In drafting the amendments to the Investment Law, the Ministry of Finance has proposed authorizing the Government to issue a list of conditional business lines, instead of having them stipulated directly in the law as is currently the case. Moving the list down to decrees for more flexible management The Ministry of Finance is drafting a new Law on Business Investment (to replace the current one), expected to be submitted to the National Assembly for review and approval at its October 2025 session. In a draft submission sent to the Ministry of Justice for appraisal, the Ministry of Finance noted that the list of conditional business lines, as provided in the 2014 Investment Law, included 267 business lines; before being reduced to 230 in the 2020 Investment Law, contributing to a more favorable business environment. However, the reduction was not substantive, as it mainly involved merging business lines under broader categories or introducing more far-reaching business lines with wide regulatory scope to reduce the count. Moreover, most conditional business lines are subject to pre-licensing control, meaning a license is required before business activities can commence. In practice, however, certain lines do not necessarily require pre-licensing controls, such as services for […]