A casino in Phu Quoc Island. The Ministry of Finance has proposed amendments to the decree about casino businesses (Photo: tuoitre.vn) Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The Ministry of Finance has proposed amendments to thedecree about casino businesses to create favourable conditions forinvestors.
The regulation for the eligibility to run casino business, including minimumcapital of 2 billion USD for a casino project and the disbursed capital of 1billion USD or higher, was proposed to be kept the same.
However, for regions like Van Don Economic Zone in the northern province of QuangNinh, the ministry proposed that for investors who poured money in otherprojects in the region, the disbursed capital in these projects would becalculated as the disbursed capital for the eligibility of running a casinobusiness but not higher than 25 percent of the total investment of thecasino project.
The proposal, if passed, would facilitate the investment of Sun Group into acasino complex project in Van Don as the developer’s disbursed capital at Van DonInternational Airport and Van Don – Ha Long – Mong Cai Expressway would becalculated as part of the disbursement for the casino business.
The Van Don International Airport had a total investment of 7.5 trillion VND (322million USD) and went into operation in December 2018. The 60km Ha Long-Van DonExpressway had a total investment of 12 trillion VND and the construction of VanDon-Mong Cai Expressway is expected to be complete in 2021.
Sun Group in a document of Quang Ninh provincial People’ Committee in April2017 was confirmed as the only investor selected by the provincial authorityfor the casino complex project in Van Don to propose to the Prime Minister forconsideration.
The Van Don casino complex project would have a total investment of around 2billion USD and be developed on an area of 445ha in Van Yen commune,Van Don district.
Sun Group has asked for an extension of the project's life to 70 yearsfrom 50 years.
Construction of the project is expected to run from this year until 2029. Theprovince planned to announce the official investor of the project inthe second quarter of this year and to date, no name had been announced.
The Politburo previously approved the pilot implementation of allowingVietnamese to gamble at casinos in Van Don and Phu Quoc. Vingroup’s CoronaResort and Casino in Phu Quoc was the first casino in Vietnam to open toVietnamese on January 19, 2019.
The casino in Phu Quoc received around 47,400 Vietnamese in 2019, or 45 percent of its customers, according to the finance ministry.
The ministry also proposed casino investors would be allowed to transfer theircapital at casino projects after five years of being granted licences.
Twelve casino projects have been granted licences in Vietnam and eight ofthem are operational.
The ministry’s statistics showed total revenue of these eight casinosaround doubled in the past three years, from 1.19 trillion VND in 2017 to 2.5trillion VND in 2019. The contribution to the State budget rose from 645billion VND to 1.34 trillion VND./.
VNA
