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:

ANOTHER AMENDMENT TO EQUITISATION REGULATIONS

The Government has recently issued Decree 116/2015 which includes certain amendments to Decree 59/2011 and Decree 189/2013 on equitisation of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Decree 116/2015 took effect immediately upon signing on 11 November 2015. This shows certain urgency in the restructuring of SOEs in Vietnam. Decree 116/2015 covers the following:

New Decree implementing Investment Law 2014

After months of delay, the long-awaited Decree 118/2015 implementing the Investment Law 2014 was finally issued on 12 November 2015. Set out below are certain important points of Decree 118/2015:

Vietnam Business Law