Draft New Decree on Personal Data Protection in Vietnam

On 9 February 2021, the Ministry of Public Security issued a draft decree on the protection of personal data (Draft Decree). This decree, once enacted, will be the first comprehensive legislation of Vietnam on personal data. This blog will analyze some key points of the Draft Decree and compare them with the relevant provisions under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This post is written by Nguyen Thu Giang and edited by Nguyen Quang Vu. Please download the pdf version here.

New Decree 31/2021 guiding the implementation of the Investment Law 2020 on the Market Entry of Foreign Investors

The Government has issued Decree 31/2021/ND-CP (Decree 31/2021) which becomes effective on the signing date, 26 March 2021. Decree 31/2021 provides certain appreciable provisions guiding the negative list approach and the application of market entry conditions of the Investment Law 2020. These implementing provisions (as discussed in this post) are expected to provide more certainty and transparency to foreign investors.

This post is written by Ha Thi Dung.

Please download the full pdf version Here

Model PPAs for LNG and Coal Fired Power Projects under Circular 57/2020

1) Background

a) On 31 December 2020, the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) issued Circular 57/2020 regulating the method to calculate the tariff, and the power purchase agreement. Circular 57/2020 replaces Circular 56/2014 from 22 February 2021.

b) In this post, we will provide our comparison of Circular 57/2020 with Circular 56/2014.

Please download the pdf version here.

This post is written by Nguyen Hoang Duy and edited by Nguyen Quang Vu.

Enforceability of agreement on liquidated damages under Vietnamese law

Summary. Vietnamese law does not have a clear concept of liquidated damages. There are strong legal provisions supporting for the use of liquidated damages. However, due to the lack of clear legal ground for liquidated damages, it appears that in practice, relying on certain provisions on calculation of damages, some courts in Vietnam appear to have not recognised and enforced an agreement on liquidated damages.

We discuss below the arguments supporting an agreement on liquidated damages and the enforceability of such an agreement in a commercial dispute under the law of Vietnam.