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Decree 96/2026/ND-CP is the principal implementing instrument for the Law on Investment 2025 (Law 143/2025/QH15, already filed as 2025-12-11-vietnam-law-on-investment-143-2025-qh15). Where the parent law sets the framework — Article 19 establishment-without-a-project, the Special Investment Procedure (SIP), the Appendix IV conditional- sector cull, decentralised approval — Decree 96 supplies the procedural detail on which the law's speed-to-ground claims actually hinge.
Five operational components:
The 2025 Law created the SIP as a fast-track route for projects sited in industrial parks (KCN), export-processing zones (EPZ), high-tech parks, concentrated digital-technology zones, free-trade zones, the Ho Chi Minh / Da Nang international financial centres and functional areas of economic zones. Decree 96 specifies the registration-and- commitment workflow that replaces standalone construction, environment and fire-prevention permit appraisals — eligible investors register with the zone management board, commit to applicable technical standards, and proceed to ground-breaking without serial inter-agency approvals. Detailed deadlines, post- licensing reporting cadence and remediation procedures are set in the decree text.
The decree codifies the closed list of restricted industries / fields for foreign-investor market access and the specific conditions foreign investors must meet to invest in those fields. This is the operational text behind Article 9 of the 2025 Law and replaces the analogous market-access lists previously fragmented across Decrees 31/2021, 19/2025 and 239/2025.
The decree specifies the expanded list of 16 specially-incentivised sectors. The list explicitly emphasises:
fabrication, design, IP) and downstream (assembly, test, packaging)
electronics)
Investors operating in these sectors qualify for the highest tier of the corporate-income-tax holiday and reduced-rate regimes set by parallel tax legislation, and stack with the cash-grant entitlements under the Decree 182/2024 Investment Support Fund (already filed as 2024-12-31-vietnam-decree-182-investment-support-fund).
Investors may submit documents directly or by post; investment- registration / investment-policy approvals move to a more uniform e-government workflow. The decree also specifies the new grievance mechanism — investors can report concerns about law application to designated state agencies, with the explicit aim of reducing international-investment-dispute (ISDS) exposure.
Decrees 31/2021/ND-CP, 19/2025/ND-CP and 239/2025/ND-CP are repealed in full. This consolidates the FDI-licensing rulebook back into a single decree for the first time since 2021, removing the layered- amendment confusion that built up through 2024-2025.
Decree 96/2026 is the operational text where the Investment Law 2025's procedural promises are actually realised. The decree:
matters for the next wave of inbound semiconductor / data-centre / AI capex
which foreign capital can enter which sectors
239/2025) into a single rulebook, materially reducing transactional legal uncertainty for inbound investors
A 4 reflects the operational scope (every inbound FDI deal in Vietnam from 31 March 2026 onwards is processed under this decree) and the direct linkage to the strategic-technology sectors driving Vietnam's FDI thesis. It is not 5 because the decree itself does not appropriate funding or impose restrictive controls — it operationalises the framework set by the parent law.
the 9-12 month ground-breaking acceleration claimed in the parent law. The first inbound semiconductor / data-centre projects filed under Decree 96 in Q2-Q3 2026 will provide the read on implementation capacity at provincial level.
Decree 182/2024 Investment Support Fund cash grants. A project that qualifies as "high-tech / strategic technology" under Decree 96 is eligible for the up-to-50%-of-R&D ISF grant; one that does not is not.
behind Decision 1018) now has a procedural fast-track — whether any inbound fab applicant uses it remains an open question.
FTSE-upgrade catalyst remains the larger near-term price driver, but Decree 96 is part of the structural-reform narrative supporting the upgrade case.
limits inside Decree 96? The parent law specifies the principle but the binding numbers live in the decree.
staff up to deliver the SIP timelines? Implementation capacity, not legal authority, is the binding constraint.
expected Q4 2026 packaging legislation, or will it hold as the consolidated FDI-procedural rulebook through the 2026-2030 horizon?
issued the same day — is not yet filed; it is the symmetric instrument for Vietnamese capital moving offshore and is worth separate IPTM treatment.