Implementation of international investment treaties in Vietnam

Under Decree 118/2015, if a foreign investor is subject to multiple international treaties on the same industry or business line then the foreign investor is entitled to select one of the applicable international treaty. And if the foreign investor has selected to follow one international treaty then the investor will need to comply the provisions of such international treaty as a whole. In other words, under Decree 118/2015, a foreign investor may not be able to cherry pick the most favourable provisions of different international treaties in its favour.

New Law on Laws in Vietnam

A new Law on Laws (Law on Laws 2015) is just issued by the National Assembly in June 2015 and will take effect from July 2016. Hopefully, a few new points of the Law on Laws 2015 (discussed below) will help to improve the quality of Vietnamese law which is notoriously vague and inconsistent. In particular,

Vietnam Investment Law 2014/Enterprise Law 2014 – Temporary guidance by Hanoi licensing authorities

The Investment Law 2014 and the Enterprise Law 2014 will take effect very soon on 1 July 2015. However, the Government has not issued any implementing Decrees or Circulars which are necessary for the actual implementation of the Investment Law 2014 and the Enterprise Law 2014. This is unfortunate as the lack of proper implementing Decrees and Circulars may affect the operations of many companies and investors.

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,