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FIEs deliberately defer business re-registration, laws not respected
The foreign invested enterprises (FIEs) in Vietnam had five years as stipulated by the laws and two more additional years to make the business re-registration as required by the new investment law. However, many of them did not do this.
Laws not observed
Nguyen Thanh Hai, a National Assembly’s Deputy from Hoa Binh province, when discussing the amendment of the Enterprise Law, requested to clarify who has to claim the responsibility for the 50 percent of FIEs which have made the business re-registration.
A report showed that 2,196 out of 6,000 FIEs, or 48.86 percent, have not followed the procedures for the re-registration, which has caused a lot of problems in the state management. More importantly, this shows the low enforcement of the laws and the FIEs’ attitude of ignoring the laws set up by the host country.
Meanwhile, the government’s report to the National Assembly on the issue only showed three reasons, vague and unclear to understand, which cannot point out which agencies have to claim the responsibility for this and which unreasonable mechanism to blame on.
Hoang Thanh Tung, the National Assembly’s Deputy from Soc Trang province, said it is the state management agencies assigned to enforce the Enterprise and Investment Laws which have not fulfilled their duties.
Tung, on one hand, agreed that FIEs need to be blamed for the delay in the re-registration, but on the other hand, emphad that the government has been not determined enough to implement the task.
“FIEs had five years as stipulated by the laws to make the re-registration, and the deadline was July 1, 2011. However, only two years after the deadline, has the government reported to the National Assembly on the problem. The tardiness has caused complicated legal consequences,” he said.
Tung has expressed his concern that the amendment of the Article No. 170 of the Enterprise Law, relating to the re-registration procedures, to some extent, may not be a good idea, because this would create a bad precedent in the sense of respect and observance of the laws. This would put the FIEs which have made the re-registration and respected the laws in the same category with the enterprises which have deliberately deferred the re-registration.
“If the problem cannot be settled, this may make businesses think that they can defy the laws,” he said, adding that all the enterprises which do business in the Vietnamese territory, must abide by the Vietnamese laws.
The government’s proposal to amend the Article No. 170 of the Enterprise Law has put two options for the National Assembly.
In the first option, for the sake of the law dignity, Vietnam would have to dissolve nearly 3,000 FIEs which have not made the re-registration.
In the second option, Vietnam will have to tolerate the FIEs which have not abided by the laws. If so, Vietnam would have to amend the Article 170 in an effort to attract more and more foreign investments for the economic development in the context of the economic crisis.
Who to blame?
Minister of Planning and Investment -- Bui Quang Vinh, said before the National Assembly that the ministry claims the responsibility for the consequences, but he said this was the responsibility of the “previous term of office.”
Vinh insisted on the amendment of the Article No. 170, saying that it’s necessary to amend the unreasonable regulation.
vietnamnet
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