Asia Legal

Internal Labor Regulations (hereinafter referred to as “ILRs”) is a document issued by an employer, in which its provisions create grounds for employment relationships that employees must implement. According to the Labor Code 2019, ILRs have the following main characteristics: (i) having a form of a document or other forms depending on the number of the enterprise’s employees; (ii) having statutory essential contents and other contents do not breach the laws; (iii) the ILRs must be registered at a competent state authority; and (iv) being one of the grounds for the enterprise to take employees under disciplinary and material responsibilities during their employment. According to the regulations of the employment laws, it is mandatory for an employer has more than 10 employees to issue ILRs in writing and carry out the procedures for registration the same with a competent labor-specializing management agency of the Provincial People’s Committee for the  ILRs  to be valid....

"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…  ...

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 starting a business in Vietnam, apart from developing a marketing strategy, hiring staff and raising money, one essential thing to do is to choose a proper legal entity that works well for their business, solves tax issues, provides liability protection for owners as well. There are several entities for founders to select from when launching a business in Vietnam. According to the Investment Law 2020, foreign investors can invest in Vietnam through the following forms: establishing legal entities; capital contribution, share/stakes purchase; BCC contract; implementing investment projects and investing in new forms according to the Government’s regulations. For the establishing legal entities options, the foreign investors need to choose a suitable legal entity type. According to the Enterprise Law 2020, there are 05 types of legal entities in Vietnam, which include: Sole proprietorship Partnerships Joint-stock companies Single-member limited liability companies Multi-member limite...

Decree No. 86/2018/ND-CP regulating on foreign cooperation and investment in education was issued on 6 June 2018 and took effect from 1 August 2018 (hereinafter referred to as Decree 86/2018). After 3 years of implementation, in addition to remarkable results in creating a legal framework for a foreign entity participating in the educational development of Vietnam, Decree No. 86/2018 has also revealed inadequacies and asynchronous issues. Therefore, it is necessary to promulgate a revising decree amending and supplementing articles of Decree No. 86/2018 (hereinafter referred to as Draft). This article points out a brunch of new and prominent regulations amended in the mentioned Draft. Firstly, the Draft supplemented the entities eligible for engaging in joint education: In particular, the Draft supplemented the entities eligible for engaging in joint education that are private educational institutions established and operating in Vietnam (regardless of investment capital in Vietnam or ...

Vietnam is a potential and attractive investment environment for foreign investors due to its many advantages in a large labor market, affordable labor costs,   abundant  young  workforce , incentives policies. When implementing investment activities in Vietnam, besides the concerns about conditions and procedures, foreign investors need to pay special attention to labor regulations as well. There are core labor regulations that foreign investors keep in mind when making the investment in Vietnam. 1. Labor Contract Under the provisions of Vietnamese law, a labor contract is an agreement between an employee and an employer on a paid job, salary, working conditions, and the rights and obligations of each party in the labor relations. A labor contract shall be concluded in one of the following types: An indefinite-term labor contract  is a contract in which the two parties neither fix the term nor the time of termination of the contract. A fixed-term labor contract...