Laws in Vietnam

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement will give Vietnam numerous opportunities to establish and expand its export markets, experts say. In particular, Vietnam will increase its key exports such as garments, seafood, footwear and wood products to the US, while attracting more investment from the world’s largest economy.  The country can also take full advantage of opportunities created from the restructuring of regional economies and the trend of closer cooperation, experts said at a workshop in Ho Chi Minh City on January 30. However, the agreement will put more pressure on Vietnam to open its markets, as well as on the competitive capacity of domestic businesses.  Along with revising the legal system and developing human resources, the government needs to pay attention to a number of sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing and service industries which have yet to meet development requirements, they suggested. Le Thanh An, US Consul General in HCM C...

Foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) with distribution rights will be able to open retail outlets of up to 500 sq m under a draft decree clarifying the trading of goods by FIEs under the Commercial Law. Convenience stores predicted to develop quickly if draft decree comes into being. The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) is collecting opinions on FIEs establishing such outlets or outlets in planned areas for retailing goods made overseas without the need to conduct an Economic Needs Test (ENT). If the draft decree comes into effect, distributors and foreign investors will have the right to open outlets of less than 500 sq m without needing an ENT from the local city or province. By limiting outlets to less than 500 sq m, retailers will not be able to develop such outlets into supermarkets or shopping malls. If it comes into effect the decree will create favorable conditions for the develo...

1. Limited Liability Company A limited liability company is a legal entity established by its members by way of capital contribution to the limited liability company. The capital contribution of each member is treated as equity. The members of a limited liability company are liable for the financial obligations of the limited liability company to the extent of their capital contributed or undertaken to be contributed to the limited liability company. The management structure of a limited liability company comprises the members’ council, the chairman of the member’s council, the (general) director and a board of supervision (where the limited liability company has more than 10 members). A limited liability company established by one or more foreign investors (from 2 to 50 members) may take the form of either a 100%-FOE (where all members are foreign investors) or of a foreign-invested joint venture enterprise between one or more foreign investors and one or more domestic i...

Offers and acceptance of offers are among the most important parts of a international sale contract. In this section, the provisions of offer acceptance will be carefully illustrated. When does a reply of the offers turn to be the acceptance? According to what has been regulated in the article 18,19 of the Convention, a reply to an offer could be conducted in the forms of a statement or simply a behavior. It required both of the two forms must indicate the assent of the offeree. It is regulated that silence or inactivity does not in itself amount to acceptance. However, in practical situations, silence or inactivity from the party that receive the offer could be considered as an acceptance as well, in case of there are trade practices between the contract parties. A reply that has the tendency of acceptance but contains additions or other modifications will become a rejection of the offer instead of the acceptance. Nevertheless, it is not every changes in the reply that woul...

U.S. President Barack Obama will visit Vietnam in May during a trip to Asia, the White House said Monday. Obama will make the trip while in the region for the Group of Seven (G7) summit in Japan. If he ends up making the trip, he will be the third consecutive U.S. president to visit Vietnam in the post-Vietnam war era, following Bill Clinton in 2000 and George W. Bush in 2006. The White House made the announcement after Obama met with Vietnamese prime minister Nguyen Tan Dung on the sidelines of the U.S.-ASEAN summit at the Sunnylands retreat with Southeast Asian leaders . According to a White House official, the leaders discussed the continued strengthening of U.S.-Vietnam relations in 2015, which had marked the 20th anniversary of the restoration of diplomatic relations. “The leaders noted the importance of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, maritime security, and human rights to advancing bilateral relations,” the official said. Vietnam is one of 12 members of the U.S...

A Vietnamese delegation attended the 7th US-ASEAN Joint Co-operation Committee (JCC) meeting held on April 28 at the ASEAN Secretariat headquarters in Indonesia’s capital city of Jakarta.  Ambassador Nguyen Hoanh Nam, Head of the Vietnamese Permanent Representative Delegation to ASEAN said Vietnam has always coordinated closely with other ASEAN member countries and the US to promote co-operation areas of mutual interest. Vietnam will work with the US and ASEAN member states to speed up two initiatives on establishing an ASEAN-US centre for small and medium enterprises, and a centre for studying climate change issues, which were proposed by former Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung at the last ASEAN Summit. The US Ambassador to ASEAN, Nina Hachigian, attested to the strategic partnership of the two sides in many areas, including economics, politics, marine security and climate change. She revealed the US and ASEAN will continue to map out relation development plans in c...

All taxi drivers nationwide must issue receipts to customers from July 1, according to Government Decree 86. Bui Danh Lien, chairman of the Hanoi Automobile Transportation Association, said taxi receipts that include the car’s registration number, fare, route and taxi company will make it easier for customers to lodge a complaint should a problem arise. Lien added that the cost of a printer is fairly high at about VND1 million ($45), but the majority of taxi enterprises have complied with the law. Nguyen Anh Quan, chairman of Thanh Cong Taxi, said that his firm has installed printers in about 200 cars, about a third of the fleet. After trialing the scheme, they realized that many customers leave the receipts behind or refuse to take them, even though the drivers are printing them. “Maybe customers aren't used to receiving taxi receipts or they don't think it’s necessary,” Quan added. A representative from Van Xuan Taxi said that they have installed printe...

Required documents and information The Enterprise Law 2014 provides some changes regarding documents and information required for incorporating a new company in Vietnam. The changes are largely positive changes except for more requirements on investment certificate for fo reign investors and details of foreign shareholders in a joint stock company ( JSC) . Details of the changes are as follows: - if the new company has a foreign investor then the application documents must include an Investment Certificate issued to the foreign investor presumably to the extent that the foreign investor needs an Investment Certificate under the Investment Law 2014. This requirements that a foreign investor wishing to start a new company in Vietnam will need to apply for an Investment Certificate under the Investment Law 2014 first and then apply to set up the new company under the Enterprise Law 2014; - the Business Registration Authority may require an individual to submit a certified cri...