Government of Vietnam project approval process study : decree 56 analysis

56/2020/ND-CP on the Management and Use of Official Development Assistance (ODA) and Concessional Loans from Foreign Donors on USAID programming. The study addresses five research questions through a legal review and qualitative interviews with 25 respondents: 1. What have been the key trends in the succession of GVN ODA Decree No. 16 (2016), DecreeNo.132 (2018), and Decree No. 56 (2020)? 2. In what ways does Decree 56 change the processes and requirements for project approval(relative to Decree 132)? 3. What are the procedural requirements for USAID-funded activities to seek GVN approval underDecree 56? 4. In what ways can USAID-funded activities increase the likelihood and/or the speed of approval? 5. In what ways can USAID-funded activities increase the likelihood and/or the speed of value-addedtax (VAT) reimbursement? Project approval under Decree 56 should become easier and faster. The Decree removes previous requirements for developing project proposals (except under very specific cases that require prime minister approval) and prime minister approval for technical assistance grants worth over US$3 million. It also expands the kinds of entities that can manage ODA projects, allowing for more programming choices for USAID. Decree 56 offers a tool (the ODA Framework Agreement) to enable a donor and the GVN to enter into agreement on priorities, objectives, and conditions of their technical assistance. Finally, the decree introduces a new requirement that might make VAT refunds more challenging to acquire. However, at the time of writing, the implementation of these new VAT rules is unclear.