Workshop discusses renewable energy development

HCMC – Experiences from developed countries have shown that renewable energy cannot be developed without a competitive electricity market in place, heard a workshop in Hanoi on Monday. Experts attended a workshop to make policy recommendations for boosting the development of renewable energy in a competitive power market, the Vietnam News Agency reports. Building a competitive power market is an important element of institutional reform, Nguyen Dinh Cung, head of the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM), told the event held by CIEM. Pham Duc Trung, deputy head of CIEM’s Committee for Enterprise Reform and Development, said producers of renewable energy should be entitled to preferential treatment in terms of tax, land use fee and access to credit. The domestic power market has not been made competitive while there are no independent agencies monitoring and regulating the market, making it unattractive to investors, he said. To spur competitiveness, Trung stressed the need to reform State utility Vietnam Electricity Group (EVN) and guarantee a level playing field for electricity producers and distributors. He suggested making the Electricity Regulatory Authority of Vietnam more independent, strengthening the capacity of the Vietnam Competition Authority at the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and applying a competitive pricing mechanism. Nguyen Van Vy, vice chairman of the Vietnam Energy Association (VEA), said the Government should adopt incentive investment policy for projects generating and using renewable energy, and give financial assistance to renewable energy research projects.

Source:The Saigon Times Daily

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Contract Dispute in Vietnam

Disputes in contract performance and solutions

Disputes occur during contract performance are beyond the control of the entity entering contractual relations. In developed countries, lawyers always invited to advise customers to identify potential disputes, and provide solutions, support and provide legal advice and to accompany the enterprises solve disputes in accordance with the provisions of the law, which help businesses to focus on its business activities. Foreign companies when entering Vietnam mostly follow suit to engage dispute or litigation lawyers in Vietnam at early stage of the transactions.

Contract Dispute

Contractual disputes in Vietnam shall be construed as conflicts, disagreements, conflicts between the parties regarding the implementation or non-implementation of rights and obligations in the contract.Disputes could arise in failure to collect the payment from debtor in sales agreement, construction contract disputes between investor and contractor, labour dispute between employer and employee, insurance disputes between ship owner and insurance company.

Contract disputes must satisfy the following factors:

First, there is a contract between the parties. The contract would be in different for ms therefore, there is a need to clearly define if the contractual relationship has been formed or not.

Second, there is a breach of obligations or duties that are in violation of a party in the contractual relationship.

Third, there is disagreement between the parties about the handling of infringement or the consequences of such violations.

It should be noted, the contract disputes arise from the breach. However, not all breaches of contract also lead to disputes.

How to settle the contract disputes in Vietnam

Contractual disputes can be resolved by the following methods:

• Negotiation is the process or behavior in which the two sides conduct exchanges, agreement on common interests and characteristics of disagreement and come to a unified agreement. The negotiation is without the presence of third parties. However, if the lawyers in Vietnam would be involved during the negotiation process, at the role of representing or advising, counseling, then the negotiations tend to be more effective and parties would reach agreement.
• Mediation is one of the options for disputing parties to end the conflict. Mediation is different from negotiating with the intervention of a third party. Mediator will help parties to achieve agreement and resolve conflict.
• Court or arbitration: The settlement of the dispute in court would take time. The court’s ruling can be appealed. It should be noted that, per Vietnam laws, only Vietnam litigation or dispute law firms could represent the client at court. Commercial arbitration is available only in commercial-business sector. The advantage of this method is fast and efficient. However, compare with disputing at court, this method of handling dispute would take higher costs.

Disputes and dispute resolution matters are natural and inevitablein any countries including Vietnam. It is important that parties involved need to identify, anticipate disputes can occur. When there is a dispute, the dispute lawyers will be able to help parties to with advice to reasonable solution to address the disputes effectively.

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Social insurance debt put at VND14 trillion

HCMC – Unpaid social insurance premiums had amounted to VND14.2 trillion by end-October, up from VND13.1 trillion a month earlier, according to Vietnam Social Insurance (VSI).  

VSI deputy general director Tran Dinh Lieu told a conference on how to collect social insurance debt in Hanoi on Wednesday that if social insurance debt owed by insolvent businesses was included, the sum would be bigger. Many companies did not pay social insurance though they already collected premiums from their workers.

Of VND14.2 trillion, VND9.55 trillion was owed to the social insurance fund, with VND6.87 trillion of it owed for at least three months, while unpaid unemployment insurance stood at VND516 billion and unpaid medical insurance at VND4.17 trillion.

VSI attributed the huge social insurance debt to economic difficulties and poor compliance with social insurance regulations by enterprises and insurance agencies at all levels. Debt collections by provincial agencies are below targets and some agencies do not report debt to local governments to find coping solutions.   

Nguyen Tri Dai, head of the collection department at VIS, told the conference that the social insurance agencies in provinces rarely coordinate with the departments of finance to urge insurance payments by provincial budgets for certain groups of privileged people. Notably, such debt in An Giang Province amounted to VND66 billion in January-September.

According to the 2014 Social Insurance Law, the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor is tasked with taking legal action against those enterprises owing insurance premiums and hoarding money of employees.

