Rapid regulatory changes are reshaping the way businesses operate – but are we moving too fast?

The 2024 Business Legal Flow Report by VCCI offers a timely overview of key developments in Vietnam’s legal and regulatory framework, revealing both bold reforms and lingering uncertainties. Some key takeaways:

🔹  Unprecedented legislative acceleration
– 31 laws, 182 decrees, and 629 circulars issued in 2024.
– Legal drafting time reduced from 22 months to just 10 – or even 1–2 months under fast-track procedures.
– One law often amends multiple others, increasing speed but creating interpretation challenges.

Example: E-commerce tax obligations split across 3 different laws with staggered effective dates.

🔹  Administrative reform: Symbolic or substantial?
– Over 3,000 business conditions were reportedly simplified or removed.
-Yet most changes are cosmetic (e.g. removing form fields, not real deregulation).
-Post-promotion reporting requirements and licensing steps for sectors like notarial services remain overly burdensome.

🔹  Investment procedures: Encouraging breakthroughs
-“Special investment procedures” introduced for strategic high-tech sectors (e.g. semiconductors, R&D) — significantly reducing approval steps.
-Land-related issues in HCMC, Da Nang, and Khanh Hoa addressed via tailored legislative solutions.
--> Still, market entry barriers persist in certain regulated sectors.

🚫 Overregulation & lack of market-based governance
-Drone (UAV) manufacturers face conditional business licensing despite the actual risk lying in usage, not production.
-Fuel market regulations remain state-heavy, limiting competition despite multiple decree revisions.
-Transfer of ownership in private law firms still requires approval — contrary to modern enterprise norms.

At THE LAM LAW LLC – Your legal need, Our Mission, we view these evolving frameworks not only as regulatory challenges, but also as strategic inflection points for business leaders to recalibrate legal risk and unlock investment opportunities.

📣 Is your business ready to navigate the shifting legal terrain of 2024?
Let us help you turn legal complexity into commercial clarity.
🔗 Pls refer to the source from VCCI.

THE LAM LAW LLC
🏢Indochina Park Tower, # 4 Nguyen Dinh Chieu Str, Dakao Ward, Dist 1, Ho Chi Minh City.
📞Tel: +84 (0)28 710 58 222 – 6288 3798 – Hotline: +84 (0) 97 309 77 77
✉ Email: info@thelamlawllc.com