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Politics & Law: Vietnam Makes Public Five New Laws(Vietnam News Briefs Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) from the VIETNAM NEWS BRIEFS, December 22, 2005 The Presidential Office announced in Hanoi on December 21 five new laws that were ratified on November 29 during the eighth session of the 11th National Assembly, the current parliament of Vietnam They are the Enterprise Law, the Intellectual Property Law, the Bidding Law, the Investment Law, and the Law on Amendments and Supplements to a number of articles of the Law on Special Consumption Tax and the Law on Value Added Tax The Enterprise Law comprises of 10 chapters and 172 articles, covering all kinds of enterprises regardless of the economic sector they belong to. The law defines the rights of foreign investors to decide the legal form of their enterprises, rather than forcing them to use the unique kind of limited liability company that was their only option in the past Foreign-invested enterprises operating in Vietnam are entitled to re-register and re-organize their management and operations in conformity with the law State-owned enterprises will be allowed to transform into limited liability or joint stock enterprises within no more than four years. The law stipulates the time period for granting business registration certificates and clearly defines business registration dossiers for each kind of enterprise Composed of 222 articles, the Intellectual Property Law is an important legal document for Vietnam's international economic integration. It will help to resolve the currently pressing problems of intellectual property violations in the country The Bidding Law, based on the existing Bidding Regulations and the draft Bidding Ordinance, was ratified by the National Assembly at the recent eighth session With six chapters and 77 articles, the law will help to simplify bidding procedures and enhance the openness and transparency of the bidding process It will step up the competitiveness in bidding in order to promote the independence of governing organs, contractors and supervisors in contract performance It is hoped that the Law will provide an impetus to open competition in bidding, thus bringing more efficiency in using State capitals The new Investment Law aims to improve the legal environment for investment, unify the system of regulations on investment, and create a fair playground that does not discriminate against investors The Law will help simplify procedures to attract more investment capital and use it more effectively in order to strengthen State management of investment activities and meet requirements of the international economic integration course A new and important point of the 10-chapter, 89-article Law is its statement on the opening of an investment market in accordance with the road map stipulated in international commitments that Vietnam has advocated. The Law will remove trade barriers for investors to create a fair playground for all economic sectors and gradually eliminate protectionism, as the international economic integration process requires Based on the real economic situation and the need to accelerate Vietnam's WTO accession, the Law on Amendments and Supplements to a number of articles of the Law on Special Consumption Tax and the Law on Value Added Tax was issued in order to create a correspondence between taxes levied on locally-made and imported goods in accordance with the WTO's regulations The Law amends taxes on tobacco, automobiles, alcohol, beer, and unprocessed cotton products Vietnam adopted 29 new and revised laws this year and plans to issue 25 more laws in 2006 Vietnam needs to issue at least between 40-50 and even 100 new laws each year in the coming time in order to finalize a consistent and feasible legal system by 2020 to meet the requirements for development of the national economy, integration into the world economy and the building of a socialist state governed by law (VNA Dec 21, The People Dec 22 p1, Pioneer Dec 22 p2) Copyright 2005 Vietnam News Briefs |