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:

New “Government protection measures” against investor claims in Vietnam

To mitigate or avoid the risks of investor claims, the Government of Vietnam has introduced various measures under various new laws issued in 2014 and 2015. These measures certainly make it more difficult for foreign investors to use Vietnamese law against the Government of Vietnam in case of an investment dispute. Below are some of these measures:

Financing a residential housing project in Vietnam

The new Real Estate Business Law 2014, Housing Law 2014 and most recently Decree 99/2015 implementing the Housing Law 2015 have changed substantially the way that a residential housing project is financed. Set out below are some of the key changes most of which took effect from December 2015:

Vietnam Business Law