall comply with regulations of international agreements on ODA or agreements with donors. If the international agreements on ODA or agreements with donors do not promulgate organizations in charge of CPM, it shall comply with this Decree.

4. For PPP projects, the project management form shall comply with the provisions at Points a, b, c and d, Clause 1, Article 62 of the Construction Law 2014, amended in Clause 19 of Article. 1 of Law No. 62/2020/QH14 in accordance with management requirements, project specific conditions and arrangements in the project contract.

Article 21. Organization and operation of field-based PMB or area-based PMB

1. The competent person establishing field-based PMB or area-based PMB shall decide number, functions, tasks, organizational structure and operation of field-based PMBs or area-based PMBs manage the project in accordance with management requirements and project specific conditions.

2. Competence to establish and organize operation of the field-based PMB or the area-based PMB:

a) Heads of central agencies, Presidents of People’s Committees of provinces and districts shall set up field-based PMBs and area-based PMBs to act as investors of a number of projects and, at the same time, manage multiple projects funded by public investment capital under their management.

In case the General Director is authorized or designated by the Minister to decide construction projects in the same field, route or in the same administrative area, depending on the number and scale of projects to be assigned or designated, the Minister may assign the General Director to establish field-based PMBs and area-based PMBs to manage these projects;

b) For projects funded by state capital other than public investment capital or other funds, the competent representatives of agencies, organizations or enterprises shall establish field-based PMBs, area-based PMBs according to management requirements and project specific conditions;

c) Field-based PMBs and area-based PMBs established by competent agencies as prescribed at Point a of this Clause are public sector entities. The organizational structure of a field-based PMB or area-based PMB complies with Clause 5 of this Article.

3. The number of field-based PMBs and area-based PMBs to be established shall be considered by the establishment-decision maker, in specific:

a) For ministries, central agencies: Field-based PMBs or area-based PMBs shall be established suitable for the field of their management or requirements for infrastructure at administrative divisions. The organization of field-based PMBs or area-based PMBs affiliated to the Ministry of National Defense or the Ministry of Public Security shall be decided by their Ministers that suitable for particular requirements of field management;

b) For provincial level: The President of the People’s Committee of province shall decide to establish field-based PMBs, area-based PMBs to manage construction projects according to their assigned fields as classified in Appendix IX hereto or according to the construction investment area;

c) For district level: The President of the People’s Committee of district shall establish field-based PMBs and area-based PMBs to manage construction projects with the investment decision made by the People’s Committee of district and construction projects with the investment decision made by the People’s Committee of commune upon request.

4. The field-based PMB or the area-based PMB may provide project management consultancy for other projects or perform some consultancy work provided that it ensures the fulfillment of the assigned project management and qualified for consultancy of such projects.

5. Field-based PMBs or area-based PMBs shall be organized in conformity with their tasks, number and scope of their projects and consist of:

a) The Board of Directors, project managers and affiliated units that help the field-based PMB or the area-based PMB to act as the investor and manage the project;

b) The project manager of the field-based PMB or the area-based PMB must be qualified as prescribed in Article 73 of this Decree; persons in charge of specialized fields must obtain practice certificates of construction supervision, construction valuation with the rank appropriate to the project group, class of works and jobs undertaken.

6. The operation regulation of the field-based PMB or the area-based PMB shall be approved by the establishment-decision maker, which clarifies rights and obligations of departments acting as the investor and departments managing the project in accordance with law on construction and relevant law provisions.

Article 22. Single-project PMB

1. For construction projects not falling into the cases specified at Point a, Clause 1, Article 20 of this Decree or projects of special nature, according to the decision on approval for construction project, the investor shall establish a single-project PMB to manage one or certain construction projects under its management.

2. The single-project PMB is an organization affiliated to the investor which uses its own seal and open its account at a State Treasury and a commercial bank as prescribed; exercise rights and fulfill obligations of the investor; take legal liability and be held accountable to the investment-decision maker for its operation.

3. The project manager of the single-project PMB must be qualified as prescribed in Article 73 of this Decree; persons in charge of specialized fields must obtain practice certificates of construction supervision, construction valuation with the rank appropriate to the project group, class of works and jobs undertaken.

4. The investor shall define the functions, tasks, entitlements and organizational structure of the single-project PMB as prescribed in Clause 2 Article 64 of the Law on Construction dated 2014.

5. The single-project PMB as provided for in this Article dissolves itself after the completion of the project management.

Article 23. The investor managing a project by their own

1. The investor shall use its legal status and professional apparatuses with all conditions and capacities to manage a construction project. In case of ineligibility for the management, the investor may hire organizations or individuals that are qualified under this Decree to engage in the project management.

2. The project manager must fully meet the eligibility specified in Article 73 of this Decree, except for the management of a construction project requiring an economic-technical report.

3. Individuals engaged in the project management shall work on a full-time or part-time basis subject to the investor’s decision and must have professional expertise suitable to the requirements of the tasks taken.

Article 24. Engaging construction project management consultancies

1. The construction project management consultancy may partially or totally construction project management tasks according to the agreement concluded with the investor.

2. The selected construction project management consultancy must send notifications of rights and obligations of the representative and the steering apparatus of project to the investor and relevant contractors.

3. The investor must observe the execution of construction project management consultancy contract, deal with issues arising between the construction project management consultancy, contractors and local governments during the project process.

4. The selection of the construction project management consultancy contractor must comply with the provisions of the law on procurement for the projects governed by the law on procurement.

Chapter III

SURVEY, FORMULATION, APPROVAL FOR CONSTRUCTION DESIGN

Section 1. CONSTRUCTION SURVEY

Article 25. Procedures for construction survey

1. Establish and approve the construction survey objectives.

2. Establish and approve the technical construction survey plan.

3. Carry out construction survey.

4. Inspect, grant acceptance and approve the technical construction survey result.

Article 26. Construction survey objectives

1. The plan on construction survey objectives is established for the survey activities, supporting the establishment of construction investment project, construction engineering plan, engineering plan on repair, renovation and expansion of works or supporting other survey activities relating to the construction.

2. The construction survey objectives shall be established by the designing contractor. In case the designing contractor has not been chosen or in other survey circumstances, the investment-decision maker or the investor or authority having competence to establish a PPP project may hire a qualified organization/individual to establish the plan on construction survey objectives.

3. The construction survey objectives shall be designated to the surveying contractor by the investor through the conclusion of an agreement on construction survey or designated to the designing contractor if the designing contractor performs both construction survey and construction design.

4. The plan on construction survey objectives shall include:

a) Targets of construction survey;

b) Scope of construction survey;

c) Requirements for application of technical regulations and standards on construction survey;

d) Estimate of activities for construction survey and cost estimate for construction survey activities (if any);

dd) Duration of construction survey.

5. The plan on construction survey objectives shall be modified if:

a) There are unusual factors that likely to affect the planned solution during the construction survey or there is change in engineering objectives that needs supplement in construction survey;

b) During the engineering planning process, the designing contractor discovers that the construction survey objectives and/or the construction survey report do not satisfy the engineering plan requirements;

c) During the construction process, a number of geological factors are determined unusual from the survey objectives approved by the investor or engineering contract that may affect the quality of construction and/or the measures for construction.

6. When establishing the survey, the designing contractor shall base on the survey objectives and the survey results of the previous engineering plan step and the result of relevant survey that is completed before (if any).

Article 27. Technical construction survey plan

1. The surveying contractor shall establish the technical construction survey plan according to the construction survey objectives.

2. The technical construction survey plan shall include:

a) Basis for establishing technical construction survey plan;

b) Specification of contents and loads construction survey task;

c) Measures, equipment and laboratories used for construction survey activities;

d) Technical regulations and standards on construction survey;

dd) Organization carrying the survey and measures for quality control for construction surveying contractor;

e) Surveying process;

g) Measures for ensuring the safety of human, equipment, technical infrastructure constructions and other constructions in the surveyed area; measures for environmental protection and preservation of landscape in the surveyed area and restoration of the site after the survey.

3. The investor is in charge of checking and engaging a consulting unit qualified for appraising the technical construction survey plan and approving the technical construction survey plan as stated in the agreement.

Article 28. Quality control in construction survey activities

1. The surveying contractor shall arrange sufficiently the eligible people to conduct the surveys according to the regulation in the construction contract; assign an eligible person to be the director of the survey and apply the measures for quality control specified in the technical construction survey plan.

2. Subject to the scope and type of survey, the investor shall, on its own or engage a qualified organization or individual to, supervise the construction survey as follows:

a) Inspect the actual proficiency of the construction surveying contractor, including human resources, surveying equipment used on the site and in laboratory (if any) in comparison with the approved technical construction survey plan and the regulations in the construction contract;

b) Conduct supervision and inspection over the conduction of construction survey, including: location, survey load, surveying process, retention of surveying data and testing sample; inspection over the experiment in laboratory and on-site; inspect the ensuring of labor safety and environmental safety during the survey.

3. The investor is entitled to suspend the survey if the contractor is determined to not comply with the approve survey project or the regulation in the construction contract.

Article 29. Content of construction survey report

1. Basis for construction survey

2. Procedures and methods for construction survey.

3. The generality of location and natural conditions of the construction survey site, characteristics and scope of the construction.

4. Load of completed construction surveys.

5. Experimented and analyzed result and data from construction survey.

6. The opinions, notes and/or suggestions (if any).

7. Conclusions and proposed solutions.

8. Appendixes.

Article 30. Approval for the technical construction survey result

1. The investor shall approve the construction survey report in a separate document or in the construction survey report. The investor may require the designing contractor or engage a qualified consulting unit to checking the construction survey report before approval.

2. The surveying contractors shall be responsible for the quality of their construction survey. The approval for construction survey report of the investor does not cause change or reduce the responsibilities for the quality of construction survey carried out by the surveying contractor.

3. The construction survey report is a part of the construction completion dossier and shall be kept as prescribed.

Section 2. CONSTRUCTION DESIGN

Article 31. Construction design phases

1. Subject to scope and nature of a project, the number of construction design phases shall be determined in the decision on approval for construction project.

2. Details of each phase shall comply with regulation of law on construction and conform to the construction design purposes and objectives set out for such phase.

3. If there are at least 2 steps in the construction design of a building work, the content and specifications of two consecutive steps of design must be conformable. In the process of preparing of construction design following the basic design, the investor is allowed to decide the design adjustment to meet efficiency and usage requirements without changing the approved purposes, functions, scope, planning – architecture items in detailed construction planning or investment policy decision/approval.

4. The investor shall prepare construction design, except for construction design steps assigned to the construction contractor under the contract.

5. The investor shall appraise and control construction designs according to the provisions of Clause 1, Article 82 of the Law on Construction 2014, amended in Clause 24, Article 1 of Law No. 62/2020/QH14.

Article 32. Construction design objectives

1. The investor or eligible organizations/individuals hired by the investor shall establish the construction design objectives.

2. The construction design objectives shall be conformable with the investment policy and prevail as a basis for establishing construction project and construction design. The investor may hire a consulting organization or a consulting expert to give consultancy or inspect the design objectives if necessary.

3. The construction design objectives shall include the following main contents:

a) Basis for establishing the construction design objectives;

b) Purposes of construction;

c) Location of construction;

d) Requirements on planning, landscape and architecture of the works;

dd) Requirements on scale and time limit for the use of works, functions and other technical requirement on the works.

4. The construction design objectives shall be modified according to the actual conditions to ensure the effectiveness of the construction investment project.

Article 33. Format of construction design documents

1. Format of construction design documents is governed as follows:

a) Design documents shall be established for particular works, including: description of the design plan, spreadsheets, drawings, relevant construction survey documents, construction estimate, technical instructions and construction maintenance process (if any);

b) Size, scale and title block of the drawing shall satisfy the applicable criteria for construction. The title block of each drawing shall include names and signatures of the direct designer, the design inspector, the design president, and the design chairperson. The legal representative of the design contractor shall certify and bear its seal if the design contractor is an organization;

c) The description, drawing and estimate shall be bound together, shall be enumerated with number and symbol for long-term searching and retention;

d) The Minister of Construction shall regulate national standards for format and contents of design documents equivalent to every construction design step.

2. Technical instructions:

a) Technical instructions are the basis for the supervision, construction and acceptance of the construction works. Technical instructions shall be established by the design contractor or the consulting contractor that are hired by the investor. The approved technical instructions are a part of invitation for construction bidding, the basis for management, supervision and acceptance for construction works;

The technical instructions shall conform with the technical standards, the criteria applied to the approved construction and the requirements of the construction engineering plan;

c) The investor shall require the design contractor or other consulting contractor to make separate technical instructions for construction works of special class, class I and class II. For other construction works, technical instructions may be made separately or included in the construction design notes.

3. Design documents form a part of the as-built documents and shall be kept as prescribed by the Government on quality control and maintenance of construction works and archives regulations.

Article 34. Control for construction design plan

1. Design contractors shall take responsibility for quality of construction designs made by themselves; the inspection, appraisal of and approval for a construction design carried out by an individual, organization, the investor, investment-decision maker or a construction authority shall not substitute or diminish responsibility of the design contractor as to the said construction design.

2. If the design contractor acts as a general design contractor, it shall take charge of primary design works and be held accountable to performance of the contract with the Employer. The design subcontractor shall be held accountable for progress and quality to the general design contractor and to the law for their work taken.

3. In the course of design of construction works in a project of national importance, a project with large scale, complex engineering, the design contractor may request the investor to carry out certain simulation tests and inspections to check out the operation functions of the works to complete the construction design and ensure technical instructions and safety requirements.

4. After the design documents are appraised and approved as prescribed, the investor shall inspect the amount of works performed, the conformity as to format and quantity of the design documents with provisions of the construction contract and give a written notice of acceptance of the design documents to the design contractor if qualified.

Section 3. APPRAISAL AND APPROVAL OF CONSTRUCTION DESIGN FOLLOWING BASIC DESIGN

Article 35. Appraisal and approval of construction design following basic design

1. The investor or an specialized affiliate of the investment-decision maker (if the investment-decision maker is in charge of appraisal) shall carry out the appraisal as prescribed in Articles 82 and 83 of the Construction Law 2014, amended in clauses 24 and 25 Article 1 of the Law No. 62/2020/QH14.

2. The appraisal of the construction authority shall be carried out in accordance with Articles 36, 37 and 38 hereof.

3. In the course of the appraisal, the investor or specialized affiliate of the investment-decision maker or the construction authority may invite other specialists to join such appraisal.

4. The construction design assessment of construction works specified in clause 6 Article 82 of the Construction Law 2014, amended in clauses 24 and 25 Article 1 of the Law No. 62/2020/QH14 is follows:

a) During the assessment, if the assessment report has insufficient grounds to reach an assessment conclusion, the construction authority may request additional information to complete the assessment report;

b) The assessment consulting organization shall be legally and financially independent from the investor and construction design consulting contractors;

c) Contents of an assessment report are provided in form No. 05 of Appendix I hereto. The drawings which have been assessed must bear a seal as prescribed in Form No. 08 of Appendix I hereto.

5. The investor shall consolidate the appraisal result of the construction design following the basic design given by the construction authority and documents of relevant agencies to form the basis for approval of the design. The appraisal result and approval of the investor shall be demonstrated in a decision on approval for construction design as prescribed in Form No. 07 of Appendix I hereto.

6. The appraisal of the construction design following the basic design shall be performed with all the works, or each work of the project, or parts of works according to the construction stage at the request of the investor provided that the consistency of the contents and basis of calculation in the appraisal results are ensured.

Article 36. Appraisal of designs following basic design by construction authorities

1. For construction works under projects funded by public investment capital, construction authorities shall appraise construction design steps following basic design for construction works under specialized management according to the provisions of Article 109 of this Decree, in specific:

a) The construction authorities under Ministries in charge of field-based construction works shall appraise the works belonging to the following projects: projects assigned by the Prime Minister; projects of national importance; group A projects; group B projects with investment decisions made by the heads of central agencies or other individuals authorized or delegated by the heads of central agencies; construction projects located in 02 provinces or more; projects of group C under the specialized management, with investment decisions made by the Ministry in charge of field-based construction works (to which the construction authority is affiliated) or other agencies/individuals authorized or delegated by the Ministry in charge of field-based construction works; except for the works specified at point c of this clause;

b) A construction authority affiliated to provincial-level People’s Committee shall appraise works under projects in the administrative area of ​​the province, except for works specified at Point a of this Clause;

c) A construction authority affiliated to the People’s Committee of Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City shall appraise works under a project with the investment decision made by the President of the People’s Committee of City or an individual authorized or delegated by the President.

