This information comes from the assessment conducted in country for the Vietnam report, which was published in November 2006.
As an integral part of its overall development strategy, Vietnam has linked a broad range of legal and judicial reforms to the implementation of the landmark U.S.-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA), which came into effect on December 2001, and accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), which was completed on January 11, 2007. These trade agreements have required extensive changes to Vietnam’s legal system to conform more closely to international norms and practices.
Furthermore, Vietnam has adjusted many laws and regulations not directly required by the trade agreements, but which are equally integral to developing a stronger legal framework for market-based commercial activity, a more robust private sector, and a stronger and more independent court system (e.g., greatly improved law on contracts, secured transactions, negotiable financial instruments, court organization, and civil procedure).
With the introduction of a modern Enterprise Law in 1999, a great number of small businesses in Vietnam joined the formal sector through the process of company registration. Through improved legislation and procedures pertaining to entry into the formal sector, Vietnam has seized a critical mechanism in support of economic growth. One fundamental issue facing all smaller or newer private businesses in Vietnam, as well as many larger, more established ones, is the anticompetitive role played by state-owned enterprises in the economy. The new Enterprise Law (2005), which replaced the 1999 law, is legally sound and consistent with international standards. It continues the trend of liberalization of the private sector in Vietnam and levels the playing field among all types of enterprises, whether private, foreign invested, or state owned. The new Investment Law (2005), which was developed in parallel with the new Enterprise Law, generally reinforces this commitment to nondiscrimination among types and ownership of enterprises. The revised Commercial Law and its implementing decrees regulate the establishment of representative offices and branches of foreign traders and foreign-invested trading enterprises in Vietnam.
