675 INVESTMENT REQUIREMENTS ABOLISHED

LEGAL UPDATE

To simplify administrative procedures, the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) issued Decision No. 3610a/QDBCT announcing MOIT's plan to eliminate 675 existing investment requirements and conditions (Decision). This is more than half of the current applicable requirements and conditions.

The Decision has several detailed annexes which contain the specific investment requirements and conditions in the respective trade areas under the Ministry's supervision that will be abolished in 17 trade areas and sectors requirements and conditions are abolished. Some of the areas and sectors covered are: petrol and oil, gas, liquor, food, temporary import for re-export of frozen food, commercial franchise, logistics, goods exchanges, commercial assessment, multilevel marketing and e-commerce.

The Decision took effect on 20 September 2017. However, note that not all changes will enter into force immediately.

Below you will find some important changes for your ease of reference.

1. Registration requirement for franchising operations

As of the second quarter of 2018 foreign franchisors are no longer required to register with the MOIT before granting franchising rights to Vietnamese franchisees. This means that a franchisor can grant commercial rights as long as its business system intended to franchise has been in operation for at least one year and other relevant requirements are met. No conditions exist for the franchisee to receive the commercial rights from the franchisor.

2. Food production and trading

Currently, for producing and trading of food, the food production and trading establishments, who are required to obtain the “certificate of conformity with food safety regulations” must:

- have an enterprise or household business registration certificate, or any other equivalent document; and

- meet all conditions for ensuring food safety suitable to each type of food production and trading.

Pursuant to the Decision, the requirement to obtain an enterprise or household business registration certificate is removed.

3. Commercial assessment services

A person working as an assessor is no longer required to have a university or college degree in accordance with the assessment services and three years working in the assessment of goods or services. The sole condition for the assessor is “having a professional certificate for the assessment domain in cases where such professional certificate is required by law”.

4. Domain name website

To create favourable conditions for online trading in goods and services, the condition on the valid domain names upon setting up sales e-commerce website has been eliminated.

For more information, please contact:

Mark Oakley / Managing Partner

mark.oakley@acsvlegal.com

Hieu Pham / Special Counsel

hieu.pham@acsvlegal.com

© 2017 ACS Legal Vietnam Company Limited – All rights reserved

This legal update is not an advice, and should not be treated as such.

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