2. For construction works under projects funded by public investment capital, construction authorities shall appraise construction design steps following basic design for construction works of group B and higher, works with great impact on community safety and benefits, under specialized management according to the provisions of Article 109 of this Decree, in specific:

a) The construction authorities under Ministries in charge of field-based construction works shall appraise the works belonging to the following projects: projects with investment policies approved by the National Assembly or the Prime Minister; group A projects; group B projects with the investment decisions made by Ministers, heads of central agencies, heads of economic groups or state-owned general companies or other individuals authorized or delegated by the former people; projects with works of special class, class I; projects located in 2 provinces or more; projects of group C under the specialized management, with investment decisions made by the Ministry in charge of field-based construction works (to which the construction authority is affiliated) or other agencies/individuals authorized or delegated by the Ministry in charge of field-based construction works; except for works specified at Point c of this Clause;

b) A construction authority affiliated to provincial-level People’s Committee shall appraise works under projects in the administrative area of ​​the province, except for works specified at Point a of this Clause;

c) A construction authority affiliated to the People’s Committee of Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City shall appraise works under a project with the investment decision made by the President of the People’s Committee of City or an individual authorized or delegated by the President.

3. For PPP projects, construction authorities shall appraise construction design steps following basic design for construction works under specialized management according to the provisions of Article 109 of this Decree, in specific:

a) The construction authorities under Ministries in charge of field-based construction works shall appraise the works belonging to the following projects: projects with investment policies approved by the National Assembly or the Prime Minister; projects with the investment decisions made by Ministers, heads of central agencies or other agencies as prescribed in law on public-private partnerships investment or other individuals authorized or delegated by the former people; projects with works of special class, class I; projects located in 2 provinces or more;

b) A construction authority affiliated to provincial-level People’s Committee shall appraise works under PPP projects in the administrative area of​​the province, except for works specified at Point a of this Clause.

4. For construction projects funded by other funds, the construction authorities shall only appraise construction works under the specialized management according to the provisions of Article 109 of this Decree, for works under the projects built in an area with no urban planning or functional construction planning or detailed construction planning for rural residential area, in specific:

a) A construction authority under Ministry in charge of field-based construction works shall appraise the works in projects with great impact on community safety and benefits, including: projects with works of special class, class I; projects located in two provinces or more;

A construction authority affiliated to the People’s Committees of province shall appraise the works in projects with great impact on community safety and benefits, except for the works in point a hereof.

5. For a mixed project consisting of varied types of works, the appraisal competence of the construction authority is determined according to the specialized management specified in Article 109 of this Decree in conformity with the functions of the main works of a project or main works of highest class in case the project has many main works.

If a project has many works of the same type with varied classes, the appraising agency must appraise the works with the highest class of the project.

6. Appraisal of the FEED design step for contractor selection in case of performance of an Engineering, Procurement, Construction contract (hereinafter referred to as engineering documents in EPC bidding) or another design step implemented in accordance with international practices specified at Points a and d, Clause 2, Article 82 of the Law on Construction in 2014, as amended and supplemented in Clause 24, Article 1 of Law No. 62/2020/QH14 of the construction authority is prescribed as follows:

a) The construction authority shall appraise the matters specified in Clauses 2 and 3, Article 83a, added in Clause 26, Article 1 of Law No. 62/2020/QH14 (hereinafter referred to as Article 83a of Construction Law) for construction design documents seeking appraisal that have full contents as prescribed in Article 80 of the Law on Construction 2014;

b) If the engineering documents in EPC bidding documents do not have adequate contents as prescribed in Article 80 of the Law on Construction 2014 as a basis for assessment of construction safety, fire safety, the construction authority shall appraise the contents specified in Clauses 2 and 3, except for the contents specified at Points c and dd, Clause 2, Article 83a of the Construction Law as the basis for the investor to appraise and approve the engineering documents in EPC bidding documents. And, in a notification of appraisal result, the construction authority shall require the investor to further submit engineering documents with full contents to appraise these contents as prescribed in Points c and dd, Clause 2, Article 83a of the Construction Law.

In a notification of supplemental appraisal result, the construction authority shall require the investor to send documents proving the eligibility of requirements for issuance of construction permit to the local construction authority enclosed with a notice of commencement for supervision as prescribed in Article 56 hereof for construction designs qualified for approval and eligible for exemption of construction permit as prescribed in Clause 2, Article 89 of the Law on Construction 2014, which is amended and supplemented in Clause 30, Article 1 of Law No. 62/2020/QH14.

Article 37. Application for appraisal of design following basic design to construction authorities

1. The applicant shall submit 1 set of application for appraisal to the construction authority. The application for appraisal shall be submitted in person or by post.

2. The application for appraisal shall ensure the legality and conformity with the matters seeking appraisal. The application for appraisal shall be considered valid when it has full contents specified in clause 3 hereof, is made in proper format, primarily written in Vietnamese and certificated by the applicant. The part of the architectural design documents in the construction design documents (if any) should comply with the provisions of the law on architecture.

3. An application for appraisal of construction design following basic design includes:

a) Application form for appraisal using the form No. 04 of Appendix I hereto;

b) The enclosed legal documents, including: a decision on approval for the construction project together with an approved feasibility study report; a notice of appraisal result of the construction authority and the basic design drawings enclosed with a certification stamp (if any); a report on the construction design assessment result of the assessment consulting contractor certified by the investor (if required); a document on evaluation and approval of fire safety design, result of environmental impact assessment in accordance with the law on environmental protection (if required) and other relevant documents;

Procedures for fire safety shall be completed in parallel, no fire safety document is required at the time of submission of the appraisal application, but the completion of fire safety procedures must be sent to the construction authority before the deadline for notification of appraisal result;

c) Construction survey documents approved by the investor; construction design documents of the construction design step seeking appraisal;

d) Construction eligibility certificate codes of the survey contractor, construction design contractor, assessment contractor; construction practice certificate codes of the titles of construction survey president, design president, chairperson; assessment president, chairperson; construction operating license of foreign contractor (if any);

dd) For a work funded by public investment capital, state capital other than public investment capital that requires appraisal of construction estimate, in addition to the requirements specified in point a, point b, point c and point d clause, the dossier must also have construction cost estimates; relevant information and data on relevant prices and norms to determine construction cost estimates; quotations, valuation results (if any).

Article 38. Process of appraisal of design following basic design at construction authorities

1. The construction authority shall receive and verify if the application for appraisal is complete and valid as prescribed in Article 37 of this Decree. Within 05 working days from the day on which the application is received, the construction authority shall:

a) Request the applicant in writing for supplemental documents (where necessary, such a request is only made once during the appraisal process). In a case where consultation from relevant agencies is needed, the appraising agency shall request the applicant for supplemental documents on consultation matters;

b) Return of appraisal application in case of rejection specified in clause 2 Article 15 hereof.

2. Within 20 days after receiving the above request of the construction authority, if the applicant fails to supplement the documents required, the appraising agency shall suspend the appraisal and the applicant shall re-submit an appraisal application upon further request.

3. The construction authority shall carry out the appraisal following the interlinked single-window system as prescribed in the Law No. 62/2020/QH14.

4. During the appraisal process, the construction authority has the right to suspend the appraisal (not more than one time) and promptly notify the appraisal applicant of errors and misstatements in the application which leads to ineligibility to make an appraisal conclusion. In case the above-mentioned errors and misstatements are not corrected within 20 days, the construction authority shall stop the appraisal, and the appraisal applicant shall re-submit an application for appraisal upon request.

5. The appraisal result must contain the evaluation and conclusion on satisfaction of requirements for each appraisal matter as prescribed in Article 83a of the Construction Law, requirements for the investment-decision maker, investor, and the competent agency for the PPP project. The appraisal result shall be sent to the applicant for consolidation and to the local construction authority for supervision.

For construction designs qualified for approval and exemption from construction permit according to Point g, Clause 2, Article 89 of the Construction Law 2014 , which is amended and supplemented in Clause 30, Article 1 of Law No. 62/2020/QH14, the appraisal result shall also require the investor to send documents proving the eligibility of requirements for issuance of construction permit to the local construction authority together with the commencement notice for monitoring and management as prescribed in Article 56 of this Decree.

The notification of appraisal result of construction design following basic design is specified in Form No.06, Appendix I to this Decree.

6. The stamping and archival of appraisal dossiers at the construction authorities comply with the provisions of Clause 7, Article 15 of this Decree.

7. Time limits for appraisal of construction design following basic design of the construction authority from the date on which the satisfactory dossier is received:

a) Within 40 days regarding class I and special class construction works;

b) Within 30 days regarding class II and class III construction works;

c) Within 20 days regarding remaining construction works.

Article 39. Appraisal for modification to construction design following basic design

1. The construction authority, according to their competence defined in Article 36 of this Decree, shall appraise the modification to the construction design in the following cases:

a) Modification and supplementation to construction design with changes in geotechnical engineering, design loads, structural solutions, materials used for load-bearing structures and execution plan that affects load-bearing safety of the project;

b) When modifying the construction project, the modification to the basic design is required.

2. The assessment of modified construction design shall comply with Clause 4, Article 35 of this Decree.

3. For the modified and supplemented construction design not specified in Clause 1 of this Article, the investor shall organize the appraisal themselves as the basis for approval.

4. The adjustment of construction estimate shall comply with the Government’s regulations on construction cost management and relevant law provisions.

5. Application for appraisal of modification to construction design:

a) Required documents in Article 37 hereof;

b) Report on the investor’s execution of the works (in case the work has been constructed).

Article 40. Approval for construction design following basic design

1. The approval for construction design following basic design by the investor shall be demonstrated in an appraisal decision, containing at least the following:

a) Approver;

b) Name of the work or part of the work;

c) Project name;

d) Type and class of the work;

dd) Construction site;

e) The contractor that prepares construction survey report;

g) The contractor that prepares construction design;

h) The unit that assesses the construction design;

i) Scale and technical specifications; design solutions to efficiently use energy and save resources (if any);

k) Design life of the work;

l) Value of construction estimate by each cost item;

m) Others.

2. The form of the decision on approving the construction design following basic design for projects funded by public investment capital or state capital other than public investment capital is specified in Form No. 07, Appendix I to this Decree.

3. In the case of project management in the form of field-based PMB, area-based PMB or single-project PMB, the investor shall authorize the affiliated PMB to approve the construction design.

4. The person that is designated to approve construction design shall sign and stamp in the approved construction design documents (including the note and design drawings). The specimen of construction design approval seal is specified in Form No. 08, Appendix I to this Decree.

Chapter IV

CONSTRUCTION PERMIT AND CONSTRUCTION ORDER MANAGEMENT

Article 41. Requirements for issuance of construction permit

1. Requirements for issuance of a construction permit shall comply with Article 91, Article 92, Article 93 and Article 94 of the Law on Construction dated 2014, amended in the Law on Architecture 2019 and the Law No. 62/2020/QH14.

2. For areas without urban planning, construction planning for functional areas or detailed construction planning for rural residential area, a planning which is of technical nature, relevant fields or regulations on architectural management or a document of a competent authority approving the location and layout drawing (for works not built by routes outside urban areas) is the basis for consideration of granting a construction permit.

3. As for a work under a construction project that does not require formulation of a detailed construction planning according to the provisions of law on plannings, a work of a construction project implemented by a corporate investor with the scale of less than 05 hectares (less than 02 hectares for a project to build condominiums), a zoning planning is the basis to consider granting a construction permit.

4. As for a work with great impact on community safety and benefits which requires assessment as prescribed in clause 6 Article 82 of the Law on Construction 2014, amended in the Law on Architecture 2019 and the Law No. 62/2020/QH14, an assessment report, in addition to the investor’s own requirements, must have a conclusion specifying that the construction design documents meet the construction safety requirements and comply with technical standards and regulations.

Article 42. General provisions on application for issuance of construction permit

1. An application for issuance of a construction license shall be sent in person to the licensing agency or via the online public service system according to regulations.

2. Documents and design drawings in an application for issuance of construction license are originals or certified copies or electronic copies.

3. Construction design drawings in an application for issuance of construction license must comply with regulations on format of construction design documents according to Article 33 of this Decree.

4. When submitting the application in the form of electronic copies, the investor only needs to submit 1 set of construction design drawings.

Article 43. Application for issuance of construction permits in case of new construction

1. For works not built by routes:

a) An application form for issuance of construction permit No. 01 of Appendix II hereto;

b) A copy of one in written proofs of land use rights as prescribed in legislation on land;

c) Project approval decision; the written notice of appraisal result of the construction authority and the basic design drawing documents enclosed with a certification stamp (if any); report on construction design assessment result according to the provisions of Clause 4, Article 41 of this Decree; certificate of fire safety design appraisal and approved documents and drawings enclosed as per the law on fire safety; result of environmental protection in accordance with the law on environmental protection in case of failure to appraise the feasibility study report at the construction authority;

d) 02 sets of construction drawings in the construction design documents following the basic design approved in accordance with the construction law, including: master plan of the project, site plan showing the location of the work; architectural drawings of primary plans, elevations and sections of the works; footing plans and sections; drawings reflecting structural solutions of the work; site plan linked with outside infrastructure.

2. For works built by routes:

a) An application form for issuance of construction permit No. 01 of Appendix II hereto;

b) One in written proofs of land use rights as prescribed in legislation on land or an approval of the competent authority on location and route plan or a land expropriation decision of the competent authority as per the land law;

c) Documents specified in point c clause 1 hereof;

d) 02 sets of construction drawings in the construction design documents following the basic design approved in accordance with the construction law, including: diagram of route of works; master plan of the project or topographical plan, primary longitudinal sections and cross sections of the route of the work; footing plans and sections; drawings reflecting structural solutions of the work; site plan linked with outside infrastructure.

3. For works of belief or religion:

a) An application for a construction permit for religious works includes documents as prescribed in Clause 1 of this Article and a written approval of the need to build and work size of the authority in charge of belief and religion affiliated to the People’s Committee of the province;

b) An application for a construction permit for belief works includes the documents specified in Article 46 of this Decree and opinions of the authority in charge of belief and religion affiliated to the People’s Committee of the province (if regulated by the law on belief and religion); a report on the result of construction design assessment for religious works with great impact on community safety and benefits;

c) As for an application for the construction permit of works of belief or religion under a project on preservation, restoration and restoration of historical – cultural relics, scenic beauties, in addition to the prescribed documents in Points a and b of this Clause, documents on the necessity to build and work size of cultural authority must be added in accordance with the law on cultural heritage.

4. Monuments, murals:

An application for a construction permit includes documents as prescribed in Clause 1 of this Article and a written approval of the need to build and work size of the cultural authority.

5. For advertising works:

Comply with the law on advertising.

6. For works of diplomatic missions and international organizations:

Applications for construction permits for works of diplomatic missions, international organizations and foreign agencies investing in Vietnam shall comply with the respective provisions in Clause 1 or 2 of this Article and the provisions of agreements signed with the Government of Vietnam.

Article 44. Application for issuance of a construction permit by stages

1. For works not built by routes:

a) An application form for issuance of construction permit No. 01 of Appendix II hereto;

b) A copy of one in written proofs of land use rights as prescribed in legislation on land;

c) Required documents specified in point c clause 1 Article 43 hereof;

d) 02 sets of construction design drawings in construction design documents following the basic design approved in accordance with the construction law corresponding to the stage for which a construction permit is sought as specified at Point d, Clause 1, Article 43 of this Decree.

