Under the various laws of Vietnam, most of the specific business areas that needs to be strictly observed have been regulated by specialised laws and guiding regulations. This creates a fairly adequate legal framework for business activities. However, there is a lack of consistency and overlap between laws regulating the same activities. For the last few years, the National Assembly and the Government have made several attempts to amend the laws to mitigate such negativity.

On 20 August 2021, the Government issued Resolution No. 94/NQ-CP (“Resolution 94”) on the process of lawmaking. Under this resolution, the Government approved the proposal to amend 10 laws to facilitate business and investment activities. The amendments are to resolve existing inconsistencies between laws, reduce unnecessary administrative procedures, thus, reducing costs and procedures for business. This will also open all the resources for investment and business.

Under Resolution 94, the Government requested the relevant ministries, ministerial-level agencies, and local authorities to speed up the amendments of legal documents which are overlapping, conflicting and causing difficulties in doing business and impedes investment. This has been especially highlighted in the context of the current complicated developments of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 10 laws that is to be amended includes but not limited to the following: (a) Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Customs, (b) Law on Special Consumption Tax, (c) Law on Investment, (d) Law on Public Investment, (e) Law on Enterprise, and (f) Law on Bidding.

The Ministry of Justice has been assigned to assume the primary responsibility to coordinate with the relevant ministries, agencies, and organisations to collect their opinions and review and finalise the dossier of request for the construction of key laws. The Government has also instructed that these draft laws should be amended if:

• such changes are necessary and urgent;
• there are issues of contradictions, overlaps, and lack of consistency among the laws; and
• the laws (provision of laws) are no longer consistent with practice, hence, causing difficulties and obstacles for businesses that need to be overcome urgently.

In order to organise the drafting and take responsibility for the content of the draft laws the relevant ministries had until 23 August 2021 to send their revisions to the Ministry of Justice for review and compilation.

With the request to develop and amend the various legal provisions, the Government is trying to provide domestic and international investors with the best support and investment/business environment. This has become especially important as the COVID-19 pandemic situation has yet to be effectively controlled all around the world. It is hopeful that the upcoming changes regarding the above mentioned laws will remove the existing legal obstacles and create more favorable investment conditions for investors wanting to do business in Vietnam.

If you have any questions or require any additional information, please contact Hoang Tran of ZICO Law Vietnam (a member of ZICO Law).

This alert is for general information only and is not a substitute for legal advice.