According to Clause 1, Article 29 of the Law on Investment 2020, the investor selection shall be carried out by:

1. Holding land use right auction in accordance with regulations of law on land

Before selecting investors by auctioning land use rights, projects must apply for investment policy approval (except for cases not subject to investment policy approval).

The auction of land use rights to select investors must ensure publicity, objectivity, honesty, equality...

At the same time, the order and procedures must be in accordance with the provisions of land law and property auction law.

According to Clause 1, Article 119 of the Land Law 2013, to organize an auction of land use rights, the following conditions must be met:

- The annual district-level land use plan approved by a competent state agency is available;

- The land has been cleared or is land with attached assets owned by the State;

- The plan for holding the auction of land use rights approved by a competent state agency is available.

If a land use right auction is held but only one person registers for participation in the auction or the auction is unsuccessful in accordance with regulations of law on land or if bidding is conducted to select investors but only one investor registers for participation in the bidding in accordance with regulations of law on bidding, the competent authority shall carry out the procedures for approving an investor if the investor satisfies the conditions prescribed by relevant law (Clause 3, Article 29 of the Law on Investment).

2. Bidding to select an investor in accordance with regulations of law on bidding

Similar to the form of selecting investors through auction of land use rights, before selecting investors by bidding for investment projects using land, projects must apply for approval of the investment policy private (unless not eligible).

Investment projects using land must bid to select investors when they meet the conditions stated in Article 11 of Decree No.25/2020/ND-CP (Amended in the Decree No.31/2021/ND-CP):

A land-using investment project is subject to investor selection uses land if it satisfies the following conditions:

+ Projects on construction of urban areas and commercial housing; office buildings; commercial and services works shall be classified in accordance with regulations of law on construction. In the case of a project having multiple functions, the determination of whether the project uses land shall be carried out based on its main work or main work at the highest level if the project has multiple main works in accordance with regulations of law on construction.

+ The project is on the approved list of projects on land that needs expropriating in accordance with regulations of law on land, located in a land area that is currently being managed or used by the State but will be allocated or leased out by the provincial People’s Committee or economic zone management board to the approved investor.

+ The project belongs to a residential housing development program or plan in accordance with regulations of law on housing; an urban development program (if any) in accordance with regulations of law on urban development.

+ The project conforms to the socio-economic development plan or construction planning on a scale of 1/2.000 or 1/5.000 (if any); or the urban zoning planning a scale of 1/2.000 or 1/5.000 as prescribed by law.

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3. Approving an investor

In case the project is subject to investment policy approval, the competent authority also approves the investor not to go through auction of land use rights/tendering in the following cases:

- Investors have the right to use land (except in cases where land is recovered for defense, security/socio-economic development purposes).

- Investors who transfer, contribute capital, or lease agricultural land use rights to carry out non-agricultural production and business projects are not subject to land recovery.

- Investors implementing projects in industrial parks and high-tech parks.

- Other cases not subject to auction or bidding according to regulations.