The Investment Law No. 143/2025/QH15 (“Investment Law 2025”) was passed by the National Assembly on December 11, 2025, and took effect on March 1, 2026, replacing Investment Law 2020. The provisions on conditional business lines under Article 7 and the corresponding List in Appendix IV will take effect later, on July 1, 2026.
Marking a departure from its predecessor, Investment Law 2025 streamlines the framework by removing detailed regulations and delegating them to the Government. This reflects a new legislative philosophy where the law only stipulates framework issues and principles, granting the Government greater flexibility to issue regulations under its own authority.
As of this article’s publication, the official guiding decree for Investment Law 2025 has not yet been issued. To address this regulatory gap, the Ministry of Finance issued Official Letter No. 2519/BTC-PV on March 4, 2026 (“OL 2519”). OL 2519 states that while the new guiding decree is under review, the Government is preparing a draft Resolution to authorize the continued use of existing regulations (Decree 31/2020/ND-CP and Decree 19/2025/ND-CP) until replacements are formally issued. Relevant agencies are requested to continue processing investment dossiers under these existing regulations, provided they remain consistent with Investment Law 2025.
Currently, only draft versions of the guiding decrees are available. According to these drafts, the Government is preparing two separate decrees: one on outward investment and another on inward investment activities—a shift from the previous consolidated approach under Decree 31/2020/ND-CP. This article reviews and analyzes the 7th draft of the Outward Investment Decree and the 2nd draft of the Inward Investment Decree (both of which have been sent to the Ministry of Justice for appraisal).
The comparison below outlines the key changes between Investment Law 2025 and Investment Law 2020, highlighting the major updates introduced under the new framework.