2. For works built by routes:

a) An application form for issuance of construction permit No. 01 of Appendix II hereto;

b) One in written proofs of land use rights as prescribed in legislation on land or an approval of the competent authority on location and route plan or a land expropriation decision of the competent authority with respect to a part of land executed by stages or the land for the entire project as per the land law;

c) Required documents specified in point c clause 1 Article 43 hereof;

d) 02 sets of construction design drawings in construction design documents following the basic design approved in accordance with the construction law corresponding to the stage for which a construction permit is sought as specified at Point d, Clause 2, Article 43 of this Decree.

Article 45. Application for issuance of a construction permit to project, group of works in project

1. An application form for issuance of construction permit No. 01 of Appendix II hereto.

2. One in written proofs of land use rights as prescribed in legislation on land with respect to a group of works or the entire project.

3. Required documents specified in point c clause 1 Article 43 hereof;

4. 02 sets of construction design drawings in construction design documents following the basic design approved in accordance with the construction law of each work in a group of works or the entire project, including:

a) Construction design documents prescribed in point d clause 1 Article 43 hereof for a work not built by route;

b) Construction design documents prescribed in point d clause 2 Article 43 hereof for a work built by route.

Article 46. Application for issuance of a construction permit for detached house

1. An application form for issuance of construction permit No. 01 of Appendix II hereto.

2. One in written proofs of land use rights as prescribed in legislation on land.

3. 02 sets of construction design drawings, enclosed with the fire safety design appraisal certificates, together with the appraised drawings if required by the law on fire safety; report on the result of construction design assessment if required by law on construction, including:

a) Work plan on the land plot, enclosed with the work location diagram;

b) Floor plan, elevations and sections of the work;

c) Footing plan and sections enclosed with connection diagram of infrastructure outside the work including water supply and drainage, power supply;

d) For construction works with adjacent works, there must be a written commitment to ensure safety for the adjacent works.

4. Based on the actual circumstances in the locality and Clause 3 of this Article, the People’s Committee of province shall publish the design drawing templates for households and individuals to refer to when making their own construction design according to the provisions at Point b Clause 7 Article 79 of the Law on Construction 2014.

Article 47. Application for issuance of a construction permit in case of repair and renovation of works

1. An application for issuance of repair or renovation permit of detached house and work using Form No. 01 Appendix II hereto.

2. One of the documents proving the ownership, management and use of the work or detached house according to the provisions of law.

3. As-built drawings of parts of the works expected to be repaired or renovated, approved as prescribed in a scale in proportion to the scale of the drawings of the application for repair and renovation permit and photos (minimum size 10 x 15 cm) of actual existing condition of the work and adjacent works before the repair and renovation.

4. Repair, renovation design documents equivalent to each type of work as prescribed in Article 43 or Article 46 hereof.

5. For works of historical and cultural relics and scenic beauties that have been ranked, there must be a written approval of the need for construction and work size issued by the cultural authority.

Article 48. Application for issuance of a structure relocation permit

1. An application for issuance of structure relocation permit using Form No. 01 Appendix II hereto.

2. Required documents in clauses 2, 3, 4 and 5 Article 97 of the Law on Construction 2014.

Article 49. Cases of exemption from construction permits for passive telecom infrastructure

Passive telecom infrastructure exempt from construction permits are specified in Point dd, Clause 2, Article 89 of the Law on Construction in 2014, amended and supplemented in Clause 30, Article 1 of Law No. 62/2020/QH14, including:

1. Antenna masts of an antenna mast system outside the urban area in accordance with the planning on construction of passive telecom infrastructure approved by a competent authority or approved by a agency authorized to approve the route direction.

2. A1-type antenna masts as prescribed in the law on telecommunications installed in urban areas in conformity with planning for passive telecom infrastructure approved by the competent authority.

Article 50. Construction permit with a definite term

1. Pursuant to Article 94 of the Law on Construction 2014, amended in Clause 33, Article 1 of Law No. 62/2020/QH14 and on the basis of the construction planning implementation plan, construction location, the People’s Committee of province shall promulgate specific regulations on the scale and height of new construction works and works for which a repair and renovation permit is sought; service life of the works as a basis for granting a construction permit with a definite term.

2. The application for issuance of a construction permit with a definite term shall comply with regulations on construction works or detached houses prescribed in Article 43 and Article 46 hereof. Particularly, the title of the application is changed to “Application for construction permit with a definite term”.

Article 51. Modification to and renewal of construction permit

1. The modification to and renewal of construction permits comply with Articles 98 and 99 of the Construction Law 2014 . The investor is not required to modify a construction permit in case of adjustment of the construction designs without changing the main entries stated in the construction permit and construction design drawings enclosed to the issued construction permit.

2. Application for modification to construction permit includes:

a) An application form for modification to construction permit No. 02 of Appendix II hereto;

b) An original of the issued construction permit;

c) 02 sets of construction design drawings in adjusted construction design documents following the basic design approved in accordance with the relevant construction law as prescribed in Article 43, Article 44, Article 45, Article 46 or Article 47 of this Decree;

d) A report on appraisal results and approved adjusted construction design (except for detached houses) of the investor, which must contain the content about load-bearing safety, fire safety, environmental protection.

3. Application for renewal of construction permit includes:

a) An application form for renewal of construction permit No. 02 of Appendix II hereto;

b) An original of the issued construction permit;

Article 52. Re-issuance of construction license

1. Construction permits shall be re-issued in case of being torn or lost.

2. Application for re-issuance of construction permit includes:

a) An application form for re-issuance of construction permit, clearly stating the reason for re-issuance according to Form No. 02 Appendix II of this Decree;

b) An original of the construction permit, which has been issued, in case of being torn. A commitment to be self-responsible for the loss of the construction permit of the investor in case of lost construction permit.

Article 53. Revocation and cancellation of construction permit

1. A construction permit shall be revoked in one of the following cases:

a) The construction permit is issued in contravention of law, including: Falsifying documents in the application for issuance of construction permit; the construction permit is misstated due to the fault of the construction permit-issuing agency; the construction permit was issued ultra vires;

b) If the investor fails to remedy the breach of construction specified in the construction permit within a given time stated in the penalty document made by the competent authority.

2. Procedures for revocation of construction permit:

a) Within 10 days from the moment where it is grounded to determine that the construction permit falls under one of the cases in clause 1 hereof, the competent authority shall issue a decision on revocation of the construction permit;

b) The said competent authority shall send the decision on revocation of the construction permit to the organization/individual from which the construction permit is revoked and post it on its website; and send the information to the People’s Committee of commune where the construction work is located to make public at the People’s Committee of commune within 5 working days since of the date of the decision.

c) The organization or individual whose construction permit is revoked shall return the original of such permit to the authority that issues the revocation decision within 05 days from the receipt of the revocation decision;

d) If the organization or individual whose construction license is revoked fails to return the original of such permit, the said competent authority shall cancel such construction permit according to the provisions of Clause 2 of Article 101 of the Law on Construction 2014 and notify the investor and the People’s Committee of commune where the construction work is located. The decision on cancellation of a construction permit must be posted on the website of the agency that revokes it and also on the website of the local Department of Construction.

3. The procedures for issuance of a construction permit after being revoked:

a) The agency competent to issue a construction permit shall re-issue a construction permit within 5 working days from the date of issuance of decision on revocation or cancellation of the construction permit in a case where the construction permit was misstated at the fault of the construction issuing agency;

b) The organization or individual whose construction permit is revoked in the remaining cases specified in Clause 1 of this Article may apply for a construction permit under the provisions of this Decree after having returned the construction permit or having the construction permit cancelled and has fulfilled the responsibilities and obligations in accordance with the law.

Article 54. Procedures and matters to be checked for issuance of construction permit

1. Procedures for issuance of construction permit:

a) The issuing agency shall verify and assess applications and issue construction permits according to the process specified in Article 102 of the Law on Construction 2014, amended in Clause 36 Article 1 of Law No. 62/2020/QH14;

b) The issuing agency shall use their digital signature or the seal specimen as prescribed in Form No. 13, Appendix II of this Decree to affix on the design drawings enclosed with construction permit issued to the investor.

2. The issuing agency shall ensure that all the eligibility requirements for issuance of a construction permit specified in Article 41 hereof are met. The matters which have been appraised and assessed as per the law shall be double-checked as follows:

a) Comparing the conformity of construction design drawings in the application for the construction permit with the basic design appraised by the construction authority and affixed the stamp for the works under the projects requiring appraisal of feasibility study reports by the construction authority;

b) Checking the conformity of construction design drawings in the application for construction permit with the construction design drawings and fire safety aspect approved by the competent authority for the construction works which require fire safety appraisal;

c) Checking the completeness and validity of the report on assessment results for works requiring design assessment according to the provisions of this Decree.

Article 55. Publication of construction permit

1. The issuing agency shall publish the contents of the issued construction permits on its website.

2. The investor shall publish the contents of the construction permit at the construction sites during the construction process so that other entities can monitor and supervise according to the provisions of relevant law.

Article 56. Construction order management

1. Construction order management must be carried out after receipt of the notice of commencement to the time when the works are handed over and put into operation in order to detect, stop and handle any violation in a timely manner.

2. Details of construction order management:

a) For works that are granted construction permits: The management of the construction order according to the contents of the issued construction permits and relevant provisions of law;

b) For works that are exempt from construction permits, details of construction order management are as follows: checking the eligibility for exemption from construction permits for works as prescribed in point g, clause 2, Article 89 of the Law on Construction 2014, amended in Clause 30, Article 1 of Law No. 62/2020/QH14, checking the compliance with construction plannings or technically-specialized plannings, approved architectural or urban design management regulations and relevant provisions of law; checking the conformity of the construction with the appraised main contents and parameters of the design for the construction design which has been appraised by a construction authority.

3. When a violation is detected, the construction order authority must order the suspension of construction, handle it within competence or request the competent authority to handle the violation of construction order according to regulations.

4. Responsibilities of the People’s Committee of province:

a) Take full responsibility for the construction order management of construction works in the province (except for construction works involving state secrets);

b) Promulgate regulations on: construction order management; delegate or authorize construction order management to the People’s Committees of districts, People’s Committees of communes in accordance with the law and the actual circumstances; delegate or authorize to receive the commencement notice enclosed with construction design documents, in case the works are exempt from construction permits according to the provisions at Point g, Clause 2, Article 89 of the Law on Construction 2014, amended in Clause 30, Article 1 of Law No. 62/2020/QH14, which requires additional documents at the request of the construction authority according to the provisions of Clause 5, Article 38 of this Decree.

c) Promulgate regulations on management of architecture or urban design for each area as a basis for issuing construction permits and managing construction order in areas without detailed construction plannings in urban areas, in functional areas and rural residential detailed construction planning;

d) Direct the People’s Committees of districts and communes to monitor, inspect, detect, prevent and promptly handle violations in the area; to direct and organize the enforcement of works in violation of construction order in their respective localities according to law provisions;

dd) Solve materials, complex and problematic issues in the process of construction order management in the area.

5. Responsibilities of the People’s Committee of district and commune:

a) Take responsibility for construction order management in the district or commune as delegated or authorized by the People’s Committee of the province;

b) Monitor, inspect, detect, prevent and promptly handle violations in the area; organize the enforcement of works in violation of construction order in their respective localities according to law provisions.

Chapter V

BUILIDNG SPECIAL WORKS AND EXECUTION OF CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS ABROAD

Section I. BUIDLING SPECIAL WORKS

Article 57. Management of construction works involving state secrets

1. Construction works involving state secrets are determined according to the law on protection of State secrets and relevant laws.

2. The pre-construction, construction, post-construction of a construction work involving state secrets shall comply with law on protection of state secrets, construction investment law and specified in the project approval decision or investment decision.

3. Relevant agencies, organizations and individuals shall manage applications, documents and related information in the construction of state secret works in accordance with law on the protection of state secrets.

Article 58. Management of urgent construction works

The management of urgent construction works specified in point a clause 1 Article 130 of the Construction Law 2014, amended in clauses 48 and 25 Article 1 of the Law No. 62/2020/QH14 is follows:

1. The heads of central agencies and the Presidents of People’s Committees at all levels are competent to decide the construction of urgent works within their respective scope by urgency construction order.

2. An urgency construction order is made in writing with the following contents: construction purpose, construction location, person assigned to manage and execute the work, construction time, estimated costs and resources and other relevant requirements.

3. The person assigned to manage and perform work construction is given discretion over the whole of the construction works, including: assigning organizations and individuals to carry out survey and design and construction and other necessary tasks to build the urgent works; decide procedures for carrying out the survey, design and construction; decide the construction supervision and taking-over of construction works to meet the requirements of the urgency construction order.

4. After the construction of urgent works is completed, the person assigned to build the urgent works is responsible for preparing and completing the as-built documents, including: an urgency construction order; construction survey documents (if any); standard designs or construction drawing designs (if any); daily construction reports and photos of the construction process (if any); taking-over records, results of test, observation and measurement (if any); records of management of construction materials, products, components and equipment used for the construction (if any); as-built drawings; appendix of defects to be repaired or remedied (if any) after being put into operation; taking-over record between the investor, contractors and relevant regulatory agencies; bases for determination of workload performed and other documents related to building the urgent works.

5. For urgent works funded by public investment capital, the management, payment and settlement of construction investment capital shall comply with the provisions of relevant laws on management, payment, settlement for urgent projects funded by public investment capital.

Section 2. EXECUTION OF CONSTRUCTION PROJECT ABROAD

Article 59. Rules for management of construction projects abroad

1. Regarding overseas projects funded by public investment capital, the formulation, appraisal and decision of the investment policy thereof shall comply with law on public investment. The appraisal of investment policy or investment decision of other overseas projects shall comply with law on investment.

2. The investment decision of the project shall be made in compliance with the law on public investment applicable to projects funded by public investment capital, law on management and use of state capital to invest in enterprises for projects of enterprises funded by state capital.

3. Construction projects of Vietnamese overseas missions shall comply with the Government’s regulations on management of investment projects of overseas missions of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and relevant laws.

4. The execution of a construction project after being decided or approved by a competent authority must comply with international treaties to which the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a contracting party, the international agreement between the Vietnamese party and the foreign party, the law provisions of the country where the project is located and the specific provisions in this Section, in specific:

a) The formulation and appraisal of a feasibility study report for a project funded by public investment capital, state capital other than public investment capital shall comply with the provisions in Article 60 of this Decree;

b) The formulation, appraisal and approval of construction design steps following the project decision is decided by the investment-decision maker must comply with the law of the country where the project is location and conditions for project execution;

c) Technical regulations and standards; construction planning; requirements on natural and social conditions, cultural and environmental characteristics; liability to purchase compulsory insurance; construction permit; eligibility requirements for construction activities; construction contract, construction, construction supervision, taking-over and handover of works and other specific contents and requirements shall preferably comply with the law of the country where the project is located, unless otherwise prescribed by international treaties or international agreements;

d) Upon determination of total investment, construction estimate, regulations on construction cost management of the country where the project is located shall prevail.

5. The settlement of investment capital for overseas construction projects funded by public investment capital shall comply with the provisions of relevant laws on management, payment and settlement of overseas construction projects funded by public investment capital and relevant provisions of law.

Article 60. Formulation, assessment and appraisal of a feasibility study report for a project funded by public investment capital, state capital other than public investment capital

1. The investor shall make a feasibility study report, economic-technical report or an equivalent document according to the provisions of law of the host country (hereinafter referred to as feasibility study report), and then submit it to a specialized agency affiliated to the investment-decision maker for appraisal so that the investment-decision maker considers making a project approval or decision.

2. The feasibility study report may include a basic design or other construction designs made according to international practice in accordance with the feasibility study report step. Notes to the feasibility study report must contain the following main contents:

a) Necessity and investment policy, construction investment objectives;

b) Analysis of natural conditions, selection of construction site, land use area, scale and form of project construction;

c) Conformity with construction plannings or other plannings as prescribed by law of the host country;

d) Proposed progress of project execution;

dd) Determination of total investment, structure of capital sources;

e) Methods of project execution, identification of investor, analysis and selection of forms of project management and execution, socio-economic efficiency analysis;

g) Other contents according to specific characteristics of each project and regulations of law of the host country.

