LAOS: New Guidelines on Securing Promoted Investment Incentives

Supplementary regulations related to securing promoted investment incentives have now been released by the government. Billed as the Instructions on the Promotion of Investment Incentives Concerning the State Land Rental and Concession Fees, the new measures tighten up the country’s existing Law on Investment Promotion No. 14/NA (LIP) (2017). 

Essentially, the newly-published instructions set out to clarify the type of investment activity that is eligible for incentives, as well as the required procedures for requesting and securing an incentive certificate. In short, legal entities that wish to acquire an incentive certificate must submit an application to the appropriate section of the Ministry of Planning and Investment, which will then coordinate with the relevant government agencies. Once it is clear that all requirements have been met, the certificate will be issued within 30 working days. 

In the case of major investment projects, however, they will not be required to apply for incentive certificates if they have either a concession agreement with the Lao government or are subject to a National Assembly resolution covering incentives greater in scope than those specified by the Law on Investment Promotion.  

The guidelines also divide the requirements into general and specific categories. First of all, any businesses looking to benefit from the promotional incentives on offer must meet the general requirements, including a stipulation that they have invested a minimum of LAK1.2 billion (US$127,000) in a designated sector and have hired at least 30 Lao technical staff or 50 Lao workers on one-year minimum employment contracts. Subsequent to meeting these criteria, there are then more than 100 specific requirements related to the individual sectors any investment is destined for.