Foreign investment in education sector faces higher hurdles The Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) has drafted a decree on foreign investment into the education sector, aiming to offer more favourable conditions for foreign investors.  According to Nguyen Xuan Vang, head of the MoET’s International Co-operation Department, the draft decree is expected to replace current Decree 73 issued in 2012 which showed many problems during the implementation process.   For instance, Decree 73 regulates that foreign-invested schools which operate in Vietnam can only receive a certain ratio of Vietnamese students, capped at 10% for primary schools and 20% for high schools. However, the draft decree allows these schools to decide the rate of Vietnamese students by themselves. Regarding investment conditions, under Decree 73, foreign investors were required to build their own education facilities in Vietnam before recruiting students. But the new draft decree says foreign investors can hire facilities as long as the facilities meet regulated standards. Under the draft decree, foreign investors can contribute their capital to both Vietnamese or foreign-invested education facilities in Vietnam. They can also buy or sell stakes in education facilities in Vietnam. The draft decree stipulates the minimum investment capital for setting up a university in Vietnam is VND1 trillion (USD47.6 million), excluding land value for the university construction. This is higher compared to the minimum figure of VND300 billion regulated in Decree 73. University lecturers are required to have at least master degree. Meanwhile, at least half of lecturers need to have a doctorate, compared with just 35% in Decree 73.  MoET said that the requirement for higher investment capital and lecturer degrees is aimed to raise the training quality of foreign-invested schools. Vietnamnnet