Company News

The Ministry of Finance held a conference in Ho Chi Minh City to support Korean businesses relating to problems with taxes and customs procedures during their business in Vietnam. The Korean business groups now have the opportunity to solve their problems with tax and custom procedures with the Vietnamese authorities.

Even though they are usually better off than local Vietnamese companies, it seems that many foreign invested enterprises (FIEs) established in the country encounter hardships to follow the general evolution in terms of human resource (HR) management.

On March 21, 2011, the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) issued a circular regulating the issuance of the certificate of origin (C/O) for goods being exported.

Decree No.25/2011/ND-CP of the government which was issued on April 6, 2011 provides enterprises, including domestic and foreign owned ones, some new regulations in the lucrative field of telecom.

A decision concerning small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs’) corporate income tax was published, and thereby become effective, on April 6, 2011. This decision from the Vietnamese prime minister allows SMEs to defer their CIT settlements of one year. This new incentive should help the SMEs to overcome their hardships and also stimulate economic development in 2011.

Oil companies and authorities in the southern provinces have recommended that fuel prices be raised in Vietnam to combat smuggling into neighboring Cambodia, where fuel is much more expensive.

The export prices for coal dust products shipped to Asian nations, except for South Korea and Japan, have been raised by 22 percent, according to Vietnam National Coal and Mineral Industries Corporation.

In newly-signed decision 14/2011/QDTTg, Vietnam’s government will limit its holdings of 50 percent of the charter capital of power production companies that are bigger than 500 megawatts.

Vietnam’s Finance Ministry plans to cut import duties to 15 percent in April. Currently, the tariff on refined sugar is 40 percent, while raw sugar is taxed at 25 percent.

The Vietnamese government finally agreed to allow an import tax cut on sugar, worrying that surging sugar prices due to the increasing local demand and short supply will exacerbate the country’s inflation.