THE MINISTRY OF POST AND TELECOMMUNICATION

Official Document No. 717/BTP-THA dated 28/02/2007 of the Ministry of Justice providing guidelines for salary rank increase before schedule.

Under the Official Document, according to current situation of each locality, the Council considering salary rank increase before schedule may supplement the criteria of 12-months early increase regarding state employees of civil judgement enforcement agencies in flat area who, by volunteer, appointment, rotation or assignment, move to work and accomplish their assigned mission in mountainous and remote areas.

In order to make it suitable to specific characteristics of judgement enforcement agencies, the priority order for the consideration of salary increase before schedule shall be: if the number of employees having the same achievement exceeds 5% of paid staff, the second priority shall be ethnic minority people working in mountainous, remote districts or those from flat area who, by volunteer or appointment, rotation or assignment, move to work in mountainous, remote areas and then followed by other priority.

In case no independent unit in a city or a province directly under central governance has sufficient 20 paid staffs upwards, the consideration shall be made on the total paid staffs of such city or province; if one or several units of a province or city have 20 paid staffs upwards, the consideration for salary increase before schedule for the remaining units (including provincial and district judgment enforcement agencies) shall not be carried out separately, but it will be considered on the total staffs of the remaining agencies of such city or province.

Decree No. 28/2007/ND-CP dated 26/02/2007 of the Government providing in detail and providing guidelines for implementation of a number of Articles of the Law on Lawyers.

The Decree provides for the procedures of registration for the operation of lawyer practising organisations and other issues in relation to operations of lawyers.

Accordingly, one of the basic contents of the Decree is that lawyer practising organisations shall be entitled to sign labour contract hiring foreign lawyers who have been granted with Certificate of Practice in Vietnam to work for their organisations. The rights and obligations of foreign lawyers working for lawyer practising organisations shall be agreed in their contract in accordance with the Law on lawyers, this Decree and other relevant laws.

Regarding remuneration of barristers participating in criminal cases, it is stipulated as follow: the remuneration of barristers participating in proceedings in criminal cases shall be agreed by the client and law office, law firm or the individually practising barrister in compliance with regulations of the Law on lawyers based on working hour or “all-in-one” method; however, the maximum remuneration of barristers shall not exceed VND100,000 per working hour and the working time of the barrister shall be agreed between him and the client.

In cases where a barrister is appointed by litigatory agency for a case, his payment shall be VND120,000 per working day.

Moreover, the Decree also stipulates that name of branch of foreign organisations performing lawyer practice in Vietnam must include phrase “Branch”, name of the foreign organisation performing lawyer practice and name of the province or city under direct Central government where the branch is located.

Requirements and procedures for incorporation, merging and termination of operation of foreign law firms in Vietnam are also clearly prescribed in detail in the Decree.

The Decree shall come into full force 15 days after its publication in the Official Gazette.

LIST OF LEGAL NORMATIVE DOCUMENTS PROMULGATED FROM 25/02/2007 TO 02/03/2007

Documents	Date of promulgation
Decree No. 28/2007/ND-CP dated 26/02/2007 of the Government providing in detail and providing guidelines for implementation of a number of Articles of the Law on Lawyers.	26/02/2007
Decree No. 27/2007/ND-CP dated 23/02/2007 of the Government on electronic transactions in financial activities.	23/02/2007
Decree No. 26/2007/ND-CP dated 15/02/2007 of the Government providing in detail the implementation of the Law on electronic transactions on digital signatures and services of digital signature certification.	15/02/2007
Decree No. 25/2007/ND-CP dated 15/02/2007 of the Government providing for the sanction for administrative violations regarding national reserve.	15/02/2007
Decree No. 24/2007/ND-CP dated 14/02/2007 of the Government providing in detail the implementation of the Law on Corporate income tax	14/02/2007
Decision No. 27/2007/QD-TTg dated 15/02/2007 of the Prime Minister on approval of the Project for domestic trade development to 2010.	15/02/2007
Circular No. 02/2007/TT-BXD dated 14/02/2007 of the Ministry of Construction providing guidelines for a number of contents about: formation, assessment and approval of Investment Projects for Works Construction; Construction Licence and the management of Investment Projects for Works Construction as stipulated in Decree No. 16/2005/ND-CP dated 07/02/2005 and Decree No. 112/2006/ND-CP dated 29/09/2006 of the Government.	14/02/2007
Directive No. 03/2007/CT-BCVT dated 23/02/2007 of the Ministry of Post and Telecommunication on improvement of information security on the Internet.	23/02/2007
Official Document No. 717/BTP-THA dated 28/02/2007 of the Ministry of Justice providing guidelines for salary rank increase before schedule.	28/02/2007

THE GOVERNMENT

Decree No. 27/2007/ND-CP dated 23/02/2007 of the Government on electronic transaction in financial activities.

