Vietnam Currency Discussion Board

[tenac]

Vietnam red tape thwarts foreign investors

http://www.thanhniennews.com/business/?catid=2&newsid=29479

International investors hoping to get a foreign trade license in Vietnam have been held up by red tape.

A government decree allowing trading by foreign businesses in Vietnam was supposed to take effect in February – one month after the country’s WTO accession.

But the departments of planning and investment refuses to issues licenses without a circular from the Ministry of Trade spelling out the rules – the usual practice in Vietnam – for such issue.

The trade ministry, on the other hand, has inordinately delayed issuing such a circular but its Decree No 23/2007ND said clearly such a circular was not required for licensing trading companies as long as they did not plan to enter local distribution.

Lu Thanh Phong of Ho Chi Minh City’s Planning and Investment Department made it clear his agency could not issue the license until the ministry issued the circular.

Hoang Thi Tuyet Hoa, a trade ministry official, insisted, however, the department could issue licenses without the ministry’s guidance.

Le Cong Dinh, a lawyer at the HCMC-based DC Law Office, said the delay in implementing WTO commitments was a violation of the WTO’s basic spirit.

Some foreign investors lost patience and sought help from the local media and their consulates for fear of missing business opportunities.

Reported by Trung Binh – Compiled by Dong Ha

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