Policies change so regularly and unpredictably that businesses are confused, because their actions could be legal today but illegal tomorrow

According to the Ministry of Justice, there are over 1 million valid legal documents, of which hundreds of thousands of documents violate the law. Not only ministries, but branches and local authorities, including commune people’s committees, also have the right to release legal documents.
The decentralization mechanism leads to many required investment procedures and business regulations varying in different localities. Businesses can do certain things if their offices are located in these provinces, but will be prohibited in other provinces.

Nguyen Dinh Cung, head of the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM), said at a recent workshop on the private sector that there are not many laws in Vietnam, but numerous’ decrees and circulars.

Cung noted that it is difficult for businesses to operate in such an environment regulated by a ‘mountain of legal documents’ which contradict each other, because when they obey these regulations, they violate the others.

When asked what businessmen fear the most, the director of an ad firm in HCM City said he fears the inconsistency in local authorities’ decisions.

The Advertisement Law dated June 21, 2012 stipulates that local authorities have to program the open-door advertisement development in their localities.

Local culture departments will refer to the programs to consider and approve applications for setting up billboards submitted by ad firms.

However, in reality, local authorities in many localities do not draw up the programs, thus causing problems for licensing.

It is now unclear if ad firms can install ad billboards in some areas at advantageous positions, because legal documents do not say clearly address this. Whether ad firms can set up billboards will depend on the relations they have with the local authorities.

Lu Xuan Vu, chair of NPT Import/Export JSC, complained that a lot of problems have arisen since the Notarization Law released in 2014 took effect. NPT wanted his certificates on the company meeting ISO, HACCP and GMB standards notarized, but the documents were refused by notarization offices because international standards lacked stamps.

NPT finally got what it wanted only after it contacted many state agencies, including justice sub-departments and general consulates of the countries where the certificate granters’ offices were located.

The director of a food processing company in HCM City said that his company was asked to pay VND8 million in penalty for tax violation. He could not find out why he was forced to pay the sum.

However, after he established good relations with the local authorities, his business has been going smoothly and he has not been asked to pay the penalty tax..