The Decree shall be applied to agencies, organisations and individuals selecting electronic transaction in financial activities.

Under the Decision, organisations and individuals participating in electronic transactions in financial activities with contents under to the scope of state management of the Ministry of Finance shall comply with regulations on professional technique of the Ministry of Finance.

Legal validity of electronic vouchers shall be recognised through the form of representation, delivery, reception, storage; and legal validity of electronic vouchers shall be pursuant to the Law on Electronic transactions; electronic vouchers in financial activities must fulfil requirements on State management, comply with regulations of the laws regarding financial majors; electronic vouchers shall include full electronic signatures of all persons being responsible for signing in such electronic vouchers.

In case where electronic vouchers consist of the signature of competent person only, the relevant information system must be capable of identifying and checking the handling of responsible persons under legal regulations during delivering process of electronic vouchers to the last signee.

Electronic vouchers can be converted into paper ones and vice versa, but they must fulfil the following requirements: fully reflecting the content of electronic or paper vouchers; being marked with specific signal confirming the conversion of vouchers from electronic form into paper one and vice versa; consisting signature and full name of the person conducting such conversion or vice versa.

Regarding the use of digital signature, financial agencies, organisations and individuals participating in electronic transaction with financial agencies in financial activity shall use digital signature; electronic transactions in financial activities between organisations or individuals and financial agencies must use digital signature and deeds provided by an Organisation providing public digital signature certification services.

The Decree shall come into effect 15 days after its publication in the Official Gazette.

HE MINISTRY OF POST AND TELECOMMUNICATION

Directive No. 03/2007/CT-BCVT dated 23/02/2007 of the Ministry of Post and Teleceommunication on improvement of information security on the Internet.

Under the Directive, telecommunication enterprises and Internet providers shall strengthen the check, closely monitor equipments belonging to their managing competence; are prohibited to take advantage or let other person take advantage of such equipment to cause disorder and social insecurity; equipment systems and software which are used in the Internet shall be complied with the process and regulations on information security ensuring for information systems, referring to security standard TCVN 7652 and ISO 27001. These units should be able to track down and recover information in case of breakdown.

It is the responsibility of enterprises providing value added service in the Internet (hosting, mail, FTP…) to set up measures for information security.

Organisations and enterprises taking part in activities in the Internet or providing information security services shall strictly comply with the coordination of VNCERT (Vietnam Computer Emergency Response Team) Centre in response for rescuing Internet breakdown in Vietnam and cooperate with VNCERT Centre in assessing their capability of ensuring network security within their agency upon signal or danger of network insecurity.

Decree No. 26/2007/ND-CP dated 15/02/2007 of the Government providing in detail the implementation of the Law on electronic transaction on digital signature and service of digital signature certification.

The Decree provides specific regulations on digital signature and deeds; management, provision and use of digital signature certification service. Under the Decree, agencies and organisations providing digital signature certification services and agencies, organisation and individuals using digital signature and digital signature certification service in electronic transactions shall comply with regulations in the Decree.

Organisations offering digital signature certification services include:

- Organisations offering public digital signature certification are those providing services of digital signature certification for agencies, organisations and individual in public activities. Operations of organisations providing public digital signature certification are those aiming at business purpose.

- Organisations offering specialised service of digital signature certification are those providing digital signature certification for agencies, organisations and individuals of the same operation nature or working purpose. The operations of such organisations are aimed at serving internal transaction demand and non-business purpose.

- Organisations offering the service of Root Certification Authority are those providing services of digital signature certification for organisations offering services of public digital signature certification.

In case where a document must be signed under regulations of laws, one data message shall be deemed to fulfill the requirement if it is signed with a digital signature.

In case where a document must be sealed by agencies or organisations under regulations of laws, a data message shall be deemed to fulfill the requirement if such message is signed with the digital signature of the person having competence in managing and using the seal pursuant to legal regulations.

The Decree also provides for the procedures for establishment of organisation providing digital certification.

The Decree shall come into full force 15 days after its publication in the Official Gazette.

Decree No. 25/2007/ND-CP dated 15/02/2007 of the Government providing for the sanction on administrative violations in national reserve.

The Decree provides for the sanction on the administrative violations with respect to national reserve including violations in: using national reserve in cash; using national reserve in commodities; preserving commodities for national reserve; the method of buying and selling national reserve’s commodities; import and export of national reserve’s commodities.

Under the Decree, individuals, agencies and organisation intentionally or unintentionally violating the regulations of the laws on national reserve who are not considered as crimes but subject to administratively sanctioned in accordance with this Decree shall be the subject of governing of the Decree.

The maximum fine regarding national reserve shall be 70 million Vietnamese dong. The specific fine with respect to one administrative violation shall be the average amount of fine frame stipulated for such violation. In case of extenuating circumstances, the amount of fine shall be reduced but not be lower than the minimum amount of the set frame. In case of aggravating circumstances, the amount of fine can be increased but must not exceed the maximum amount of the frame.

