Regulations on asset registration remain disperse and lack consistency while the ownership registration requested for a number of assets have not yet been ruled, heard a workshop recently held by the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) in Lam Dong province.
At the workshop on improvement of institutional framework for asset registration in Vietnam on September 29, the MOJ’s National Registration Agency for Secured Transactions (NRAST) cited Article 106 of the 2015 Civil Code “ownership rights and other rights over movable property are not required to be registered, unless otherwise prescribed by the law on property registration.”
However, there has been a lack of regulations guiding the registration of ownership rights over high-value movables, such as bonsais (ornamental plants) worth billions of Vietnam dong each, reported the agency.
Nguyen Van Manh from the Government Office’s Legal Department said the specific regulations on registration of high-value assets, particularly immovables, have not only facilitated civil transactions and better protected lawful rights and interests of the State, individuals and organizations but also contributed to the corruption combat.
Asset registration has been set out in various documents, including the Civil Code, Land Law, Housing Law, Law on Intellectual Property and their guiding documents, said Justice Deputy Minister Nguyen Khanh Ngoc.
However, the registration of different types of asset has been viewed from different aspects suitable to functions and state management competence of the ministries and sectors respectively managing those assets. Therefore, some legal documents on asset registration are inconsistent due to lack of general legal principles for their formulation, Ngoc noted.
Experts suggested finalizing the legal framework on asset registration by either enacting a decree to regulate the registration of assets not yet subject to registration or drafting a law on registration of immovable and movable assets, except air craft, ships, motor vehicles, securities and intellectual property objects.
NRAST Deputy Director Nguyen Chi Lan said such a decree should add the function of centers for registration of transactions and assets under the NRAST to register the rights and contracts over assets for which no registration mechanism is available.
Legal expert Nguyen Ngoc Dien from the University of Economics and Law of the Ho Chi Minh National University proposed the law on asset registration to clarify the legal status of immovables and clearly specify immovables subject to registration; rights of registrants; registration principles and provision of asset information, Dien stressed.
Vu Thi Hong Yen from the Hanoi Law University said asset registration should not be agreed among parties to transactions but must be prescribed by the State as compulsory procedures. The asset registration law must prescribe legal consequences to be borne by entities that fail to make asset registration, she added.- (VLLF)
