Thông tư 14/2017/TT-BNNPTNT

CIRCULAR

GUIDANCE ON PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP FOR INVESTMENT IN AGRICULTURE AND RURAL AREAS

Pursuant to Law on public investment dated June 18, 2014;

Pursuant to Law on investment dated November 26, 2014;

Pursuant to the Government's Decree No. 15/2015/ND-CP dated February 14, 2015 on investment via Public Private Partnership;

Pursuant to the Government’s Decree No. 15/2017/ND-CP date February 17, 2017 on functions, duties, powers and organizational structure of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development;

To implement the document No. 10126/VPCP-KTN of Office of the Government dated November 24, 2016 on additions of PPP contract related to agriculture in accordance with regulations of Decree No. 15/2015/ND-CP;

At the request Director General of Department of Planning,

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development promulgates the Circular on providing guidance on public private partnership for investment in agriculture and rural areas.

Article 1. Scope

This Circular provides detailed guidance on investment areas, contents of project proposals, feasibility study reports and contracts for projects on Public Private Partnership for investment in agriculture and rural areas (hereinafter referred to as “PPP projects”).

Article 2. Regulated entities

This Circular applies to competent authorities, investors, project management enterprise and organizations and individuals related to the execution of PPP projects.

Article 3. Definitions

For the purpose of this Circular, the terms below shall be construed as follows:

1. "agriculture” includes farming, breeding, forestry, salt production, aquaculture and irrigation.

2. "agricultural products” includes products of farming, breeding, forestry and aquaculture and salt production.

3. “farmers” includes people who cultivate plants, breed animals, plant and take care of trees and forest, breed and plant aquatic organisms and produce salt.

4. “project on services of development of connection between production and processing and sale of agricultural products (hereinafter referred to as “connection service project”) means a project providing services to establish the connection between farmers or agricultural cooperatives and investors or project management enterprises in order to connect the production with the processing and sale of agricultural products aiming to create their added value.

5. “Services to establish the connection between farmers or agricultural cooperatives and investors or project management enterprises” include 3 groups as follows:

a) Group of services related to assistance in agricultural production includes provision of input materials, finance, credit, training in and supply of human resources, infrastructure, provision of consultancy related to science, technology and policy, encouragement of agriculture, transfer of advanced techniques, mechanization, veterinary and plant protection;

b) Group of services related to preservation and processing of agricultural products includes preservation (storage, refrigeration, drying, steaming sterilization, irradiation), preliminary processing and processing of agricultural products;

c) Group of services related to the sale of agricultural products includes product sale, testing, analysis, verification, quality certification, conformity assessment, creation of trade name of agricultural products and logistic services.

6. “contract for connection service” means a contract that is signed by the competent authority and an investor to carry out a connection service project. In which, the investor or project management enterprise shall provide services and cooperate with farmers and agricultural cooperatives, may manage and operate the project and collect fees from people using the services (if any). However, the investor shall provide insurance for agricultural product sale as prescribed in the contract. The competent authority may invest in the project in money or other forms in accordance with regulations of law. After the project contract finishes, the investor shall transfer the property and works of the project (if any) to the competent authority according to their agreement.

7. “PPP project contracts" includes contracts prescribed in Clause 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 Article 3 of Decree No. 15/2015/ND-CP and contracts mentioned in Clause 6 of this Article.

Article 4. Areas of PPP for investment in agriculture and rural areas

1. Construction, renovation, operation and management of agricultural and rural infrastructure works, including:

a) Works or work items in the irrigational system serving the agricultural production or serving both agricultural production, industry, service and daily life;

b) Works or work items serving supply of domestic water for people living in rural areas;

c) Infrastructure works or work items serving aquaculture, commercial fishing and other fishery infrastructure;

d) Infrastructure works or work items serving farming and breeding;

dd) Infrastructure works or work items serving forest protection and development;

e) Infrastructure works or work items serving salt production and processing;

g) Warehouses serving storage and preservation of agricultural products;

h) Infrastructure works or work items of hi-tech agricultural zones or areas;

i) Works or work items of quarantine establishments, establishments testing and certifying agricultural product quality;

k) Works for water drainage, collection and treatment of waste water, wastes and prevention of rural environmental pollution.