3. The investor shall engage a qualified construction design assessment organization to assess the feasibility study report; and then check and evaluate such assessed report before sending it to the specialized agency affiliated to the investment-decision maker for appraisal.

4. On the basis of the report on the assessment results, the specialized agency affiliated to the investment-decision maker shall appraise the feasibility study report and seek the consultation of the construction authority where necessary. Competence of the construction authority from which the consultation is sought is the appraisal competence for projects of equivalent size according to the provisions of this Decree.

5. Matters to be appraised in a feasibility study report:

a) The compliance with legal regulations in the appraisal application;

b) The conformity of the feasibility study report with the investment policy approved by the competent authority;

c) Check the report on the assessment result of the conformity of construction design serving the preparation of the feasibility study report with the construction planning or other planning in accordance with the law of the host country, the assurance of construction safety, fire safety and environmental protection according to relevant law provisions;

d) Factors to ensure the feasibility of the project, including selection of construction location, project construction scale, investor identification, project execution or management form;

dd) Factors to ensure the effectiveness of the project, including determination of total investment, capital-raising capacity according to progress, financial efficiency, socio-economic efficiency;

e) Other contents at the request of the investment-decision maker (if any).

Article 61. Taking-over of construction works

The investors shall manage the quality of the construction works, take over the construction works by themselves and finalize the contracts with respect to construction projects abroad. The investors shall makes a report on completion of the works and sends it to the investment-decision maker for monitoring and management.

Chapter VI

REQUIREMENTS FOR CONSTRUCTION ELIGIBILITY

Section 1. REQUIREMENTS FOR CONSTRUCTION ELIGIBILITY OF INDIVIDUALS

Article 62. Construction practicing certificate<0}

1. The construction practicing certificate (hereinafter referred to as “the practicing certificate”) shall be issued to any Vietnamese citizens, overseas Vietnamese or foreigners who legally carry out construction activities in Vietnam in order for them to hold certain positions or run their own construction business as prescribed in Clause 3 Article 148 of the Law on Construction 2014, amended by clause 53 Article 1 of the Law No. 62/2020/QH14.

The fields to be covered by the practicing certificate are specified in Appendix VI hereto. The consulting activities relevant to architecture and fire safety shall comply with the law on architecture and fire safety.

2. Any foreigner or overseas Vietnamese who obtained a practicing certificate issued by a foreign authority or organization and has practiced construction in Vietnam for less than 06 months or he/she has provided construction consulting services in Vietnam while living abroad, he/she must have the practicing certificate bear consular authentication to practice construction activities. If he/she has practiced construction in Vietnam for at least 06 months, he/she is required to apply for conversion of the practicing certificate to the competent authority as prescribed in Article 64 of this Decree.

3. An individual is not required to obtain a practicing certificate as prescribed in this Decree to perform the following construction activities:

a) Design, supervision of communications, telecommunications system in a work;

b) Design, supervision of finishing activities of a building, such as plastering, tiling, painting, installing doors, windows, furniture and other similar works without affecting the load bearing structures of the work;

c) Construction activities for works of class IV; green parks; telecom signal transmission cable lines.

4. Any individual having yet to obtain a practicing certificate is entitled to participate in the construction sector where appropriate for his/her major, and is not authorized to run his/her own construction business as well as hold any title that requires the practicing certificate.

5. The practicing certificate is valid for up to 05 years upon first issuance or adjustments to certificate rank or certificate renewal. Regarding the practicing certificate of a foreign individual, its effective period shall be determined according to the period specified in the work permit or temporary resident card issued by a competent authority but not exceed 05 years.

In case of issuance upon adjustments or supplementation to the certificate or re-issuance as the unexpired certificate is lost, damaged or misstated, the validity period of the new certificate shall coincide with the former certificate.

6. The forms and contents of the practicing certificate are provided in the Form No. 06 to Appendix VI of this Decree.

7. The practicing certificate is managed using the practicing certificate code, including 02 groups of code joined together by a hyphen (-) as follows:

a) First group includes three characters representing the place of issue as prescribed in Appendix VIII hereof;

b) Second group indicates the practicing certificate code.

8. The Ministry of Construction shall uniformly manage the issuance and revocation of the practicing certificate, and issuance of the practicing certificate code; publish the list of individuals issued with the certificate on the website.

Article 63. Issuance, revocation, renewal of construction practicing certificate

1. The construction practicing certificate shall be issued to:

a) Any individual applying for the practicing certificate for the first time or adjusting his/her practicing certificate rank;

b) Any individual applying for renewal of the practicing certificate;

c) Any individual applying for adjustments or amendments to eligibility certificate;

d) Any individual applying for reissuance of the practicing certificate in case the old unexpired certificate is lost or damaged or misstated; or

dd) The individuals mentioned in Clause 2 Article 62 of this Decree who wish to convert his/her practicing certificate.

2. An individual whose practicing certificate shall be revoked in one of the following cases:

a) The individual no longer satisfies the conditions specified in Clause 1 Article 66 of this Decree;

b) The application for issuance of the practicing certificate contains counterfeit documents;

c) The holder of the practicing certificate rents it, lends it, leases it, borrows it or allows another person to use it;

dd) Contents of the practicing certificate are corrected, erased or falsified;

dd) The practicing certificate is misstated at the fault of the issuing authority;

e) The practicing certificate is issued ultra vires;

g) The practicing certificate is issued in the case of failure to meet eligibility requirements as prescribed.

3. The individual whose practicing certificate is revoked in the cases specified in Points b, c and d Clause 2 of this Article is entitled to apply for issuance of the practicing certificate 12 months after the date on which the decision on practicing certificate revocation is issued. Procedures for issuance of the practicing certificate are the same as those specified in Point a Clause 1 of this Article.

The individual whose practicing certificate is revoked in the case specified in Point dd Clause 2 of this Article shall be re-issued with the practicing certificate in accordance with the procedures specified in Clause 2 Article 80 of this Decree.

4. The individual shall apply for renewal of the practicing certificate within 3 months before the expiry date of the practicing certificate. After this period, the individual may apply for issuance of another practicing certificate as prescribed in point a clause 1 hereof.

Article 64. The power to issue and revoke the construction practicing certificate

1. Power to issue the practicing certificate:

a) Construction authorities affiliated to the Ministry of Construction shall issue Rank-I practicing certificates;

b) Departments of Construction shall issue Rank-II and Rank-III practicing certificates;

c) Socio-professional organizations specified in Article 81 of this Decree shall issue Rank-II and Rank-III practicing certificates to their members.

2. Power to revoke the practicing certificate:

a) Authorities that have the power to issue practicing certificates are the ones that have the power to revoke the practicing certificates that they issued;

b) If the practicing certificate is issued against the law but the competent authority that issued the practicing certificate fails to revoke it, the Ministry of Construction shall directly revoke that practicing certificate.

Article 65. Rights and responsibilities of the individual applying for practicing certificate

1. The individual applying for construction practicing certificate has the following rights:

a) Request supply of information about the issuance of the practicing certificate;

b) Practice construction activities nationwide according to the contents specified on the certificate;

c) File complaints or whistleblowing reports against violations of law on issuance of practicing certificates.

2. The individual applying for construction practicing certificate has the following obligations:

a) Give truthful information in the application for issuance of practicing certificate as prescribed in this Decree; take legal liability for the accuracy of information given in the application;

b) Practice in strict compliance with the fields and scope of activities stated on the issued practicing certificate, comply with the law on construction and other relevant laws;

c) Not to lease, lend or give the issued practicing certificate to others;

d) Not to erase or modify entries of the practicing certificate;

dd) Comply with professional ethics;

e) Present the practicing certificates and comply with inspection and examination requirements at the request of competent authorities.

Article 66. General eligibility requirements for issuance of construction practicing certificates

An individual shall be issued with the practicing certificate if he/she:

1. has full active legal capacity as prescribed by law and obtains a residence permit or work permit if he/she is a foreigner or overseas Vietnamese.

2. has his/her qualifications and experience relevant to requirements of the practicing certificate. To be specific:

a) A Rank-I practicing certificate is awarded to the individual who gains a bachelor’s degree in appropriate major and at least 07 years’ experience relevant to requirements of that practicing certificate;

b) A Rank-II practicing certificate is awarded to the individual who gains a bachelor’s degree in appropriate major and at least 04 years’ experience relevant to requirements of that practicing certificate;

c) A Rank-III practicing certificate is awarded to the individual who has appropriate qualifications and at least 02 years’ experience relevant to requirements of that practicing certificate with respect to the holder of the undergraduate degree and at least 03 years’ experience with respect to the holder of the associate degree or intermediate diploma.

3. passes the test in the field for which a practicing certificate is sought.

Article 67. Appropriate disciplines as the basis for issuance of the construction practicing certificate

1. Construction survey:

a) Topographical survey: one of the following disciplines is required: geotechnical engineering, geodesy, mapping, construction engineering;

b) Geological survey: one of the following disciplines is required: geotechnical engineering, geodesy, mapping, hydrogeology, construction engineering;

2. Construction planning design: one of the following disciplines is required: architecture, construction planning, infrastructure, transport.

3. Construction design:

a) Construction structure design: the discipline must be construction engineering related to construction structure is required (excluding mining, transport, irrigation works, dikes);

b) Mechanical – electrical design (excluding transmission lines and electrical substations): the disciplines must be engineering related to electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, air ventilation – heat supply and dissipation engineering;

c) Water supply – drainage design: the discipline must be engineering related to water supply and drainage,

d) Mining construction design: the discipline must be engineering related to underground and mine works;

dd) Transport construction engineering design (including roads; bridges – tunnels; railway; inland waterways, maritime): the discipline must be engineering related to transport works;

e) Design of water supply and drainage works; solid waste treatment works: the discipline must be engineering related to water supply and drainage, urban environmental engineering and equivalent discipline;

g) Design of irrigation works, dikes: the discipline must be engineering related to irrigation works, dikes, equivalent discipline.

4. Construction supervision:

a) Construction supervision: One of the following disciplines is required: construction engineering, construction economics, architecture, engineering related to construction of structures;

b) Equipment installation supervision: One of the following disciplines is required: electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, air ventilation – heat supply, water supply and drainage or other engineering disciplines related to equipment installation.

5. Construction valuation: One of the following disciplines is required: construction economics, construction engineering and other engineering disciplines.

6. Construction project management: One of the following disciplines is required: construction engineering, construction economics, architecture, engineering related to construction of structures.

Article 68. Construction survey practicing certificates

An individual may be issued with a construction survey practicing certificate if he/she meet the eligibility requirements in Articles 66 and 67 hereof and the eligibility requirements corresponding to the following ranks:

1. A Rank-I construction survey practicing certificate is awarded to the individual who has worked as a president in charge of construction survey in the field for which a practicing certificate is sought of at least 01 group A project or higher or 02 group B projects or higher or at least 01 Class I works or higher or at least 02 Class II works or higher.

2. A Rank-II construction survey practicing certificate is awarded to the individual who has worked as a president in charge of construction survey in the field for which a practicing certificate is sought of at least 01 group B project or higher or 02 group C projects or higher or at least 01 Class II works or higher or at least 02 Class III works or higher.

3. A Rank-III construction survey practicing certificate is awarded to the individual who has worked as a president in charge of construction survey in the field for which a practicing certificate is sought of at least 01 group C projects or higher or 02 projects that require economic – technical reports or at least 01 Class III works or higher or at least 02 Class IV works.

Article 69. Construction planning practicing certificates

An individual shall be considered to be issued with a construction planning practicing certificate if he/she meet the eligibility requirements in Articles 66 and 67 hereof and the eligibility requirements corresponding to ranks below:

1. A Rank-I construction planning practicing certificate is awarded to the individual who has worked as a chairperson or president in charge of designing disciplines of at least 01 construction planning project that has been approved by the Prime Minister or 02 construction planning projects (including at least 01 inter-district, district or general construction planning project) that have been approved by the People’s Committee of the province.

2. A Rank-II construction planning practicing certificate is awarded to the individual who has worked as a chairperson or president in charge of designing disciplines of at least 01 construction planning project that has been approved by the People’s Committee of the province or 02 construction planning projects that have been approved by the People’s Committee of the district.

3. A Rank-III construction planning practicing certificate is awarded to the individual who has participated in designing disciplines of at least 01 construction planning project that has been approved by the People’s Committee of the province or 02 construction planning projects that have been approved by the People’s Committee of the district.

Article 70. Construction design practicing certificates

An individual shall be considered to be issued with a construction design practicing certificate if he/she meet the eligibility requirements in Articles 66 and 67 hereof and the eligibility requirements corresponding to ranks below:

1. A Rank-I construction design practicing certificate is awarded to the individual who has worked as a chairperson or president in charge of designing or appraising the design of tasks of the field for which a practicing certificate is sought of least 01 Class I work or higher or at least 02 Class II works or higher of the field that is covered by the certificate applied for,

2. A Rank-II construction design practicing certificate is awarded to the individual who has worked as a chairperson or president in charge of designing or appraising the design of tasks of the field for which a practicing certificate is sought of at least 01 Class II work or higher or at least 02 Class III works or higher or has participated in designing or appraising the design of the tasks relevant to requirements of that practicing certificate of at least 03 Class II works or higher that are the same as those for which a practicing certificate is sought.

3. A Rank-III construction design practicing certificate is awarded to the individual who has participated in designing or appraising the design of tasks of the field for which a practicing certificate is sought of at least 03 Class III works or higher or at least 05 Class IV works or higher that are the same as those for which a practicing certificate is sought.

Article 71. Construction supervision practicing certificates

An individual shall be considered to be issued with a construction supervision practicing certificate if he/she meet the eligibility requirements in Articles 66 and 67 hereof and the eligibility requirements corresponding to ranks below:

1. A Rank-I construction supervision practicing certificate is awarded to the individual who has worked as a chief supervisor or site manager or chairperson in charge of designing the tasks of the field for which a practicing certificate is sought of at least 01 Class I work or higher or 02 Class II works or higher that are the same as those for which a practicing certificate is sought.

2. A Rank-II construction supervision practicing certificate is awarded to the individual who has worked as a chief supervisor or site manager or chairperson in charge of designing the tasks of the field for which a practicing certificate is sought of at least 01 Class II work or higher or 02 Class III works or higher that are the same as those for which a practicing certificate is sought.

3. A Rank-III construction supervision practicing certificate is awarded to the individual who has participated in construction supervision or construction design or constructed part of the field for which a practicing certificate is sought of at least 01 Class III work or higher or 02 Class IV works or higher that are the same as those for which a practicing certificate is sought.

Article 72. Construction valuation practicing certificates

1. Each individual obtaining a construction valuation practicing certificate is entitled to work as a chairperson in charge of construction cost management. To be specific:

a) Determine and assess total construction investment; analyze risks and evaluate investment efficiency;

b) Determine investment rates, construction norms, construction prices, and construction price indexes;

c) Measure construction volume;

d) Determine and assess construction estimate;

dd) Determine contract package prices and contract value with respect to construction activities;

e) Control construction cost;

g) Formulate and assess documents on payment or settlement of construction investment and convert construction investment after the construction is completed, transferred and put into operation.

2. An individual shall be considered to be issued with a construction valuation practicing certificate if he/she meet the eligibility requirements in Articles 66 and 67 hereof and the eligibility requirements corresponding to ranks below:

a) A Rank-I construction valuation practicing certificate is awarded to the individual who has worked as a chairperson in charge of one of the tasks related to construction cost management of at least 01 group A project or higher or 02 group B projects or higher or 01 Class I work or higher or 02 Class II works or higher.

b) A Rank-II construction valuation practicing certificate is awarded to the individual who has worked as a chairperson in charge of one of the tasks related to construction cost management of at least 01 group B project or higher or 02 group C projects or higher or 01 Class II work or higher or 02 Class III works or higher.

c) A Rank-III construction valuation practicing certificate is awarded to the individual who has participated in performing one of the tasks related to construction cost management of at least 01 group C project or higher or at least 02 projects that require economic – technical reports or 01 Class III work or higher or 02 Class IV works or higher.

