Significant Amendments to Regulations on Management of Foreign Employees in Vietnam

On 18 September 2023, the Government issued Decree 70 (Decree 70/2023) to amend various regulations on management of foreign employees under current Decree 152/2020. Decree 70/2023 took effect immediately upon its issuance. Below is our discussion on notable changes introduced under Decree 70/2023.

1)         Easing requirements for engagement of foreign employees

  • Under Decree 70/2023, a foreign employee is no longer required to have educational background to be relevant to his/her work experience and proposed job in Vietnam. Instead, the law now only requires the employee to have a minimum work experience suitable for the proposed jobs;

  • Decree 70/2023 now expands the type of documents that can be used to demonstrate educational background and work experience of foreign employees being expert and technician. In particular, previous work permits or exemption certificates can also be used as evidence for foreign employee’s experience; and

  • A foreign employees now can use passport copy which has been certified by their Vietnam-based employer to apply for work permit or renew its work permit, this would facilitate employees’ application for work permits from abroad. Previously, the employees had to provide their original passport for notarization in Vietnam.

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Written by Nguyen Quang Vu On In ,

Comments on Draft on Law on Real Estate Business – Part 1

Please download the pdf version here.

In May 2023, Ministry of Construction and VCCI jointly held a Seminar on Draft of new Law on Real Estate Business (Draft Real Estate Business Law) to collect opinions and comments from enterprise community and experts. The Draft Real Estate Business Law appears to be the latest version having been published before it is submitted to the National Assembly. The new Law on Real Estate Business is scheduled to be adopted by the National Assembly in November 2023. We will try to highlight some notable changes introduced by the Draft Real Estate Business Law in this post and subsequent posts.

This post is written by Nguyen Hoang Duong and Nguyen Quang Vu.

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Written by Nguyen Quang Vu On In ,

Should Foreign Investors Contribute Capital To Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Enterprise In An Amount Denominated In A Foreign Currency Or In VND?

Introduction

An FDI enterprise is an enterprise which is established by foreign investors with or without domestic investors. It is a common practice for foreign investors to contribute capital to an FDI enterprise in a foreign currency, such as USD, with the amount denominated in that particular foreign currency recorded in the FDI enterprise's Enterprise Registration Certificate (ERC) and/or Investment Registration Certificate (IRC). The difference in exchange rate between the date of the IRC and the date of actual contribution often leads to a disparity between the VND amount converted from the contributed capital in foreign currency and the VND amount recorded in the IRC. Different

In such cases, it remains uncertain whether the foreign investors will be considered to have fully fulfilled their capital contribution because it is not clear which amount should be used to determine if the FDI enterprise's charter capital has been fully contributed: (i) the VND amount after being converted from the foreign currency, or (ii) the actual contributed amount in foreign currency (see analysis below). Different authorities may have different views on this issue.

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Written by Nguyen Quang Vu On In ,

Environment Permits Under The Environment Protection Law 2020 in Vietnam

The Environment Permit (Giấy phép môi trường) is a new concept under the Environment Protection Law 2020. In essence, an Environment Permit consolidates most of the environment permits or licences under the previous environment laws into a single document which would help the relevant authorities and businesses to monitor and record all the environmental aspects of an investment project. 

Projects subject to Environment Permit

Except for some certain emergency public investment projects, an Environment Permit is required for all investment projects which have potential adverse effect on the environment and which generate wastewater, dust and emissions or hazardous waste which must be treated or managed (the Regulated Projects).

Timing

Regulated Projects which have not started commercial operation by 1 January 2022, and which have an approved Environment Impact Assessment Report must obtain the Environment Permit before commissioning the environmental protection works of the Regulated Project.

Regulated Projects which have not started commercial operation by 1 January 2022, and which do not have an approved Environment Impact Assessment Report must obtain the Environment Permit before issuance of the mining licence (for mining project), the approval of the field development plan (for oil exploration project), the approval of the feasibility study (for PPP project or construction project), and the investment decision for other projects.

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Written by Nguyen Quang Vu On In ,