Lieu said suing businesses owing social insurance premiums is a measure to reduce debt. The confederation of labor in Danang City sued a company but the result has yet to come out.  

Provincial confederations of labor said they had encountered a slew of difficulties when suing businesses which are on the brink of bankruptcy. Even if they win the lawsuit, law enforcement could be hard.

Mai Duc Chinh, vice chairman of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, told provincial confederations of labor to take to court businesses that owe social insurance premiums.  

Source: SaigonTimes

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HCMC proposes setting up property market info center

HCMC – HCMC has proposed establishing a center to store and manage data about land, homes and housing projects, heard a meeting last week.

This is one of a number of measures suggested in the city’s property market development plan in 2016-2020 with a vision towards 2030, which was the topic of discussion at the meeting.

The city expects the information center could help it build official real estate market indexes which market participants could use as references.

The plan will develop infrastructure to connect urban areas, diversify property products, boost development of condo buildings, and encourage investors to get involved in projects to build homes for low-income people.  

The city petitions the Government to establish a general department for housing development and allow it to form a housing development board under the city government.  

The plans also mentions a number of measures to ensure transparency on the market, improve the cityscape and oversee housing development.  

Tran Du Lich, former deputy head of the HCMC delegation of NA deputies, said the plan is well prepared but contains no deep analysis of market conditions. It should point out what is not transparent, and what regulations overlap, he said.

Lich said laws such as the Land Law, the Construction Law, the Housing Law and the Law on Real Estate Business have conflicting provisions which have left negative effect on the real estate market.

Le Chi Hieu, vice chairman of the HCMC Real Estate Association (HoREA), shared Lich’s view, saying many existing regulations are inconsistent, making life difficult for property companies.

High land prices and land-use fees are weighing on businesses and homebuyers, he noted, adding the State should set up a special financing mechanism, such as a housing development fund, to lure more businesses to join low-cost housing projects.

An official of the State Bank of Vietnam’s HCMC branch said the plan does not make clear the financing structure of enterprises involved in property projects. At present, a majority of investors rely heavily on bank loans to fund their projects but this source of capital would drop in the future in line with the central bank’s Circular 06 which sets out a roadmap for tightening lending to real estate projects.

To ensure sustainable development for the property market, bank loans should fall while increasing capital from other sources such as homebuyers, investment funds and corporate bonds, the central bank official said.

Source SaigonTimes

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Vietnam National Power Development Plan til 2020

Vietnam Prime Minister on Mar 18th, 2016 has issued decision 428 QD-TTG which approved the national power development plan til 2020 with visions extended til 2030.  This is expected to boost the competitive environment in a way to attract investment in thermal, water, wind and other sustainable power from various sources in Vietnam.

We hereby introduces the decision for your reference.

See more:

http://www.antlawyers.vn/library/decision-no-428qd-ttg-on-the-national-power-development-plan-of-vietnam.html

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Vietnam Assembly to Hold Off Building Nuclear Power Plant

It is important for Vietnam to properly re-balance the power supply. Without nuclear power, Vietnam shall need to add additional coal-fired power plants.  Further, Vietnam will need to accelerate more renewable energy, including wind energy, solar energy projects and attract more investment in Vietnam in these energy sectors.

According to the National Assembly Office, the Parliament met the Minister of Industry and Trade on Nov 10th, 2016 whom  will present the draft draft resolution on holding off building the first nuclear power plant in Ninh Thuan, Vietnam.

Back to history, on Nov 25th, 2009, with 382 endorsed delegates (at the rate of 77.48%), the Vietnam National Assembly has decided to approve the investment policy of Ninh Thuan nuclear power plants: Ninh Thuan Phuoc Dinh 1, located in Thuan Nam and Ninh Thuan 2 located in Vinh Hai commune, Ninh Hai district with a capacity of about 2,000 MW per plant.

Key technologies of the two plants is “light water reactor technology improvements, the most modern generation furnace, with proven, guaranteed safety and economic efficiency at the time of the project”.

Recently, there has been concerns among energy experts and Vietnamese people on a number of issues in regard to legal frameworks, technology, safety and expert resources.  It appears that such concern has been listened leading to the possible decision to postpone the deadline to start the the nuclear power project.  According to the new plan, the new clear power plant could be scheduled in the year 2030.

According to energy experts in Vietnam, being cautious is necessary. In order to implement the nuclear power projects, Vietnam will need to take time to prepare.

Firstly, Vietnam will need to evaluate the project, organize international tender, and implement detailed design.  Such will need the help of foreign energy consulting firms to help appraise.

Secondly, Vietnam is sending 300-500 experts to Russia and Japan to study experience about managing the nuclear power plants.  This training period is important to ensure the proper people are well equipped with knowledge and are capable to manage the plants and this process will take time.

Thirdly, Vietnam is negotiating with Russian factories and Japanese factory to import technology in nuclear power plants and the negotiations are still on-going.

Fourthly, number of scientists and people still fear safety problems of nuclear source especially the last two incidents at Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Russia and the Fukushima plant in Japan.  Safe operation is one matter but the handling of residues is also an on-going concerns that Vietnam has to face when investing in nuclear power project.

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