Vietnam Legal & Tax Updates

On 16 June 2022, the Vietnamese National Assembly officially approved the amended Intellectual Property Law (“Amended IP Law”). This marks the third time the Vietnamese IP Law has been amended and supplemented since its promulgation in 2005. Its latest update contains revisions and supplements more than 100 articles, marking the most expansive overhaul of this...

The Law on Competition (2018) (“Law”) is effective, but it is not fully implemented due to the lack of appointed regulatory authority. Hence only the Law’s merger provisions have been enforced through the regulator under the now repealed Law on Competition 2004, the Vietnam Competition and Consumer Authority, under the authority of Vietnam’s Ministry of...

As CIT finalization approaches, we highlight the existing Transfer Pricing compliance requirements for Vietnam taxpayers, under Decrees 132 and 126, and Law No. 38: When does Transfer Pricing (TP) apply? When a Vietnam company or local subsidiary of a foreign company has intra-group transactions (goods, services, loans or royalty transactions) with its related parties. Corporate...

The Government of Vietnam issued Decree 53/2022/ND-CP dated 15 August 2022 (“Decree 53”) detailing a number of articles in Vietnam’s Law on Cybersecurity (2018) which took effect as from 1 January 2019 (“Law on Cybersecurity”). As with most laws in Vietnam, decrees and circulars and other subordinate legislation, provide more detailed information, forms, and other...

We would like to share with you the most recent updates regarding the draft Power Development Plan (“PDP”) VIII, a mechanism for wind, solar power projects in transition and future, and the police investigation into 62 wind power projects. PDP VIII UPDATE Following the report of the Ministry of Trade and Industry (“MOIT”) to the...

The Vietnam Competition and Consumer Authority (“VCCA”) recently issued its Annual Report for 2021 (“Report”).  In this Client Alert, we outline the information provided by the VCCA on its activities related to the Law on Competition (2018) (“Law”) in 2021.   While not addressed in this Client Alert, the Report also outlines other activities of the...

We would like to share with you a Power and Energy-related update to PDP VIII as below: Per the Prime Minister’s instruction at Official Letter No. 182/LDCP dated 10 June 2022 on Power Development Plan (“PDP”) VIII, the Vice Prime Minister Le Van Thanh’s directives in June 2022, the Ministry of Industry and Trade (“MOIT”)...

DFDL would like to inform you that: On 21 and 23 June 2022, EVN/Electricity Power Trading Company (“EPTC”) issued respectively official letter no. 4024/EPTC-KDMD and official letter 4077/EPTC-KDMD (“EPTC’s Official Letter”) to project owners of power plants in Vietnam requesting projects owners to review and report on regulatory compliance of their relevant power plants. EPTC...

The State Bank of Vietnam (“SBV”) released a draft Circular on 11 May 2022 strengthening conditions for non-government guaranteed foreign loans (the “Draft Circular”) which aims to replace Circular No. 12/2014/TT-NHNN (the “Current Circular”). In the Draft Circular, the SBV indicates its intention to tighten control over foreign loans to address the risks on currency...

The Government of Vietnam recently released a draft decree (“Draft Decree”) amending Decree 153/2020/ND-CP that was issued on 31 December 2020 on the trading of privately placed corporate bonds on the domestic market and selling corporate bonds on the international market (“Current Decree”). The Draft Decree was designed to facilitate a more transparent and effective...