On 07 July 2020, the Ministry of Industry and Trade (“MOIT”) issued Circular No. 16/2020/TT-BCT to amend and supplement certain provisions of Circular No. 44/2-15/TT-BCT dated 09 December 2015 of the MOIT Minister on project development, avoided cost tariff and standardized power purchase agreement for biomass power projects.
In particular, this new Circular provides that investors be only allowed to build on-grid biomass power investment projects, which have been included in the approved Power Development Plan or Provincial Power Development Plan.
In addition, feed-in-tariff for on-grid biomass power projects will follow Decision No. 08/2020/QD-TTg dated 05 march 2020, which increases the feed-in tariff for biomass co-generation heat power to 7.03 US cents per kilowatt hour (up from 5.8 US cents), and for other types of biomass projects to 8.47 US cents per kWh (up from 7.3 to 7.5 US cents depending on location).
Investors whose projects operated before 25 April 2020 will sign a new Power Purchase Agreement (“PPA”) with the buyer in order to be entitled with the abovementioned feed-in-tariff from 25 April 2020 until the expiry of the signed PPA.
How to get highest levels of legal certainty and bankability under the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement and the CPTPP
The recent EVIPA and CPTPP further open the market to foreign investors. The investors now can bring their technology and know-how, especially those from countries with high level of development in renewable sectors to Vietnam with less market access barriers and being more secured. In particular, the CPTPP and the EVIPA make it possible that foreign investors could sue Vietnam’s Government for its investment related decisions according to the dispute settlement by arbitration rules. The final arbitral award is binding and enforceable without any question from the local courts regarding its validity. This is an advantage for investors considering the fact that the percentage of annulled foreign arbitral awards in Vietnam remains relatively high for different reasons.
Although the transition period for the aforementioned Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism is 5 years from the effective date of the EVIPA, Duane Morris Vietnam has the legal and technical tools to make such provisions work in favor of investors from now.
For more information on the above, please do not hesitate to contact the author Dr. Oliver Massmann under omassmann@duanemorris.com. Dr. Oliver Massmann is the General Director of Duane Morris Vietnam LLC, Member to the Supervisory Board of PetroVietnam Insurance JSC and the only foreign lawyer presenting in Vietnamese language to members of the NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF VIETNAM.