Asia Legal

1. State policy in promoting the settlement of bad debts According to the report of the Government and the State Bank of Vietnam submitted to the National Assembly at the 3rd Session, the 15th National Assembly, as of December 31, 2021, that is, after nearly 5 years of applying Resolution 42/2017/QH14, the total the number of bad debts that have been handled reached VND 380.2 trillion, equivalent to 47.9% of the bad debts at the time of issuing Resolution 42 on August 15, 2017. In which, 40% of the total bad debt, equivalent to VND 148 trillion has been resolved due to self-payment by clients and the remaining 60% has been resolved through the application of pilot solutions to handle bad debts specified in Decree No. 42, such as selling bad debts and security assets at market value, exercising the right to seize security assets, transferring security assets which are real estate projects... Thus, there are still about 52.1% of bad debts have not been completely resolved after nearly

"Enterprises are free to do business in any business areas that are not prohibited by law" is one of the rights of the enterprises recognized in the applicable Law on Enterprise. What are the prohibited business areas which the foreign investors should be aware of when they make plan to invest in Vietnam?  1. Prohibited bussiness areas  According to Article 6 of the applicable Law on Investment, there are 8 prohibited business areas, including:  Trade in the narcotic substances The prohibited narcotic substances are specified in Appendix I of the Law on Investment 2020, including 47 types, which can be followed by typical narcotics substances: Cetorphine, Acetyl-alpha- methylfenany, Alphacetylmethadol, Alpha-methylfentanyl, Beta-hydroxyfentanyl, Brolamphetamine, Cannabis and cannabis preparations, Heroine, opium and opium preparations…  Trade in the chemicals and minerals According to Appendix II of the Law on Investment 2020, there are 18 types of 

The Ministry of Finance has just published a draft circular guiding the implementation of the Law on Tax Administration and Decree No. 123/2020/ND-CP concerning invoices and records. One of the important contents in this draft circular is that cash registers of restaurants, cafes, hotels,… will digitally connect with the tax authorities from July 1, 2022. Specifically, organizations and individuals (excluding contracted households) perform activities in the fields of: commercial centers, supermarkets, restaurants, hotels, retail of modern medicines, entertainment services, retail agent of consumer goods, providing goods and services directly to the consumers... will use authenticated e-invoice generated from the cash register digitally connected with the tax authorities. Authenticated e-invoice means an e-invoice that is granted an authentication code by the tax authorities before it is sent to the buyer by the goods seller or service provider. The authentication code on an e-invoice i

When investing in conditional business lines in Vietnam, the foreign investors need to consider whether the industry in which they intend to invest in Vietnam is a conditional business line or not. Under the law of Vietnam, there are two types of conditions applied, including: (i) Market access conditions for the foreign investors; and (ii) Conditions for doing business.  1. Market access conditions for the foreign investors   The market access conditions for the foreign investors are pre-check conditions which will be appraised by the investment registration authority of Vietnam before granting Investment Registration Certificate to the foreign investors.  According to Article 9 of the applicable Law on Investment, the foreign investors are entitled to the market access conditions applicable to the domestic investors, except for the business lines included the list of industries and trades subject to market access restriction for the foreign investors promulgated by the Government. Th

After more than 2 years of applying Decree 90/2019/ND-CP regarding the regional minimum wage for employees working under labour contracts, recently, the Vietnamese Government promulgate Decree 38/2022/ND-CP to raise it by 6% which has come into effect on July 1, 2022. (Unit: VND/month) Table 1: Minimum wage per month for employees under new regulations This growth will affect the following labour issues which the employers should be aware of: 1.         Increase the employee salary The minimum wage is the lowest salary paid to the employees performing the simplest work in normal working conditions to ensure a minimum living standard for them and their families. Hence, the salary for each job must not be lower than the minimum wage [2] . If the employers are paying a salary lower than the regional minimum wage specified in Decree 38/2022/ND-CP to the employees from July 1, 2022, they are responsible for increasing the salary. Otherwise, it is considered an administr