The prescription for the sanction is two years from the date on which the administrative violation is conducted. Beyond the above mentioned time-limit, violating person shall not be fined, but he must carry out measures for covering the consequences. Regarding individual who have been prosecuted or instituted, or have been decided to be adjudicated under criminal procedures but a decision is then issued on suspension of investigation or of the case, and his/her acts show signal of administrative violations regarding national reserve, he/she shall be administratively sanctioned.

The Decree shall come into effect 15 days after its publication in the Official Gazette.

Decision No. 27/2007/QD-TTg dated 15/02/2007 of the Prime Minister on approval of the Project for domestic trade development to 2010.

The specific goals of the Project are to achieve the growth of domestic trade in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the entire economy of more than 200,000 billion Vietnamese dong by 2010 (account for 14.5%), approximately 450,000 billion Vietnamese dong by 2020 (account for 15%); the annual average growth rate (excluding price factor) of total goods retailing and consuming services’ turnover from now on to 2010 to be 11% per year and 10% in the following stages. The total goods retailing and consuming services’ turnover will be 800,000 billion Vietnamese dong by 2010 and 2,000 trillion Vietnamese dong.

The Project also aims at diversifying forms of commercial infrastructure, harmoniously combining between traditional and modern trade corresponding to the nature and development level of the market on each region. At the same time, it is to develop the forms of organising circulation for each industry’s market according to nature and production level, tendency and method for fulfilling consumers’ demand and requirements for macro-governance of the State. Especially, regarding important or particular industries: it is required to strengthen the distribution system established based on lengthwise link with close and stable relationship and binding responsibility for each step of the circulation process from production, import and export to wholesale and retailing through direct relationship or trading agents; to establish the distribution system on the basis of building and developing wholesale depot system, logistics centre system.

The Decision shall come into effect 15 days after its publication in the Official Gazette.

Decree No. 24/2007/ND-CP dated 14/02/2007 of the Government providing in detail the implementation of the Law on Corporate Income Tax

Under the Decree, organisations and individuals producing and trading in commodities and services and having income shall pay corporate income tax in accordance with regulations of the Decree.

People not subject to pay corporate income tax are agricultural households, individuals, groups and co-operatives having income from products of planting, animal breeding and seaproduct raising, except for those having large scale production with high income.

Corporate income tax rate applied to trading establishments is as follw:

- Corporate income tax rate applied to trading establishments shall be 28%.

- Corporate income tax rate applied to trading establishments conducting search, exploration and exploitation of petrolium and other precious resources shall be 28 – 50%.

Trading establishments are responsible for declaring the turnover, expense, taxable income, total tax amount of the year which are divided into quarter according to the declaration form of taxation agency and submitted to direct management taxation agency on January 25th every year at the latest or on the same date of the month after the ending month of a financial year with respect to establishments having financial year differing from Calendar year. The declaration form for the corporate income tax statement is stipulated by the Ministry of Finance.

The Decree shall come into effect 15 days after its publication in the Official Gazette and applied to tax term of from the year 2007.

THE MINISTRY OF CONSTRUCTION

Circular No. 02/2007/TT-BXD dated 14/02/2007 of the Ministry of Construction providing guidelines for a number of contents about: formation, assessment and approval of Investment Projects for Works Construction; Construction Licence and the management of Investment Projects for Works Construction stipulated in Decree No. 16/2005/ND-CP dated 07/02/2005 and Decree No. 112/2006/ND-CP dated 29/09/2006 of the Government.

Under the Circular, regarding project consisting of several works located in different cities and provinces, the investor shall apply for construction licence in localities where each work is located. In case where the project consists of several works located in the same city or province, the investor shall apply for one-time construction licence for all the works in such locality.

Application files for construction licence regarding urban works and houses include: The application for construction licence (form). In case of applying for construction licence for time-limited temporary works, the application file shall include the commitment to dismantle the work at request of the State for ground clearance; notarised copy of one of the papers proving land use right; drawings showing premise layout location, section view, typical top view, foundation layout of the work; diagram of location or direction of the work; systematic diagram and technical point of junction for electricity and water supply and drainage; photographs of current situation (regarding works subject to repair and renovation for which a construction licence is required). With respect to works whose basic design has been assessed by competent agencies, the investor shall submit the basic design assessment result instead of the documents stipulated in this paragraph.

If the investor wishes to amend the construction design to be different from the contents of granted construction licence, he shall apply for the amendment to construction licence before building the work based on the adjusted contents. Agency granting construction licences has the competence in amending construction licence corresponding to construction plan and be responsible for the content permitted to be amended in the licence. The amended content of the licence shall be entered into the item of “extension and amendment” in the construction licence already granted to the investor.

The Circular shall cone into full force 15 days after its publication in the Official Gazette.