Investment Law 2014 – Security deposit for implementation of investment projects

Under the Investment Law 2014, the investors of an investment project whose land is leased, allocated or adjusted by the Government must make a security deposit to ensure that the project will be implemented in accordance with registered investment schedule. The amount of deposit is from 1% to 3% of the total investment capital. It is certain that the security deposit requirement will apply to investment projects licensed on or after 1 July 2015. However, it is not certain if this requirement will apply to investment projects licensed before 1 July 2015 since there is no security deposit requirement under the Investment Law 2005.

Investment Law 2014 – Some unexpected consequences from acquisition registration requirements

The Investment Law 2014 introduces entirely new procedures “acquisition registration” for investment by foreign investors in the form of capital contribution or acquisition of equity interests in existing companies in Vietnam. However, due to its novelty, the new procedures may raise various unexpected consequences:

Investment Law 2014 – Selecting foreign arbitration in transactions with foreign invested enterprises in Vietnam

The Investment Law 2014 introduces major changes to the ability to choose foreign arbitration as the dispute resolution forum for transactions involving a foreign-invested enterprise in Vietnam. In particular, from 1 July 2015, only transactions with a foreign-invested enterprise (or more correctly a foreign economic organisation) 51% or more of which is directly or indirectly owned by foreign investors could be referred to foreign arbitration for dispute settlement. Under the Investment Law 2005, transactions with any company with any level of foreign ownership (not necessarily more than 51%) could be referred to foreign arbitration for dispute settlement.

New Decree on Legal Opinions of the Ministry of Justice

Decree 51/2015 issued in May 2015 is an entire new decree on legal opinions issued by the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) of Vietnam. The MOJ has been issuing legal opinions covering various Vietnamese legal issues to support for financing various large scale infrastructure projects for many years. For the first time, Decree 51/2015 sheds some lights on MOJ’s legal opinion practice. In particular,