Article 73. Project management practicing certificates

An individual shall be considered to be issued with a construction valuation practicing certificate if he/she meet the eligibility requirements in Articles 66 and 67 hereof and the eligibility requirements corresponding to ranks below:

1. A Rank-I project management practicing certificate is issued to the individual who has worked as a project manager in charge of at least 01 group A project or higher or at least 02 group B projects or higher of the field for which a practicing certificate is sought; or has been issued with one of the three practicing certificates (Rank-I construction design/Rank-I construction supervision/Rank-I construction valuation practicing certificate) and has participated in managing at least 01 group A project or higher or 02 group B projects or higher of the field for which a practicing certificate is sought.

2. A Rank-II project management practicing certificate is issued to the individual who has worked as a project manager in charge of at least 01 group B project or higher or at least 02 group C projects or higher of the field that is covered by the practicing certificate; or has been issued with one of the three practicing certificates (Rank-II construction design/Rank-II construction supervision/Rank-II construction valuation practicing certificate) and has participated in managing at least 01 group B project or higher or 02 group C projects or higher or 03 projects or higher that require an economic – technical report of the field that is covered by the practicing certificate.

3. A Rank-III construction valuation practicing certificate is awarded to the individual who has participated in managing at least 01 group C project or higher of the field for which a practicing certificate is sought.

Article 74. Practicing requirements to be satisfied by site managers

1. An individual who works as a site manager shall satisfy requirements corresponding to ranks as follows:

a) Rank I: He/she has been issued with a Rank-I construction supervision practicing certificate or worked as a site manager in charge of at least 01 Class I work or higher or 02 Class II works or higher of the same type.

b) Rank II: He/she has been issued with a Rank-II construction supervision practicing certificate or worked as a site manager in charge of at least 01 Class II work or higher or 02 Class III works or higher of the same type;

c) Rank III: He/she has been issued with a Rank-III construction supervision practicing certificate or directly participated in performance of construction tasks covered by the practicing certificate of at least 01 Class III work or higher or 02 Class IV works or higher of the same type.

2. Scope of operation:

a) Rank I: He/she is entitled to work as a site manager in charge of the works that are the same as those specified in the construction supervision practicing certificate or those of which he/she was the site manager;

b) Rank II: He/she is entitled to work as a site manager in charge of Class II works or below that are the same as those specified in the construction supervision practicing certificate or those of which he/she was the site manager;

c) Rank III: He/she is entitled to work as a site manager in charge of Class III and IV works that are the same as those specified in the construction supervision practicing certificate or those of which he/she participated in the construction process.

Article 75. Eligibility requirements for practicing construction inspection

1. An individual who works as a chairperson in charge of inspecting quality, identifying causes of damage, service life of parts of works or constructions works, and in charge of carrying out inspections to indentify causes of construction incidents shall satisfy the following eligibility requirements corresponding to ranks:

a) A Rank-I construction inspection practicing certificate is issued to the individual who has been issued with a Rank-I construction design practicing certificate or worked as a chairperson in charge of construction inspection of at least 01 Class I work or higher or 02 Class II works or higher of the same type;

b) A Rank-II construction inspection practicing certificate is issued to the individual who has been issued with a Rank-II construction design practicing certificate or worked as a chairperson in charge of construction inspection of at least 01 Class II work or higher or 02 Class III works or higher of the same type;

c) A Rank-III construction inspection practicing certificate is issued to the individual who has been issued with a Rank-III construction design practicing certificate or participated in construction inspection of at least 01 Class III work or higher or 02 Class IV works or higher of the same type.

2. Scope of operation:

a) The holder of a Rank-I construction inspection practicing certificate is entitled to work as a chairperson in charge of all works of the same type;

b) The holder of a Rank-II construction inspection practicing certificate is entitled to work as a chairperson in charge of Class II works or below of the same type;

c) The holder of a Rank-III construction inspection practicing certificate is entitled to work as a chairperson in charge of Class III and Class IV works of the same type.

Article 76. Application for construction practicing certificate

1. An application for issuance of the construction practicing certificate for the first time, adjustments to certificate rank, certificate renewal includes:

a) An application form provided in form 01 of the Appendix IV of this Decree;

b) The applicant’s 02 color 4 x 6 cm and white background photos and file thereof which are taken within the last 06 months;

c) Qualification(s) awarded by a legal training institution in accordance with the type or rank of the certificate applied for;

The qualification(s) awarded by a foreign training institution must bear consular authentication and enclosed with notarized and certified Vietnamese translations as prescribed by Vietnam’s laws;

d) Practicing certificate issued by a competent authority, in the case of applying for upgrade of the practicing certificate;

dd) Decisions on task assignment (responsibility assignment) issued by an organization to an individual or written confirmation of completed typical tasks provided by the legal representative of the investor. The person signing the written confirmation shall take responsibility for its truthfulness. In case the individual runs his/her own construction business, a contract and record on commissioning of listed typical tasks are required;

e) Legal residence-related documents or work permit issued by a Vietnamese competent authority, applicable to foreigners;

g) Copy of passing test result in case the test is done before the date of submission of the application for the practicing certificate;

h) Documents specified in Points c, d, dd and e of this Clause must be certified true copies or included in a file that contains color photos of originals or copies presented together with the originals for comparison.

2. An application for reissuance of the practicing certificate includes:

a) An application form provided in form 01 of the Appendix IV of this Decree;

b) The applicant’s 02 color 4 x 6 cm and white background photos and file thereof which are taken within the last 06 months;

c) Original of unexpired practicing certificate that is damaged or misstated. A commitment form made by the applicant for reissuance is required in case of loss of the practicing certificate;

d) Documents mentioned in points c, dd and e clause 1 hereof in case of reissuance of practicing practice with the field changed as per this Decree;

dd) Documents specified in Points c, d of this Clause must be certified true copies or included in a file that contains color photos of originals or copies presented together with the originals for comparison.

3. An application for adjustments or amendments to the practicing certificate includes:

a) An application form provided in form 01 of the Appendix IV of this Decree;

b) The applicant’s 02 color 4 x 6 cm and white background photos and file thereof which are taken within the last 06 months;

c) Documents concerning adjustments or amendments prescribed in Clause 1 of this Article and the original of practicing certificate.

4. An application for conversion of the practicing certificate includes:

a) An application form for conversion of the practicing certificate provided in form 03 of the Appendix IV of this Decree;

b) The applicant’s 02 color 4 x 6 cm and white background photos and file thereof which are taken within the last 06 months;

c) Copies of qualification(s) or practicing certificate(s) awarded by a foreign organization, bearing consular authentication and enclosed with notarized and certified Vietnamese translations as prescribed by Vietnam’s laws;

d) Certified true copies or a file that contains color photos of originals or copies of legal residence documents or work permit issued by a Vietnamese competent authority, presented together with the originals for comparison.

5. The applicant shall pay charges for submission of the application for practicing certificate. Such charges shall be collected, transferred, managed and used in accordance with regulations of the Ministry of Finance.

Article 77. Test for issuance of construction practicing certificate

1. The issuing authority shall organize a test for issuance of the construction practicing certificate. In case an individual wishes to apply for a test before submitting the application for issuance of the practicing certificate, the application form No. 02 provided in the Appendix IV shall be submitted to an issuing authority.

2. The test shall be done on a monthly or ad hoc basis and decided by the head of the issuing authority. The issuing authority shall notify the screening result of application for issuance of practicing certificate, time, location of test at least 3 business days before the test date.

3. A test consists of two parts: legal knowledge and professional knowledge. The individual whose practicing certificate remains valid shall be exempted from questions about professional knowledge related to the field specified in such practicing certificate.

The individual applying for reissuance of practicing certificate in a case where the lost or damaged practicing certificate remains valid is not required to take a test.

4. The test result shall be retained for 06 months from the date on which the test is taken to form a basis for issuance of the practicing certificate.

5. The issuing authority shall arrange a place for the test that must satisfy the infrastructure requirements. To be specific:

a) There must be a testing area, waiting area and area for providing test guidelines in the testing place;

b) The testing area must be provided with space for arranging tables, chairs and at least 10 computers;

c) Computers must operate in a stable manner, be connected using LAN, connected to printers and Internet. The Internet bandwidth must be good enough to ensure continuous operation of computers during the test;

d) Closed-circuit television cameras with a minimum resolution of 1280 x 720 (720P) must be installed in a manner that ensures the testing area is properly monitored and be capable of storing data for at least 30 days from the date on which the test is organized;

dd) There must be at least 01 set of loudspeakers to publicly announce information during the test;

e) There must be at least 01 printer to print testing reports and 01 standby printer;

g) Testing software shall be transferred by construction authorities affiliated to the Ministry of Construction and used nationwide.

6. Individuals shall pay charges for taking a test for issuance of construction practicing certificates. Such charges shall be collected, transferred, managed and used in accordance with regulations of the Ministry of Construction.

Article 78. Organization of test for issuance of construction practicing certificate

1. For an individual who applies for new issuance, adjustment or supplementation of field, upgrade of certificate rank, the test includes 05 questions about legal knowledge (including general law and construction law in each field) and 20 questions about having professional knowledge related to the field for which a practicing certificate is sought, the maximum number of points for each test is 100 points, of which the maximum score for the part of professional experience is 80 points, the maximum score for the legal knowledge section is 20 points. Individuals with at least 16 points in the legal knowledge test and 80 points or more in total score shall be considered qualified for issuance of a practicing certificate.

2. In case the individual is exempt from the test of professional knowledge, the test consists of 10 questions on legal knowledge, the maximum score for each test is 40 points. Individuals with test results of 32 points or more are qualified to be issued with a practicing certificate.

Article 79. Council for evaluation for issuance of the construction practicing certificate

1. The head of the issuing authority shall establish a council for evaluation for issuance of the construction practicing certificate.

2. The head of the issuing authority shall decide on organizational structure and number of members of the council.

3. A council for evaluation for issuance of the construction practicing certificate. issuance of the construction practicing certificate established by a construction authority affiliated to the Ministry of Construction or Department of Construction shall be composed of:

a) A council president who is a leader of the issuing authority;

b) Standing members who are public officials and public employees of this authority;

c) Members who are public officials and public employees whose major is relevant to the field covered by the practicing certificate applied for or experts whose expertise is relevant to the field covered by the practicing certificate applied for where necessary.

4. A council for evaluation for issuance of the construction practicing certificate, issuance of the construction practicing certificate established by a socio-professional organization shall be composed of:

a) A council president who is a leader of the socio-professional organizations;

b) Members who are the ones of the socio-professional organizations.

5. Council members shall work part-time and in accordance with regulations promulgated by the council president.

Article 80. Procedures for issuance and revocation of construction practicing certificate

1. Regarding issuance of the construction practicing certificate:

a) The applicant shall submit an application form for issuance of the practicing certificate prescribed in Article 76 of this Decree, electronically or by post or in person, to the issuing authority;

b) From the date on which the satisfactory application is received, the issuing authority shall issue the construction practicing certificate within 20 days in the case of issuance of the certificate for the first time, upgrade, adjustments or amendments to the certificate, within 10 days in the case of reissuance of the certificate, and within 25 days in the case of conversion of the certificate. In the case the application is unsatisfactory, the issuing authority shall notify the applicant in writing once within 05 days from the date on which the application is received;

c) For individuals submitting the application for issuance of construction practicing certificate but having not obtained test results, the processing time prescribed in point b clause 1 hereof shall begin from time when the test results are given.

2. Regarding revocation of the construction practicing certificate

a) Within 10 days from the date on which the inspection conclusion, including a proposal for revocation of the practicing certificate, is received or it is discovered or there are grounds to believe that the individual is mentioned in one of the cases specified in Clause 2 Article 63 of this Decree, the revoking authority shall issue a decision on revocation of the practicing certificate. In case of failure to revoke it, written explanation shall be provided to the organization or individual that makes the revocation proposal;

b) The revoking authority shall send the revocation decision to the individual and publish it on its website, provide information thereof to the Ministry of Construction for integration into its website within 05 days from the issuance date of the decision;

c) The individual whose construction practicing certificate is revoked shall return the original of such certificate to the authority that issues the revocation decision within 05 days from the receipt of the revocation decision;

d) In the cases where the practicing certificate is incorrect because of the issuing authority, the revoking authority shall reissue the practicing certificate within 05 days from the receipt of the revoked practicing certificate;

dd) In case the individual whose practicing certificate must be revoked fails to return the practicing certificate as prescribed, the competent authority that issues the revocation decision shall send him/her a decision to pronounce cancellation of the practicing certificate and publish it on its website and provide information thereof to the Ministry of Construction for integration into its website.

Article 81. Recognition of socio-professional organizations eligible to issue construction practicing certificates

1. A socio-professional organization will be certified eligible to issue construction practicing certificates if it:

a) has its field related to construction activities and operates nationwide;

b) has been allowed to be established and had its charter approved by a competent authority;

c) sufficiently provides infrastructure serving tests.

2. An application for certification of eligibility to issue practicing certificates includes:

a) An application form provided in form 01 of the Appendix IV of this Decree;

b) Certified true copies or a file that contains color photos of originals or copies of the written permission for establishment and written approval for the charter granted by a competent authority, presented together with the originals for comparison;

c) A list of facilities serving tests.

3. Procedures for certification of eligibility to issue practicing certificates:

a) The socio-professional organization shall submit an application prescribed in Clause 2 of this Article, by post or in person, to the Ministry of Construction;

b) Within 20 days from the receipt of the satisfactory application, the Ministry of Construction shall consider issuing a decision to certify the socio-professional organization eligible to issue practicing certificates. Such decision shall be sent to the socio-professional organizations and published on the website of the Ministry of Construction within 05 days from the issuance date of the decision.

Article 82. Revocation of the decision to certify socio-professional organization eligible to issue construction practicing certificates

1. A socio-professional organization shall have its decision on certification of eligibility to issue practicing certificates revoked in one of the following cases:

a) It no longer satisfies one of the conditions specified in Clause 1 Article 81 of this Decree;

b) The practicing certificate is issued to the field beyond the scope of certification;

c) The practicing certificate is issued ultra vires;

d) The practicing certificate is issued to individuals that fail to meet eligibility requirements as prescribed.

2. The Ministry of Construction shall revoke the decision to certify the socio-professional organizations eligible to issue practicing certificates when it is discovered that or there are grounds to believe that the socio-professional organization is mentioned in one of the cases specified in Clause 1 of this Article. The revocation of the decision to certify a socio-professional organization eligible to issue practicing certificates shall be considered and decided within 15 days from the date on which there are sufficient grounds for the revocation. The revocation decision shall be sent to the socio-professional organization and published on the website of the Ministry of Construction. The socio-professional organization the certification decision of which has been revoked under the cases specified at points b, c and d, Clause 1 of this Article may request recognition after 06 months from the date of issuance of the decision on revocation. The issuance of decisions to certify socio-professional organizations eligible for grant of practicing certificates comply with Article 81 of this Decree.

Section 2. ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS FOR CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITIES OF ORGANIZATIONS

Article 83. Eligibility requirements for construction activities

1. Each organization engaging in construction activities in the following fields must meet eligibility requirements:

a) Construction survey;

b) Construction planning;

c) Design and design assessment;

d) Construction project management consulting;

dd) Construction execution;

e) Construction supervision;

g) Construction inspection;

h) Construction cost management.

2. Each organization involved in construction activities in the fields specified in Points a through e Clause 1 of this Article must obtain a certificate of eligibility for construction activities (hereinafter referred to as “the eligibility certificate”), except for circumstances in clause 3 hereof. The fields to be covered by the practicing certificate are specified in Appendix VII hereto.

3. An organization is not required to obtain an eligibility certificate as prescribed in this Decree to engage in the following construction activities:

a) Perform project management tasks of a field-based PMB or area-based PMB (except for project management consulting as prescribed in Clause 4 Article 21 of this Decree); construction project management unit of one project as prescribed in Article 22 of this Decree; or the investor that manages the project in accordance with Article 23 of this Decree;

b) Design, supervise, execute fire safety as per the law on fire safety;

c) Design, supervise and execute communications, telecommunications system in the work;

d) Perform finishing activities of a building, such as plastering, tiling, painting, installing doors, windows, furniture and other similar works without affecting the load bearing structures of the work;

dd) Participate in construction activities for works of class IV; green parks, public lighting works; telecommunication signal transmission cable lines; projects which only have the works mentioned at this point;

e) Carry out construction activities of foreign organizations under construction operating licenses specified in Clause 2, Article 148 of the Law on Construction in 2014.