2. A connection service project shall include at least 2 services included in groups of services prescribed in Clause 5 Article 3 of this Circular. In which, the service of agricultural product sale is compulsory.

Article 5. Contents of project proposals

1. A proposal for a project on construction, renovation, operation or management of agricultural and rural infrastructure shall be made in accordance with instructions in Appendix I of Circular No. 02/2016/TT-BKHDT of the Minister of Planning and Investment dated March 01, 2016.

2. The proposal for a connection service project shall be made in accordance with instructions in Appendix I of this Circular.

Article 6. Contents of feasibility study reports on projects

1. The feasibility study report on a project on construction, renovation, operation or management of agricultural and rural infrastructure shall be made in accordance with instructions in Appendix III of Circular No. 02/2016/TT-BKHDT of the Minister of Planning and Investment dated March 01, 2016.

2. The feasibility study report on a connection service project shall be made in accordance with instructions in Appendix II of this Circular.

Article 7. Contents of PPP project contracts

1. A contract for a PPP project on construction, renovation, operation or management of agricultural and rural infrastructure shall be made in accordance with Article 10 Chapter III and Appendix I of Circular No. 06/2016/TT-BKHDT of the Minister of Planning and Investment dated June 28, 2016.

2. A contract for a connection service project shall be made in accordance with instruction in Appendix III of this Circular.

Article 8. Responsibility for state administration related to PPP for investment in agriculture and rural areas

1. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development shall:

a) Take charge of state administration related to PPP for investment in agriculture and rural areas within its jurisdiction as prescribed in Article 69 of Decree No. 15/2015/ND-CP and other regulations of this Circular.

b) Assign its affiliated entities to manage PPP projects funded by the state budget managed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. To be specific:

- Department of Planning shall:

Take charge of consultancy and submit the plan for public investment in PPP projects to the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (hereinafter referred to as “Minister”) .

Take charge, consolidate, verify and submit PPP project proposals to the Minister for the approval and publish the list of projects after the projects proposals are approved.

Take charge of consultancy and request the Minister to decide the guidelines for making feasibility study reports on PPP projects.

Take charge, consolidate, verify and submit feasibility study reports on connection service projects (except for the projects related to construction) to the Minister for approval after offering opinions of relevant authorities.

Take charge of the negotiation of PPP project contracts; request the Minister to sign the investment agreement and authorize the execution of the PPP project contracts in case of domestic investor or project management enterprise.

Supervise the fulfillment of obligations by the domestic investor or project management enterprise in accordance with regulations of law.

- Department of International Cooperation

Take charge of the negotiation of PPP project contracts; request the Minister to sign the investment agreement and authorize the execution of the contract in case of foreign investor or project management enterprise.

Supervise the compliance with obligations by the foreign investor or project management enterprise in accordance with regulations of law.

- Department of Finance

Take charge of the assessment and request the Minister to determine the value the state property invested in the project (including land) in accordance with regulations of law.

Provide the instruction on and carry out the inspection of statement of the state investments in accordance with regulations of law.

- Department of Construction Management

Take charge of the assessment and request the Minister to approve the feasibility study report or approve adjustments to this report on the PPP project on construction of infrastructure within its power assigned by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and connection service project related to construction.

Take charge and cooperate with relevant authorities and organizations to perform the state administration in term of the quality of construction works, supervise the quality of construction works and the compliance with regulations of law on investment in capital construction.

- General Department, departments of specialized management

Make the proposal for and feasibility study report on a PPP project within their assigned power in accordance with regulations of law.

Assess the proposal for and feasibility study report on a PPP project made by another authority within their assigned power in accordance with regulations of law.

Take charge of the negotiation of project contracts within their assigned power in accordance with regulations of law.

Sign and execute PPP projects contracts included in group B and C as prescribed in case of authorized by the Minister.

Receive the property of the project (if any) after the project finishes.

2. The People's Committees of provinces shall take charge of state administration related to PPP for investment in agriculture and rural areas as prescribed in Article 70 of Decree No. 15/2015/ND-CP and other regulations of this Circular.

Article 9. Effect

1. This Circular comes into force from August 22, 2017.

2. If legislative documents mentioned in this Circular are amended or replaced, the new regulations of amended legislative documents or new legislative documents will be applied.

3. Any problem arising during the implementation of this Circular should be reported in writing to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development for timely solutions.