Trading Licence for investment by way of acquisition in Vietnamese companies

In December 2015, the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) confirmed in a Letter No.12933 that a Vietnamese company in which foreign investors invest will need to comply with the regulations under Decree 23/2007 regarding import and distribution activities of foreign invested enterprises regardless of the level of foreign ownership in the Vietnamese company. This means that most local companies which register for import and distribution businesses and have foreign investors will need to obtain a Trading Licence (Giấy phép kinh doanh) under Decree 23/2007 even if there is no investment certificate for the investment by the foreign investor. The MOIT requires compliance with Decree 23/2007 even when it is contemplating further changes to Decree 23/2007. The MOIT’s confirmation has certain important implication:

WTO and TPP – A comparison of Vietnam’s commitments regarding investment in service sectors

The full text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) has just been made available for public information. The table below tries to compare the existing commitments of Vietnam under WTO Agreement with the commitments under TPP for certain service sectors. Pdf version of the table can be downloaded here.