4. The organization engaging in the construction activities specified in Clause 1 of this Article must be an enterprise that is prescribed by the Law on Enterprises 2020 or an organization that is licensed to carry out construction activities and established as prescribed by law and must meet the requirements applied to each field as prescribed in this Decree.

5. The practicing certificate is valid for up to 10 years upon first issuance or adjustments to certificate rank or certificate renewal. In case of issuance upon adjustments or supplementation to the certificate or re-issuance as the unexpired certificate is lost, damaged or misstated, the validity period of the new certificate shall coincide with the former certificate.

6. The forms and contents of the practicing certificate are provided in the Form No. 07 to Appendix IV of this Decree.

7. The eligibility certificate is managed using the certificate code, including 02 groups of code joined together by a hyphen (-) as follows:

a) First group includes up to 03 characters representing the place of issue as prescribed in Appendix VIII hereof;

b) Second group indicates the eligibility certificate code.

8. The Ministry of Construction shall uniformly manage the issuance and revocation of the eligibility certificate, and issuance of the eligibility certificate code; provide guidelines for issuing the practicing certificate; publish the list of organizations issued with the eligibility certificate on its website; organize the online issuance of the eligibility certificate.

Article 84. Issuance, revocation, renewal of certificate of eligibility for construction activities

1. A certificate of eligibility for construction activities is issued to:

a) Any organization applying for the eligibility certificate for the first time or adjusting its eligibility certificate rank;

b) Any organization applying for adjustments or amendments to its eligibility certificate; or

c) Any organization applying for reissuance of an unexpired eligibility certificate in case it is lost or damaged or misstated;

d) Any organization applying for renewal of eligibility certificate.

2. The eligibility certificate shall be revoked in one of the following cases:

a) The organization issued with the eligibility certificate shuts down its construction activities, dissolves or goes bankrupt;

b) The organization no longer satisfies all eligibility requirements for construction activities as prescribed;

c) The application for the issuance or reissuance of the eligibility certificate contains counterfeit documents;

d) The organization allows another organization or individual to use its eligibility certificate;

dd) Contents of the eligibility certificate are corrected, erased or falsified;

e) The eligibility certificate is issued ultra vires;

g) The eligibility certificate is misstated at the fault of the issuing authority;

h) The eligibility certificate is issued in the organization fails to meet all eligibility requirements.

3. The organization whose eligibility certificate is revoked in the cases specified in Points c, d and dd Clause 2 of this Article is entitled to apply for issuance of the eligibility certificate 12 months after the date on which the decision on eligibility certificate revocation is issued. Procedures for issuance of the eligibility certificate are the same as those specified in Point a Clause 1 of this Article.

The organization whose eligibility certificate is revoked in the cases specified in Point g Clause 2 of this Article shall be reissued with the eligibility certificate in accordance with the procedures specified in Clause 2 Article 90 of this Decree.

4. The organization shall apply for renewal of eligibility certificate within 3 months before the eligibility certificate expires. After this period, the individual may apply for issuance of another practicing certificate as prescribed in point a clause 1 hereof.

Article 85. Rights and obligations of organizations applying for eligibility certificates

1. An organization applying for eligibility certificate has the following rights:

a) Request supply of information about the issuance of the practicing certificate;

b) Practice construction activities nationwide according to the contents specified on the eligibility certificate;

c) File complaints or whistleblowing reports against violations of law on issuance and use of the eligibility certificate.

2. An organization applying for eligibility certificate has the following obligations:

a) Declare honestly in the application for the eligibility certificate as prescribed; take responsibility before law for the accuracy and legality of the documents in the application provided by them when applying for the certificate; pay fees as prescribed;

b) Practice in strict compliance with the fields and scope of activities stated on the issued eligibility certificate, comply with the law on construction and other relevant laws;

c) Maintain and ensure the organization’s eligibility according to the issued eligibility certificate;

d) Not to erase or modify entries of the eligibility certificate;

dd) The legal representative of the organization presents its eligibility certificate and complies with inspection and examination requirements at the request of competent authorities.

Article 86. The power to issue or revoke certificate of eligibility for construction activities

1. The power to issue the eligibility certificate:

a) Construction authorities affiliated to the Ministry of Construction shall issue Rank-I eligibility certificates;

b) Departments of Construction, socio-professional organizations shall issue Rank-II and Rank-III eligibility certificates.

2. Authorities that have the power to issue eligibility certificates are the ones that have the power to revoke the eligibility certificates that they issued.

If the eligibility certificate is issued against the law but the competent authority that issued the eligibility certificate fails to revoke it, the Ministry of Construction shall directly revoke that eligibility certificate.

Article 87. Application for certificate of eligibility for construction activities

1. An application for issuance of the eligibility certificate for the first time or adjustments to the eligibility certificate rank includes:

a) An application form provided in form 04 of the Appendix IV of this Decree;

b) An establishment decision (if any);

c) A decision on recognition of construction laboratory of the organization or principal contract on cooperation in carrying out testing to serve construction with the recognized construction laboratory (applicable to the applicant for the certificate of eligibility for geotechnical engineering survey);

dd) A practicing certificate or declaration and self-determination of the practicing certificate rank, using form No. 05 of Appendix IV hereto or declaration of the practicing certificate code in case the practicing certificate is issued as prescribed by the Law on Construction 2014, applicable to the titles that require the practicing certificate; qualifications of individuals in charge;

dd) Eligibility certificate issued by a competent authority, in the case of applying for adjustments to the eligibility certificate rank;

e) Contract and record on commissioning of completed typical tasks (for construction survey organizations, construction planning design organizations, construction design (assessment) organizations, construction project management consultancies, construction supervision consulting organizations of Rank I or Rank II);

g) Contract and record on commissioning of completed work items, works or parts of works (in case of specialized construction) as done in conformity with the declaration (for Rank-I or Rank-II construction organizations);

h) Documents specified in Points b, c, d, dd, e and g of this Clause must be certified true copies or e-copies with legal validity.

2. An application for renewal or reissuance of the eligibility certificate includes an application form provided in form 04 of the Appendix V of this Decree and the original of the eligibility certificate. A commitment form made by the applicant for reissuance is required in case of loss of the eligibility certificate.

3. An application for adjustments or amendments to the eligibility certificate includes an application form No. 04 provided in the Appendix IV of this Decree, the original of the eligibility certificate and certified true copy or e-copy with legal validity of documents related to the adjustments or amendments to the eligibility certificate as prescribed in clause 1 hereof.

4. The applicant shall pay charges for submission of the application for eligibility certificate. Such charges shall be collected, transferred, managed and used in accordance with regulations of the Ministry of Finance.

Article 88. Council for evaluation for issuance of the certificate of eligibility for construction activities

1. The head of the issuing authority shall establish a council for evaluation for issuance of the certificate of eligibility for construction activities.

2. The head of the issuing authority shall decide on organizational structure and number of members of the council.

3. A council for evaluation for issuance of the eligibility certificate established by a construction authority affiliated to the Ministry of Construction or Department of Construction shall be composed of:

a) A council president who is a leader of the issuing authority;

b) Standing members who are public officials and public employees of this authority;

c) Members who are public officials and public employees whose major is relevant to the field covered by the eligibility certificate applied for or experts whose expertise is relevant to the field covered by the eligibility certificate applied for where necessary.

4. A council for evaluation for issuance of the construction practicing certificate established by a socio-professional organization shall be composed of:

a) A council president who is a leader of the socio-professional organizations;

b) Members who are the ones of the socio-professional organizations.

5. Council members shall work part-time and in accordance with regulations promulgated by the council president.

Article 89. Evaluation for issuance of eligibility certificates for construction activities

1. The authority competent to grant eligibility certificates shall decide the grant of construction eligibility certificates after obtaining evaluation results from the council for evaluation for issuance of eligibility certificates for construction activities.

2. Construction eligibility of the organization shall be evaluated according to the criteria of meeting the construction eligibility requirements according to this Decree.

3. Each individual employed by the organization can hold one or more titles that require(s) a practicing certificate, perform the tasks when they meet the respective eligibility requirements as prescribed. If the organization only has individuals holding the titles requiring practicing certificates of one or certain fields, types or disciplines, the evaluation shall be carried out in accordance with Clause 4 of this Article.

4. Individuals who are required to have practicing certificates, individuals taking on the title of site manager are employees of the organization in accordance with the law on labor, and are determined to meet requirements for the field or type for which an eligibility certificate is sought as follows:

a) For a construction survey organization: The individual working as a president in charge of carrying out survey shall obtain a construction survey practicing certificate relevant to the rank for which a certificate is sought by the organization. case the individual has a practicing certificate for one field of construction survey, an eligibility certificate will be considered issuing for that field of construction survey;

b) For a construction planning organization: The individual working as a president or chairperson in charge of the fields of construction planning, technical infrastructure, traffic of the construction planning project must have a construction planning design practicing certificate relevant to the rank for which a certificate is sought by the organization;

c) For a construction design (assessment) organization:

For construction design (assessment) of civil and industrial works: The individual working as a president of construction design, chairperson of construction design (assessment) of architecture, construction structure, mechanical – electrical, water supply – drainage of construction design must have a construction design practicing certificate, including: architecture design, construction structure design, mechanical – electrical design, water supply – drainage design appropriate to the job undertaken and the rank for which a certificate is sought by the organization. In case the individuals only work as presidents for one or several subjects of the construction design, an eligibility certificate will be considered issuing for those subjects of construction design.

For construction design (assessment) organization of traffic works: The individual working as a president of construction design, chairperson of construction design (assessment) must have a traffic construction design practicing certificate relevant to the category of the work and the rank for which a certificate is sought by the organization.

For construction design (assessment) organization of agricultural and rural development works: The individual working as a president of construction design, chairperson of construction design (assessment) must have a agricultural and rural development construction design practicing certificate relevant to the category of the work and the rank for which a certificate is sought by the organization.

For construction design (assessment) organization of technical infrastructure works: The individual working as a president of construction design, chairperson of construction design (assessment) must have a technical infrastructure construction design practicing certificate relevant to the category of the work and the rank for which a certificate is sought by the organization;

d) For project management consultancies: The individual working as a project manager must have a project management practicing certificate relevant to the rank for which a certificate is sought by the organization; the individual in charge of specialized fields must have a construction supervision practicing certificate, construction valuation practicing certificate in line with the project group, work class, job taken and rank for which a certificate is sought by the organization;

dd) For construction supervision organizations: The individual working as a chief supervisor or supervisor must have a construction supervision practicing certificate relevant to the field and rank for which a certificate is sought by the organization. If the individual only has a practicing certificate for one field of construction supervision, only an eligibility certificate for such field will be issued;

e) For construction organizations: The individual working as a site manager must meet the requirements in Article 74 hereof. If the organization declares an individual working as a site manager who has a practicing certificate for one field of construction supervision or only has experience as site manager for construction or installation of equipment, only an eligibility certificate for such field is issued.

5. An individual engaged in performance of a job being an employee of the organization as per the labor law will be considered qualified for the field for which an eligibility certificate is sought if his/her expertise as prescribed in Article 67 hereof is relevant to the job taken. An individual in charge of construction must have the expertise equivalent to that of the individual who seeks a construction supervision practicing certificate.

6. The organization’s experience shall be determined qualified if the work performed is accepted as prescribed, is consistent with the business lines, eligibility rank and within the validity period of the eligibility certificate. If the organization performs the work in a period over which an eligibility certificate is not required, the work performed must be consistent with the registered business lines. For a rank-III organization seeking eligibility certificate for construction activities, it is not required to prove the experience in work performed.

If the organization only performs the specialized construction, only an eligibility certificate for such specialized construction is issued.

Article 90. Procedures for issuance and revocation of certificate of eligibility for construction activities

1. Regarding issuance of the eligibility certificate:

a) The applicant shall submit an application form for issuance of the eligibility certificate prescribed in Article 87 of this Decree, electronically or by post or in person, to the issuing authority;

b) From the date on which the satisfactory is received, the issuing authority shall issue the eligibility certificate within 20 days in the case of issuance of the certificate for the first time, adjustments to the rank of, adjustments or amendments to the eligibility certificate, and within 10 days in the case of reissuance of the eligibility certificate. In the case the application is unsatisfactory, the issuing authority shall notify the applicant in writing once within 05 days from the date on which the application is received.

2. Regarding revocation of the eligibility certificate:

a) Within 10 days from the date on which the inspection conclusion, including a proposal for revocation of the practicing certificate, is received or it is discovered or there are grounds to believe that the organization is mentioned in one of the cases specified in Clause 2 Article 84 of this Decree, the revoking authority shall issue a decision on revocation of the eligibility certificate. In case of failure to revoke it, written explanation shall be provided to the organization or individual that makes the revocation proposal;

b) The revoking authority shall send the revocation decision to the individual and publish it on its website, and provide information thereof to the Ministry of Construction for integration into its website within 05 days from the issuance date of the decision;

c) The organization whose eligibility certificate is revoked shall return the original of such certificate to the authority that issues the revocation decision within 05 days from the receipt of the revocation decision;

d) In the cases where the eligibility certificate is misstated at the fault of the issuing authority, the revoking authority shall reissue the eligibility certificate within 05 days from the receipt of the revoked eligibility certificate;

dd) In case the organization whose eligibility certificate must be revoked fails to return the eligibility certificate as prescribed, the competent authority that issues the revocation decision shall send him/her a decision to pronounce cancellation of the eligibility certificate and publish it on its website and provide information thereof to the Ministry of Construction for integration into its website.

Article 91. Eligibility requirements to be satisfied by organizations responsible for construction survey

1. General eligibility requirements for the ranks:

a) The organization responsible for construction survey must have laboratories or sign a written agreement or principal contract on cooperation in carrying out testing with the recognized laboratory serving construction survey for the field of geotechnical engineering survey;

b) The organization responsible for construction survey must have machinery and equipment or be capable of providing machinery and equipment for survey related to the field for which an eligibility certificate is sought.

2. Rank I:

a) The individual working as a president in charge of carrying out survey shall obtain a Rank-I construction survey practicing certificate relevant to the field for which an eligibility certificate is sought;

b) The individual participating in carrying out survey shall have his/her expertise relevant to the type of construction survey for which an eligibility certificate is sought for;

c) The organization has carried out construction survey of at least 01 group A project or higher or 02 group B projects or higher or 01 Class I work or higher or 02 Class II works or higher with the same type of survey.

3. Rank II:

a) The individual working as a president in charge of carrying out survey shall obtain a Rank-II construction survey practicing certificate or higher relevant to the field for which an eligibility certificate is sought;

b) The individual participating in carrying out survey shall have his/her expertise relevant to the type of construction survey for which an eligibility certificate is sought for;

c) The organization has carried out construction survey of at least 01 group B project or higher or 02 group C projects or higher or 03 projects that require economic – technical reports or 01 Class II work or higher or 02 Class III works or higher with the same type of survey.

4. Rank III:

a) The individual working as a president in charge of carrying out survey shall obtain a Rank-III construction survey practicing certificate or higher relevant to the field for which an eligibility certificate is sought;

b) The individual participating in carrying out survey shall have his/her expertise relevant to the type of construction survey for which an eligibility certificate is sought for.

Article 92. Eligibility requirements to be satisfied by organizations responsible for construction planning formulation

Each organization responsible for construction planning formulation must satisfy eligibility requirements corresponding to eligibility ranks as follows:

1. Rank I:

a) The individual working as a president or chairperson in charge of specialized fields as to architecture – planning; technical infrastructure; traffic of a planning project shall obtain a Rank-I practicing certificate relevant to his/her specialized field;

b) The organization responsible for construction planning formulation has formulated at least 01 construction planning project that has been approved by the Prime Minister or 02 construction planning projects (including at least 01 inter-district, district or general construction planning project) that have been approved by the People’s Committee of the province.

