The Hanoitimes - During the midterm Vietnam Business Forum (VBF) 2017, a wide range of suggestions has been made, devoting to create a more fair and constructive Vietnam’s business environment.
 
Among those proposal, Chairman of Korea Chamber of Business in Vietnam (Korcham) - Ryu Hang Ha listed out some legal issues  under the Vietnam’s current law which causes difficulties for Korean investors.
According to him, in  the  past,  the  Export  and  Import  Tax  Act  and  the  Enforcement  Decree  stipulated  that  “the export duties shall not be imposed on the manufactured products of which raw materials were imported for the purpose of export.” Therefore, export duties had not been imposed in the past.
 

 
However, the Export and Import Tax Act (seventh clause of the article 16, 107/2016/QH13) was revised on April 6th, 2017, and the Enforcement Decree (the article 12, Decree 134/2016/NDCP) became effective on September 1st, 2016. And, the phrase “the export tax shall not be imposed” was deleted. Therefore, the relevant government agencies are interpreting this as imposition of export duties. As of now, export duties are imposed on products.

Chairman of Korea Chamber of Business in Vietnam - Ryu Hang Ha

“For  example,  7  to  10%  of  export  duties  are  imposed  on  aluminum  products.  For this  reason, many aluminum product manufactures are faced with difficulties while exporting those products from Vietnam, because they have lost price competitiveness in overseas markets. As of now, the Korean government and the Chinese government do not impose export duties on aluminum products. This is to contribute to the development of domestic industries by securing price competitiveness in the overseas markets.  We  would  like  to  request  the  Vietnamese government  to  exempt  export  duties  for  aluminum  products.  This  would  enable  aluminum product  manufacturers  to  secure  price  competitiveness  and  contribute  to  the  industrial development in Vietnam”, Ryu Hang Ha said.
It has already been 25 years, since Korea and Vietnam established diplomatic relationships. Therefore, this year is incredibly meaningful. In the meantime, the two countries have built a strong relationship for economic cooperation. The bilateral trade  volume has greatly increased thanks to the Korea-Vietnam FTA. Korea‟s investment in Vietnam has been increasing year by year. And, now, Korea is the no.1 investor in Vietnam. The global companies in Korea as well as the Korean SMEs are choosing Vietnam as their new investment destination.
According to the survey conducted with Korean companies, which invested in Vietnam, at the end of last year, 46.1% of the respondents said they would increase their investment while 44.7% of the respondents said they would remain at the current level for their investment. In addition, 71%  of  the  respondents  said  they  are  satisfied  with  their  business  management  in  Vietnam.