* Most polluting industrial production companies in Vietnam have considered violating waste discharge regulations and subsequently paying fines under Decree No. 117/2009/ND-CP on sanctioning of environment-related administrative violations “more economical” than building an effective wastewater treatment system, which might cost USD 5-7 million if of a daily capacity of 5,000 m3, because the highest fine imposed by the Decree is limited at VND 500 million, provided apparent evidence can be invoked.
In addition, they usually prefer to cheap obsolete production lines modern and safe equipment in order to reduce production costs. As a result, the number and severity of environmental pollution cases have escalated over the recent time.
Some measures to put an end to this situation have been put forward, including imposing much heavier fines on violators and compelling immediate dismantlement of ineffective waste treatment facilities and building of new ones. But the latest measure proposed by Dr. Pham Van Loi, director of the Institute for Environmental Management Science (the Environment Directorate) may be the most deterrent.
He suggested that a legal institution to identify the criminal liability of legal persons seriously violating the environmental law should be inserted in the criminal law as soon as possible.
In his opinion, Vietnam can learn from developed countries’ experience in making it possible to criminally punish institutional environmental violators by promptly examining, for criminal liability, acts of leaders of these violators which are inductive to violations, regardless of violation consequences, and to impose certain penalties before computing damage caused by violations.
* The drafting of a law revising the Investment Law, the Enterprise Law, the Bidding Law and the Law Revising a number of laws concerning capital construction investment has recently commenced under Government Resolution No. 25/NQ-CP on simplification of 258 administrative procedures under the management of various ministries and sectors.
These laws will revised by the fast-track omnibus law-making method. As projected, all amendments drafted by concerned ministries will be finalized and submitted to the Justice Ministry for integration into a single law before November 30, 2010.
Specific draft amendments to Decree No. 108/2006/ND-CP, guiding a number of articles of the Investment Law, Decree No. 101/2006/ND-CP on re-registration, conversion and registration for conversion of investment certificates of foreign-invested enterprises under the Enterprise Law and the Investment Law, and Decree No. 139/2007/ND-CP guiding a number of articles of the Enterprise Law will also be finalized before December 31, 2010.
* Application of digital signatures to the public finance reform: As informed by the Finance Ministry, from now to 2015, there will be some 96 online public finance services provided to enterprises, organizations and civilians. At the initial stage, the Ministry will pilot the extension of two public administrative services, including online filing of tax declaration dossiers and completion of e-customs procedures.
These two services, together with other online public finance services, would involve the application of the digital signature certification system in order to raise the sense of law observance of taxpayers and enterprises carrying out e-customs procedures and concurrently improve the performance, effectiveness, transparency and reliability of the tax administration and customs systems and the finance system as a whole.
The Finance Ministry would also strive for the target that by 2012, around 350,000 Vietnamese businesses will use digital signatures in online public finance services.
According to Deputy Minister of Finance Do Hoang Anh Tuan, the Ministry would submit to the National Assembly Standing Committee some draft regulations on application of information technology and digital signatures in finance and propose the National Assembly to assign the Information and Communications Ministry to work out a scheme on giving to each business or citizen a sole identification number with an individualized digital sign (signature) and to create more favorable conditions for businesses to get digital signature services.
The current E-Transaction Law and guiding documents, which do not permit the use of digital signatures provided by foreign organizations thereby causing difficulties for global companies to conduct transactions using these digital signatures in Vietnam, should be revised.
All suggestions of businesses and agencies concerning digital signatures will also be assimilated by the Finance Ministry into some documents to be issued before the end of the year.
* One of the most important points of the recently promulgated Telecommunications Law is legal grounds for assuring the state management of competition among telecommunications (telecoms) service providers, domestic and foreign, according to Vietnam’s WTO accession commitments regarding this sector, while promoting equality between state-owned and private telecoms investors.
In furtherance of these provisions, the Information and Communications Ministry is working on a decree guiding the Telecommunications Law which contains specific guidance on competitive practices in the telecoms market.
The Vietnamese telecoms development policy for the future is to promote the development of both hardware and software industries, especially the domain of digital contents for telecoms networks particularly attractive to foreign investors, under a recently approved scheme on building in Vietnam a strong telecommunications sector (accounting for 8-10% of GDP) with internationally competitive telecoms and information technology groups by 2020.
* Africa in focus: The Industry and Trade Ministry has recently approved a scheme on boosting Vietnamese exports to the African market through major businesses, which would be selected to act as “hardcore” exporters and entitled to particular incentives.
According to the scheme, only businesses that are experienced in import and export with African countries, financially sound and capable of fulfilling big export contracts or exporting diversified commodities to Africa can be selected. Depending on their advantages in certain export items, exporters may be assigned to take care of different market fragments, avoiding competition among Vietnamese exporters in the same market.
The Ministry requested the building of an information channel accessible to concerned parties for information exchange, partner status verification, consultancy and settlement of procedural problems.
It is also looking into the possibility of establishing bonded warehouses for Vietnamese commodities to be distributed in Africa, appropriate credit forms to be applicable to exports to Africa and policies to encourage commercial banks to open their subsidiaries in Africa.-