Answer:

Expanding the incentives on land use and land lease fees    

As prescribed by Decree No. 57/2018/NĐ-CP, instead of being entitled to a reduction of part of the land use fees as stated in Decree 210, enterprises which have agricultural projects (with special investment incentives, investment incentives and investment encouragement) where the State allocates land or allows conversion of land use purposes to build houses for laborers will be entitled to exemption of land use purpose conversion fees with respect to the land area of which the purpose is converted to build houses for laborers; and exemption of land use fees with respect to that land area after being converted.

Decree 57 expands the incentives on land lease and water surface lease fees upon expiry of the lease period of the first 15 years for agricultural projects enjoying investment incentives and the first 11 years for agricultural projects enjoying investment encouragement, enterprises will still enjoy the incentives on land lease and water surface lease fees with an incentive level of 50% for periods of next 7 and 5 years respectively.

Decree 57 concurrently supplements the regulations on exemption of land lease fees in the first 5 years from the date the project is commissioned and a reduction of 50% for a period of next 10 years for small- and medium-sized agricultural enterprises which have just been established.

Other support policies

As opposed to Decree 210, Decree 57 creates more preferential conditions for enterprises with investment projects in agriculture and rural areas to receive support in commercial borrowing interest rates after the projects are completed, with the support level equal to the difference between the commercial borrowing interest rate and the preferential investment credit interest rate provided by the State, calculated over the actual outstanding loan at the time of considering the support application file.

Decree 57 further details other kinds of support:  Assisting enterprises in researching; transferring and applying high-tech agriculture and providing relevant support levels for enterprises which have projects to reproduce plant varieties by the tissue culturing technology; and Assisting enterprises in training human resources and developing the market, providing more support in building and managing the electronic portal of the "National Produce Market".

In addition, Decree 57 continues to maintain support for each specific activity in the agricultural sector by making changes with regard to the level of support and eligibility for support related to facilities for preserving and processing agricultural products; cattle and poultry slaughter; manufacture of equipment, components and agricultural machines; production of auxiliary products; farming of milk cows, beef breed and enterprises with public service delivery projects, investments in agricultural and rural infrastructure.

Decree 57 took effect as from April 17, 2018./.  

VGP