2. Rank II:

a) The individual working as a president or chairperson in charge of specialized fields as to architecture – planning; technical infrastructure; traffic of a planning project shall obtain a Rank-II practicing certificate relevant to his/her specialized field;

b) The organization responsible for construction planning formulation has formulated at least 01 construction planning project that has been approved by the People’s Committee of the province or 02 construction planning projects that have been approved by the People’s Committee of the district.

3. Rank III:

The individual working as a president or chairperson in charge of specialized fields as to architecture – planning; technical infrastructure; traffic of a planning project shall obtain a Rank-III practicing certificate relevant to his/her specialized field.

Article 93. Eligibility requirements to be satisfied by organizations responsible for construction design (assessment)

Each organization responsible for construction design (assessment) must satisfy eligibility requirements corresponding to eligibility ranks as follows:

1. Rank I:

a) The individual working as a president or chairperson in charge of construction design (assessment) of design-related disciplines shall obtain a Rank-I practicing certificate relevant to his/her specialized field;

b) The individual involved in construction design (assessment) shall have his/her expertise relevant to the field and work type for which an eligibility certificate is sought;

c) The organization has designed or appraised the design of at least 01 Class I work or higher or 02 Class II works or higher of the same type.

2. Rank II:

a) The individual working as a president or chairperson in charge of construction design (assessment) of design-related disciplines shall obtain a Rank-II practicing certificate relevant to his/her specialized field;

b) The individual involved in construction design (assessment) shall have his/her expertise relevant to the field and work type for which an eligibility certificate is sought;

c) The organization has designed or appraised the design of at least 01 Class II work or higher or 02 Class III works or higher of the same type.

3. Rank III:

a) The individual working as a president or chairperson in charge of construction design (assessment) of design-related disciplines shall obtain a Rank-II practicing certificate relevant to his/her specialized field;

b) The individual involved in construction design (assessment) shall have his/her expertise relevant to the field and work type for which an eligibility certificate is sought.

Article 94. Eligibility requirements to be satisfied by project management consultancy

Each organization responsible for construction design must satisfy eligibility requirements corresponding to eligibility ranks as follows:

1. Rank I:

a) The individual working as a project manager shall obtain a Rank-I project management practicing certificate;

b) The individual in charge of specialized fields shall obtain a Rank-I practicing certificate of construction supervision, construction valuation relevant to his/her tasks;

c) The individual involved in project management shall have his/her expertise relevant to his/her tasks;

d) The project management consultancy has managed at least 01 group A project or 02 group B projects or higher.

2. Rank II:

a) The individual working as a project manager shall obtain a Rank-II project management practicing certificate or higher;

b) The individual in charge of specialized fields shall obtain a Rank-II practicing certificate of construction supervision, construction valuation relevant to his/her tasks;

c) The individual involved in project management shall have his/her expertise relevant to his/her tasks;

d) The project management consultancy has managed at least 01 group B project or higher or 02 group C projects or higher.

3. Rank III:

a) The individual working as a project manager shall obtain a Rank-III project management practicing certificate or higher;

b) The individual in charge of specialized fields shall obtain a Rank-III practicing certificate of construction supervision, construction valuation relevant to his/her tasks;

c) The individual involved in project management shall have his/her expertise relevant to his/her tasks,

Article 95. Eligibility requirements to be satisfied by organizations responsible for construction execution

Each organization responsible for construction execution must satisfy eligibility requirements corresponding to eligibility ranks as follows:

1. Rank I:

a) The individual working as a site manager shall satisfy requirements applied to a Rank I site manager, relevant to his/her specialized field;

b) The individual in charge of execution of a specialized field shall obtain a bachelor’s degree or Level 5 of VQF Advanced Diploma relevant to his/her tasks, and has a work duration of at least 03 year and 05 years with respect to the holder of the bachelor’s degree and Level 5 of VQF Advanced Diploma respectively;

c) The organization shall be capable of providing sufficient machinery and equipment meeting construction execution requirements that match its tasks;

d) The organization has directly executed tasks of a work item, work or component (in case of specialized construction) relevant to the requirements of the certificate of at least 01 Class I work or higher or 02 Class II works or higher of the same type in case of the construction execution;

dd) The organization has directly installed equipment of the work item or work relevant to the requirements of the certificate of at least 01 Class I work or higher or 02 Class II works or higher of the same type in case of installation of equipment to the work.

2. Rank II:

a) The individual working as a site manager shall satisfy requirements applied to a Rank-II or higher site manager relevant to his/her specialized field;

b) The individual in charge of execution of a specialized field shall obtain a bachelor’s degree or Level 5 of VQF Advanced Diploma relevant to his/her tasks, and has a work duration of at least 01 year and 03 years with respect to the holder of the bachelor’s degree and Level 5 of VQF Advanced Diploma respectively;

c) The organization shall be capable of providing sufficient machinery and equipment meeting construction execution requirements that match its tasks;

d) The organization has directly executed tasks of a work item, work or component (in case of specialized construction) relevant to the requirements of the certificate of at least 01 Class I work or higher or 02 Class II works or higher of the same type;

dd) The organization has directly installed equipment of the work item or work relevant to the requirements of the certificate of at least 01 Class II work or higher or 02 Class III works or higher of the same type for the installation of equipment to the work.

3. Rank III:

a) The individual working as a site manager shall satisfy requirements applied to a Rank-III or higher site manager relevant to his/her specialized field;

b) The individual in charge of a specialized field shall obtain a bachelor’s degree or Level 5 of VQF Advanced Diploma relevant to his/her tasks;

c) The organization shall be capable of providing sufficient machinery and equipment meeting construction execution requirements that match its tasks.

Article 96. Eligibility requirements to be satisfied by organization responsible for construction supervision consulting

Each organization responsible for construction supervision consulting must satisfy eligibility requirements corresponding to eligibility ranks as follows:

1. Rank I:

a) The individual working as a chief supervisor shall obtain a Rank-I construction supervision practicing certificate or a supervisor shall obtain a construction supervision practicing certificate relevant to the work type for which an eligibility certificate is sought;

b) The organization has supervised construction of at least a 01 Class I work or higher or 02 Class II works or higher of the same type covered by the eligibility certificate applied for in case of construction execution;

c) The organization has supervised the installation of equipment to the work of at least 01 Class I work or higher or 02 Class II works or higher in case of installation of equipment to the work.

2. Rank II:

a) The individual working as a chief supervisor shall obtain a Rank-II or higher construction supervision practicing certificate or a supervisor shall obtain a construction supervision practicing certificate relevant to the work type for which an eligibility certificate is sought;

b) The organization has supervised construction of at least a 01 Class II work or higher or 02 Class III works or higher of the same type covered by the eligibility certificate applied for in case of construction execution;

c) The organization has supervised the installation of equipment to the work of at least 01 Class II work or higher or 02 Class III works or higher in case of installation of equipment to the work.

3. Rank III:

The individual working as a chief supervisor shall obtain a Rank-III or higher construction supervision practicing certificate or a supervisor shall obtain a construction supervision practicing certificate relevant to the work type for which an eligibility certificate is sought.

Article 97. Eligibility requirements to be satisfied by organizations responsible for construction inspection

1. Any organization engaging in inspecting quality, identifying causes of damage, service life of parts of works or constructions works and carrying out inspections to indentify causes of construction incidents shall satisfy the eligibility requirements corresponding to eligibility ranks as follows:

a) Rank I:

– The individual working as a chairperson in charge of construction inspection shall satisfy appropriate Rank-I eligibility requirements for construction inspection practicing;

– The individual working as a chairperson in charge of construction inspection shall have his/her expertise relevant to construction inspection;

– The organization has inspected construction of at least 01 Class I work or higher or 02 Class II works or higher of the same type.

b) Rank II:

– The individual working as a chairperson in charge of construction inspection shall satisfy appropriate Rank-II or higher eligibility requirements for construction inspection practicing;

– The individual working as a chairperson in charge of construction inspection shall have his/her expertise relevant to construction inspection;

– The organization has inspected construction of at least 01 Class II work or higher or 02 Class III works or higher of the same type.

c) Rank III:

– The individual working as a chairperson in charge of construction inspection shall satisfy appropriate Rank-III eligibility requirements for construction inspection practicing;

– The individual working as a chairperson in charge of construction inspection shall have his/her expertise relevant to construction inspection.

2. Scope of operation:

a) Rank I: the organization is entitled to inspect construction of all works of the same type;

b) Rank II: the organization is entitled to inspect construction of Class II works or below of the same type;

c) Rank III: the organization is entitled to inspect construction of Class III works or below of the same type.

3. Any organization engaging in inspecting quality of construction materials, components and products shall satisfy the following requirements:

a) Construction laboratories must be used with the tests recognized by a competent authority in conformity with the inspected items;

b) The inspector’s expertise must be conformable with the construction inspection.

Article 98. Eligibility requirements to be satisfied by organizations responsible for construction cost management consulting

1. Each organization responsible for construction cost management consulting must satisfy eligibility requirements corresponding to eligibility ranks as follows:

a) Rank I:

– The individual working as a chairperson in charge of construction cost management shall obtain a Rank-I construction valuation practicing certificate;

– The individual involved in construction cost management shall have his/her expertise relevant to the construction cost management;

– The organization has managed the cost of execution of at least 01 group A project or higher or 02 group B projects or higher.

b) Rank II:

– The individual working as a chairperson in charge of construction cost management shall obtain a Rank-II or higher construction valuation practicing certificate;

– The individual involved in construction cost management shall have his/her expertise relevant to the construction cost management;

– The organization has managed the cost of execution of at least 01 group B project or higher or 02 group C projects or higher or at least 03 projects that require economic – technical reports.

c) Rank III:

– The individual working as a chairperson in charge of construction cost management shall obtain a Rank-III or higher construction valuation practicing certificate;

– The individual involved in construction cost management shall have his/her expertise relevant to the construction cost management.

2. Scope of operation:

a) Rank I: the organization is entitled to perform the tasks related to management of cost of execution of all projects;

b) Rank II: the organization is entitled to perform the tasks related to management of cost of execution of group B projects or below;

c) Rank III: the organization is entitled to perform the tasks related to the management of cost of execution of group C projects and projects that only require economic – technical reports.

Article 99. Posting information about organizations and individuals’ eligibility for construction activities

1. The information about organizations and individuals’ eligibility for construction activities issued with the certificate shall be posted on the website under the management of the issuing authority, and integrated into the website of the Ministry of Construction.

2. Procedures for posting information about eligibility for construction activities:

The issuing authority shall post information about organizations and individuals’ eligibility for construction activities on the website under its management, and provide information thereof to a construction authority affiliated to the Ministry of Construction for integration into its website.

Information about eligibility for construction activities shall be posted within 05 days from the issuance date of the certificate. Information shall be integrated into the website of the Ministry of Construction within 03 days from the receipt of information from the issuing authority.

Article 100. Recognition of socio-professional organizations eligible to issue construction practicing certificates

1. A socio-professional organization will be certified eligible to issue construction practicing certificates if it:

a) has its field related to construction activities and operates nationwide;

b) has been allowed to be established and had its charter approved by a competent authority.

2. An application for certification of eligibility to issue eligibility certificate includes:

a) An application form provided in form 02 of the Appendix IV of this Decree;

b) Certified true copy or e-copy with legal validity of the written permission for establishment and written approval for the charter granted by a competent authority.

3. Procedures for certification of eligibility to issue eligibility certificate:

a) The socio-professional organization shall submit an application prescribed in Clause 2 of this Article to the Ministry of Construction;

b) Within 20 days from the receipt of the satisfactory application, the Ministry of Construction shall consider issuing a decision to certify the socio-professional organization eligible to issue eligibility certificate. Such decision shall be sent to the socio-professional organizations and published on the website of the Ministry of Construction within 05 days from the issuance date of the decision.

Article 101. Revocation of the decision to certify socio-professional organization eligible to issue construction eligibility certificate

1. A socio-professional organization shall have its decision on certification of eligibility to issue eligibility certificates revoked in one of the following cases:

a) It no longer satisfies one of the conditions specified in Clause 1 Article 100 of this Decree;

b) The eligibility certificate is issued to the field beyond the scope of certification;

c) The eligibility certificate is issued ultra vires;

d) The eligibility certificate is issued to an organization that fails to meet eligibility requirements as prescribed.

2. The Ministry of Construction shall revoke the decision to certify the socio-professional organizations eligible to issue eligibility certificates when it is discovered that or there are grounds to believe that the socio-professional organization is mentioned in one of the cases specified in Clause 1 of this Article. The revocation of the decision to certify a socio-professional organization eligible to issue eligibility certificate shall be considered and decided within 15 days from the date on which there are sufficient grounds for the revocation. The revocation decision shall be sent to the socio-professional organization and published on the website of the Ministry of Construction. The socio-professional organization the recognition decision of which has been revoked under the cases specified at points b, c and d, Clause 1 of this Article may request recognition after 06 months from the date of issuance of the decision on revocation. The issuance of decisions to certify socio-professional organizations eligible for grant of eligibility certificate shall comply with Article 100 of this Decree.

Section 3. ISSUANCE OF CONSTRUCTION OPERATING LICENSE TO FOREIGN CONTRACTORS

Article 102. Rules for management of foreign contractor operation

1. The foreign contractor is only permitted to carry out construction activities in Vietnam after receiving a construction operating license issued by state agency in charge of construction.

2. The operation of the foreign contractor in Vietnam must comply with Vietnamese law and international treaties that Vietnam concluded or acceded.

Article 103. Requirements for eligibility to be granted construction operating license

1. A foreign contractor will be granted the construction operating license if it has been awarded the contract by the investor/contractor (subcontractor).

2. The foreign contractor must set up a joint venture with a Vietnamese contractor or employ Vietnamese sub-contractors, unless the Vietnamese contractor is ineligible to execute any tasks of the contract package. Upon the joint venture or employment of Vietnamese contractors, it is required to clarify contents, quantity and value of tasks performed by Vietnamese contractors in the joint venture or Vietnamese sub-contractors.

3. The foreign contractor must commit to comply with regulations of Vietnamese law on contract execution in Vietnam.

Article 104. Application for and competence in issuance of construction operating license

1. The foreign contractor must send an application directly or by post to the agency issuing construction operating license (hereinafter referred to as issuing agency), including:

a) An application form for construction operating license No. 01, 04 of Appendix IV hereto;

b) A certified true copy of the report on bid results or the decision on lawful contract award;

c) A certified true copy or e-copy of the establishment license or the Certificate of Business registration and practice license (if any) of the foreign contractor issued by its nationality country;

dd) A report on experience in contract execution and certified true copy or e-copy of a report on finance auditing within 3 (three) latest years (for the case not in accordance with procurement law);

dd) A certified true copy or e-copy of a joint-venture contract with the Vietnamese contractor or an official contract or a rule contract with the Vietnamese sub-contractor to carry out the contract (available in the bid);

e) A lawful power of attorney held by the person who is not the legal representative of the contractor;

g) A certified true copy or e-copy of project approval decision or investment decision or investment certificate of the project/work.

2. The application form for issuance of construction operating license shall be made in Vietnamese. The foreign establishment license or the foreign business registration certificate must bear consular authentication, unless an international treaty to which Vietnam and relevant countries are signatories provides for exemption for consular authentication. If documents prescribed in Point b, c, dd and e Clause 1 of this Article are made in foreign languages, they are required to be translated into Vietnamese and the translations must be notarized or certified as prescribed in Vietnamese law.

3. Competence in issuance of construction operating license:

a) Construction authorities affiliated to the Ministry of Construction shall issue construction operating licenses to foreign contractors in charge of projects of national importance, group-A projects or construction projects located in at least two provinces;

b) Departments of Construction shall issue construction operating license to foreign contractors in charge of group-B or group-C projects of provinces.

Article 105. Time limit and fees for issuance of the construction operating license

1. The construction authority prescribed in Clause 3 Article 104 of this Decree shall verify the application for issuance of construction operating license to the foreign contractor within 20 (twenty) days, from the date on which the sufficient application prescribed in Article 104 of this Decree is received. If the application is rejected, the issuing agency must provide explanation in writing for the contractor.

