There are still many technical barriers that make it difficult for foreign investors

"Even if the Agreement has not been ratified, it is necessary to review regulations that are contrary to or incompatible with commitments. These issues not only arise from the requirements of implementing commitments but are also an inherent problem of the Vietnamese legal system that requires early improvement," said Mr. Pham Manh Dung.

Mr. PhAm Manh Dung, Managing Attorney of Rajah & Tann LTC Lawyers

Also according to Mr. Dung, the review of the provisions of the TPP and Vietnamese law needs to focus on the principle of market opening related to foreign investment, because currently there are many shortcomings and uncertainties between the provisions in commitments and the provisions of law, as well as in practice.

"Many regulations in the name of technical barriers are no longer consistent with the provisions in commitments", Mr. Dung said and gave an example of the TPP as well as the Investment Law regulating "in cases where foreign investors are allowed to operate in industries and sub-sectors that are not regulated in WTO commitments and other international treaties and Vietnam's regulations also do not stipulate, if these industries and sub-sectors have been permitted and published on the national investment information portal, investors are allowed to do so. However, currently there are no sub-sectors published on the national foreign investment portal, even though many foreign investors have been licensed to operate for decades.

“The question is whether it is necessary to publish on the portal or not? Is publication allowed, what happens if it is not published on the portal? What will the application of MFN principles in TPP and EVFTA be like?”, Mr. Dung asked.

Another example, there are currently too many licenses and appraisal processes for establishing foreign-invested educational institutions. "The provisions of Vietnamese law are that establishments operating for 20 years or more must have facilities and must be approved by the Provincial People's Committee on land allocation and land lease for investment, while in reality it is very difficult for investors to access this land fund and it is also very easy to rent infrastructure from other businesses to operate," said Mr. Dung. said and said that such conditions are often found in industry documents and are a significant barrier to foreign investment activities.

“Such barriers need to be reviewed and removed,” Mr. Dung expressed his opinion.

Along with that, according to Mr. Dung, it is also necessary to review commitments to the TPP Agreement and laws on intellectual property. The reason is because protecting intellectual property rights will create conditions to attract more foreign investment capital.

“Improving the legal system in this area needs to have a high deterrent when there is a violation. The new Penal Code has provisions on criminal liability due to intellectual property violations. The problem is that the awareness and concern of judicial agencies and the community about fighting this violation is still low. Therefore, to implement the TPP, it is proposed to research and build a system of specialized regional courts on intellectual property. wisdom", Mr. Dung recommended.