2. When receiving the construction operating license, the foreign contractor must pay fees as prescribed by the Ministry of Finance.

3. The construction operating license shall be invalid in following cases:

a) The contract is completed and finalized;

b) The contract is invalid due to the suspension, dissolution, bankrupt of the foreign contractor or other reasons as prescribed in Vietnamese law and the legislation of the country which the foreign contractors hold nationality.

Article 106. Revocation of construction operating license

1. A foreign contractor shall have its construction operating license revoked in one of the following cases:

a) The application for issuance of construction operating license contains counterfeit documents;

b) Contents of the construction operating license are corrected, erased or falsified;

c) The construction operating license is misstated at the fault of the issuing authority;

d) The construction operating license is issued ultra vires.

2. Competence in revocation of construction permit:

a) Authorities that have the power to issue construction operating licenses are the ones that have the power to revoke the construction permits that they issued;

b) If the construction operating license is issued against the law but the competent authority that issued the construction operating license fails to revoke it, the Ministry of Construction shall directly revoke that construction operating license.

3. Procedures for revocation of construction operating license:

a) Within 10 days from the date on which the inspection conclusion of the construction authority, including a proposal for revocation of the construction operating license, is received or it is discovered or there are grounds to determine one of the cases specified in clause 1 hereof, the revoking authority shall issue a decision on revocation of the construction operating license. In case of failure to revoke it, a written explanation shall be provided to the organization that makes the revocation proposal;

b) The revoking authority shall send the revocation decision to the individual or organization whose license is revoked; and forward it to the investor and relevant agencies;

c) The organization or individual whose construction operating license is revoked shall return the original of such certificate to the authority that issues the revocation decision within 05 days from the receipt of the revocation decision;

d) In the cases where the construction operating license is incorrect because of the issuing authority, the revoking authority shall reissue the construction operating license within 05 days from the receipt of the revoked construction permit; in case of violations in point a, point b clause 1 hereof, the authority that has competence to issue a construction operating license to the foreign contractor shall only do that when 12 months has elapsed since the date of revocation;

dd) In case the individual whose construction operating license must be revoked fails to return the construction operating license as prescribed, the competent authority that issues the revocation decision shall send him/her a decision to pronounce cancellation of the construction operating license and forward it to the investor and relevant agencies.

Article 107. Rights and obligations of the foreign contractor

1. The foreign contractor has rights to:

a) Request competent authorities to provide guidelines for preparing application for issuance of the construction operating license and other issues concerning the contractor as prescribed in this Decree;

b) File complaints and whistleblowing reports against violations committed by organizations or individuals prescribed in this Decree;

c) Have its lawful business interests in Vietnam protected according to the granted construction operating license.

2. A foreign contractor has the obligations to:

a) Establish an executive office in the area where the project is executed after obtaining the construction operating license; register address, telephone, fax, email, seal, account and tax identification number of the executive office. Regarding the contract on planning formulation, construction project formulation, construction survey or construction design, the foreign contractor may establish an executive office in the area where the investor’s head office is located or establish no executive office in Vietnam. Regarding the contract on construction and supervision construction of the work that goes through multiple provinces, the foreign contractor may establish an executive office in an area which the work goes through. The executive office shall only operate within the term of contract and it shall be dissolved when the contract expires;

b) Register or cancel specimen of the seal or return the seal after a contract is terminated as prescribed by law. The foreign contractor shall only use this seal for executing contracts in Vietnam as prescribed in its construction operating license;

c) Register and pay taxes as prescribed by Vietnam’s law, comply with accounting regulations, open accounts and make payments under the guidance of the Ministry of Finance and the State Bank of Vietnam to serve its business under the contract;

d) Recruit employees and employ Vietnamese and foreign employees as prescribed by Vietnam’s law on labor. Only economic management experts, technical management experts and skilled labors that Vietnam is unable to provide are sent to Vietnam;

dd) Follow procedures for import and export of materials, machinery and equipment related to the contract agreement in Vietnam as prescribe by Vietnam’s law;

e) Execute joint-venture contract concluded with the Vietnamese contractor or employ Vietnamese sub-contractors mentioned in the application for issuance of construction operating license;

g) Buy insurance as prescribed by Vietnam’s law in respect of operation of the contractor, including: professional liability insurance for construction consultancy contractors; cargo insurance for procurement contractors; insurance for construction execution contractors and other insurance policies as prescribed in Vietnamese law;

h) Register and inspect quality of imported materials and equipment provided under the contract agreement;

i) Register and inspect safety of construction equipment and vehicles related to business activities of the foreign contractor as prescribed by Vietnam’s law;

k) Comply with regulations on standards, criteria, construction quality control, occupational safety and environmental protection as well as other relevant regulations of Vietnamese law;

l) Comply with reporting regulations specified in its construction operating license;

m) When the work is completed, the foreign contractor must prepare as-built documents; take responsibility for warranty; make statement of exported materials and equipment; handle remaining materials and equipment in the construction contract in accordance with regulations of law on import and export; re-export materials and construction equipment registered in accordance with regulations on temporary import – re-export; complete the contract; concurrently, notify relevant regulatory agencies of the contract completion, shutdown of the executive office.

Article 108. Responsibility of the investor or the project owner to the foreign contractor

The investor or the project owner or the contractor has responsibility to:

1. Conclude the contract agreement with the foreign contractor if the foreign contractor has been issued the construction operating license; instruct the foreign contractor to comply with this Decree and relevant law provisions; support the foreign contractor in preparation of documents related to the construction work that the foreign contractor declares in the application for contract permit issuance and relevant procedures as prescribed in Vietnamese law. Register export or import of materials, machinery or equipment related to the contract execution in company with the foreign contractor as prescribed herewith.

2. Supervise the foreign contractor executing the joint-venture contract with the Vietnamese contract or employment of Vietnamese sub-contractors as prescribed in Article 103 of this Decree.

3. Consider the capacity of domestic construction equipment supply of the foreign contractor before making a list of construction machinery, equipment that applies for temporary import – re-export.

4. Consider capacity of technical labor supply in Vietnam of the foreign contractor before making a list of foreigner staff working for the contractor before they apply for entering Vietnam.

5. Certify the statement of imported materials of the foreign contractor upon the construction completion.

6. Send notification of functions and tasks of the foreign contractor carrying out project management consultancy and supervising construction quality on behalf of the investor or the project owner to other contractors and agencies in charge of construction quality management.

Chapter VII

IMPLEMENTATION

Article 109. Implementation

1. The Ministry of Construction

a) Be held accountable to the Government in state management of scope of regulation of this Decree. Provide guidance on and inspect implementation of this Decree of relevant Ministries, agencies or organizations;

b) Direct and inspect affiliated specialized agencies in performance of administrative procedures laid down herein.

2. Ministries in charge of field-based construction works shall direct and inspect the construction authorities in charge of appraisal of feasibility study report, economic – technical reports, construction design following basic design of the field-based construction work or project, in particular:

a) The Ministry of Construction shall take charge of civil construction projects; urban, residential area construction projects; functional infrastructure construction projects; projects for construction of light industries, manufacturing of building materials, construction products, infrastructure and urban roads (except for national highways running through urban areas);

b) The Ministry of Transport shall take charge of transport construction projects, works (excluding projects, works under management of the Ministry of Construction prescribed in Point a hereof);

c) The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development shall take charge of projects, works in service of agriculture and rural development;

d) The Ministry of Transport shall take charge of industrial construction projects, works (excluding projects, works under management of the Ministry of Construction prescribed in Point a hereof);

dd) The Ministry of National Defense, Ministry of Public Security shall take charge of national defense and security projects and works.

3. The Ministry of Finance shall provide specific regulations on charges and fees related to the following activities: appraisal of construction projects, construction engineering and construction estimate; issuance of construction operating licenses to foreign contractors, practicing certificates and eligibility certificates.

4. The People’s Committees of provinces shall exercise state management over the matters governed by this Decree in their administrative areas as delegated; direct and inspect construction authorities in the appraisal of feasibility study reports, economic – technical reports, construction designs following basic designs of construction projects under their fields, in specific:

a) The Ministry of Construction shall take charge of civil construction projects; urban, residential area construction projects; functional infrastructure construction projects; projects for construction of light industries, manufacturing of building materials, construction products, infrastructure and urban roads (except for national highways running through urban areas);

b) The Ministry of Transport shall take charge of transport construction projects, works (excluding projects, works under management of the Ministry of Construction prescribed in Point a hereof);

c) The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development shall take charge of projects, works in service of agriculture and rural development;

d) The Ministry of Transport shall take charge of industrial construction projects, works (excluding projects, works under management of the Ministry of Construction prescribed in Point a hereof);

dd) Management boards of industrial parks, export processing zones, hi-tech parks and economic zones shall take charge of projects and works constructed in industrial parks, export processing zones, hi-tech parks, and economic zones;

e) For provinces and centrally affiliated cities that have Departments of Transport – Construction, this Department shall perform the tasks at Points a and b of this Clause.

5. Based on specific circumstances of each district, the People’s Committee of province shall delegate construction authorities affiliated to the People’s Committees of districts to appraise feasibility study reports, economic-technical reports, construction designs following basic designs of construction projects in the districts and shall have the right to adjust the delegation of appraisal as prescribed in Point dd, Clause 4 of this Article.

6. The People’s Committee of district shall carry out state management of regulations of this Decree in the district; direct and inspect the offices in charge of construction management in terms of appraisal of feasibility study reports, the construction designs following basic designs of construction works as delegated by the People’s Committee of the province.

7. Ministries, agencies, People’s Committees of provinces shall establish and re-organize field-based PMBs, area-based PMBs in order to manage construction projects funded by public investment capital, state capital other than public investment capital as prescribed in this Decree. Any guiding document on this Decree may only issued with the Ministry of Construction.

8. Ministries in charge of field-based PMBs, the People’s Committees of central-affiliated cities and provinces, economic groups, state-owned general companies shall send periodical or annual reports on project management to the Ministry of Construction for monitoring. The Ministry of Construction shall provide guidelines for contents, forms and deadlines for reports.

Article 110. Grandfather clause

1. Projects, basic designs or construction designs following basic designs, the appraisal results of which have been notified by a construction authority before the effective date of this Decree, do not require further feasibility study reports, construction designs following basic design in accordance with this Decree, implementation of next steps (including case of project adjustment, construction design) comply with the provisions of this Decree.

2. For construction projects, which have been submitted to the construction authorities for appraisal and appraisal of basic designs according to the provisions of the Construction Law 2014 but there is no notice of appraisal results before the effective date of this Decree, the appraisal by the construction authority shall continue to comply with the Construction Law 2014 , guiding documents and are not required to conduct the appraisal of feasibility study reports according to the provisions of this Decree.

3. For construction works the construction designs following the basic designs of which have been submitted to the construction authorities for appraisal before January 1, 2021 and no notification of appraisal results is received before the date of entry of this Decree, the appraisal by the construction authorities are carried out as follows:

a) For construction works subject to appraisal according to the Law on Construction 2014 and not subject to the scope of application of the provisions of Decree No. 113/2020/ND-CP dated September 18, 2020 of the Government, the appraisal shall continue to comply with the provisions of the Law on Construction 2014 and guiding documents;

b) For construction works subject to the scope of application of the Government’s Decree No. 113/2020/ND-CP dated September 18, 2020, the appraisal of construction design following basic design and review of construction permit exemption eligibility shall continue to comply with the provisions of Decree No. 113/2020/ND-CP dated September 18, 2020 of the Government. In case the design documents submitted for appraisal does not meet the requirements, the construction authority shall send a document to the investor to complete and carry out the appraisal according to the provisions of this Decree.

4. For a construction work for which the appraisal result of the construction design following the basic design has been notified by the construction authority according to the provisions of Decree No. 113/2020/ND-CP dated September 18, 2020 but not subject to the request for appraisal at a construction authority according to the Law on Construction 2014, amended in Law No. 62/2020/QH14, in a case where the construction design following the basic design is modified, the appraisal of the adjusted design and the management of the construction permit are carried out as follows:

a) If the notification of design appraisal result by construction authorities shows the eligibility for exemption of a construction permit, the investor may appraise the modified construction design by itself, and then send a notice together with a report on appraisal result to the construction issuing agency and the local construction authority before continuing the construction;

b) In case the notification of design appraisal result of the construction authority does not mention whether it is eligible for exemption of a construction permit, the investor may appraise the modified construction design by itself and apply for issuance of or modification to a construction permit as prescribed.

5. For a construction project the basic design of which has been appraised by a construction authority according to regulations of the Law on Construction 2014, when the investor submits a feasibility study report for appraisal according to the provisions of this Decree, the construction authority may only carry out the appraisal for the remaining works of project.

6. For a project with the form of project management has been approved by the investment-decision maker according to the provisions of Article 62 of the Construction Law 2014 , such approval shall keep being effective; however, to achieve the project management quality and progress, the investment-decision maker may modify the form of project management according to the provisions of this Decree.

7. For a construction work with the construction design following the basic design approved by the construction authority since August 15, 2020 and eligible for exemption of a construction permit according to Point g, Clause 1, Article 89 of the Construction Law 2014, amended in Clause 30, Article 1 of Law No. 62/2020/QH14 but it has not been commenced prior to the date of entry of this Decree, the investor shall send documents proving the eligibility of requirements for issuance of a construction permit to the local construction authority together with the commencement notice for monitoring and management as prescribed in Article 56 of this Decree.

8. For a construction work which has undergone appraisal of the construction design following the basic design at a construction authority (including the appraisal of modified construction design) and is not exempt from a construction permit as prescribed in Article 89 of the Law on Construction in 2014, amended in Clause 30, Article 1 of Law No. 62/2020/QH14, a construction permit must be issued under the provisions of this Decree, except contents specified in Clause 4, Article 41 and Clause 2, Article 54 of this Decree.

In case a construction work has been granted a construction permit, the construction permit modification must comply with Article 51 of this Decree.

9. A work that is exempt from a construction permit under the provisions of the Law on Construction 2014 and has not commenced construction before the date of entry of this Decree but is subject to a construction permit as prescribed in Law No. 62/2020/QH14 must have a construction permit issued in accordance with the provisions of this Decree.

10. An individual who has been granted a practicing certificate with a definite term in accordance with the Construction Law 2003 may continue using the certificate until its expiration date. Based on the construction eligibility specified in this Decree, the individual may declare and self-determine the rank of the certificate together with the unexpired practicing certificate as a basis for engaging in construction activities. The declaration and self-determination of certificate rank is specified in Form No. 05 of Appendix IV hereto.

11. An organization or individual that has been granted an eligibility certificate or practicing certificate according to the Law on Construction 2014 before the effective date of this Decree may continue using the certificate within the field and scope of construction activities stated therein until it expires. From the effective date of this Decree, if the organization or individual applies for modification to or supplementation of the eligibility certificate or practicing certificate, this Decree shall prevail.

12. An organization or individual that has submitted an application for issuance of eligibility certificate or practicing certificate before the effective date of this Decree shall be considered for certification in accordance with Decree No. 100/2018/ND-CP dated July 16, 2018 of the Government.

Article 111. Entry into force

1. This Decree comes into force as of the date of its signing and supersedes the Government’s Decree No. 59/2015/ND-CP dated June 18, 2015 on construction project management; Decree No. 42/2017/ND-CP dated April 5, 2017 of the Government on amendments to the Government’s Decree No. 59/2015/ND-CP dated June 18, 2015 on construction project management; Article 1, Article 4, Appendix I through Appendix IX of the Government’s Decree No. 100/2018/ND-CP dated July 16, 2018 on amendments and annulment of certain provisions on business investment conditions in the fields of state management of the Ministry of Construction. Every regulations of the Government, Ministries, ministerial-level agencies and local governments in contrary to this Decree shall be annulled.

2. Ministers, Heads of ministerial-level agencies, Heads of Governmental agencies, the President of People’s Committee of provinces and central-affiliated cities shall implement this Decree./.

 

ON BEHALF OF THE GOVERNMENT PRIME MINISTER Nguyen Xuan Phuc