Vietnam’s economy is increasingly diversified in terms of business activities and business regulations are also constantly being improved and enhanced. Accordingly, foreign investors can freely choose the right type of business. Therefore, the set up company in Vietnam is always a matter of great interest to foreign investors whom find business opportunities in Vietnam.

The first step is to set up a business in Vietnam

To take this step, the investor first needs to determine the type of business to choose to establish and provide the business name and expected information. Accordingly, the composition of the enterprise establishment dossier will be prepared according to regulations and submitted at the Business Registration Office, the Department of Planning and Investment of the place where it is expected to be headquartered. After submitting a valid application, the enterprise will be granted an enterprise registration certificate and announced the registration contents on the National Business Registration Portal.

The second step is to publish the contents of business registration

After being granted an enterprise registration certificate, an enterprise must make a public announcement on the National Business Registration Portal.

In the third step, the enterprise conducts stamp engraving

Enterprises can request to make a seal from the seal making agent. Accordingly, the enterprise actively decides on the type, quantity, form and content of the seal and is solely responsible for the use of its legal entity seal.

Fourth step is that to open a bank account in Vietnam

Currently, businesses can choose a bank to open an account for their business, to open an account, the bank requires an application form issued by the bank, a seal sample, the company’s charter, and a certificate. Business registration and related documents are required by different bank.

The fifth step is to register the tax declaration form in Vietnam.

Accordingly, enterprises register for the use of e-invoices and notify the use of e-invoices to their tax authorities. Enterprises need to contact the invoice supplier to order the printing of value-added invoice books and must register self-printed invoices with tax authorities.

In the sixth step, the enterprise needs to conduct labor registration in Vietnam. Enterprises register with the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs to declare the use of labor. Within 30 days from the date of commencement of operation, the employer must register the employer to the Labor Department (according to the prescribed form). In addition, enterprises should note that the relationship between the employer and the employee is regulated by the Labor Code and specified in the labor contract.

Seventh step is to register for social insurance in Vietnam.

Enterprises register with the Social Insurance Agency to pay health insurance and social insurance for employees. Employers must fill in all information according to the form provided by social insurance, including: full name, date of birth, salary (recorded in labor contract), number of social insurance book (for employees who have been issued with a book), a certified copy of the company’s business registration certificate and a copy of each labor contract.

It can be seen that setting up a business requires businesses to carry out a lot of procedures and comply with many different regulations of tax, banking, labor, insurance… Therefore, besides learning about legal regulations and businesses can seek the support of professional consulting firm in Vietnam with expertise and experience in the field of business establishment to implement the process quickly and effectively.

Finding the right business partner in Vietnam is also important. We recommend doing research on the reputation of the company and individual shareholders, corporate or individual, gathering publicly available company information, and performing background checks on key personnel to find potential risks in cooperation. Working with a reliable partner can help achieve economic benefits, saving time and money in business.

ANT Lawyers, a law firm in Vietnam could offer service to establish company in Vietnam. We assist clients needing legal service in obtaining investment certificate, business registration certificate, or other  licensing procedures.

After the Covid-19 pandemic with unremitting efforts, Vietnam has affirmed its capacity in all aspects with other countries, especially the capability to fight against Covid and quick return focus to business. Therefore, Vietnam is becoming an attractive investment destination for global investors including American companies. With the stable political situation, young and abundant human resources and commitment to investment facilitation from the Vietnam Government, it has become a great motivation for American investors to choose Vietnam as a safe and effective investment destination to expand business and set up company in Vietnam.

On the occasion of Vietnam Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh’s business trip to attend the Special Summit to celebrate the 45th anniversary of ASEAN- America relations, many big American enterprises such as Intel, Apple and Google have shared their desire to expand the supply chain, cooperate in technology and move production to Vietnam by coordinating with Vietnamese enterprises that have suitable capability to participate. This is also considered a great opportunity for Vietnam to interact with the world’s leading advanced economy to improve its labor capacity and is a potential market for workers to learn and demonstrate their abilities.

Specifically, Apple wants the Vietnamese Government to continue to have preferential policies to encourage high-tech American enterprises to develop business and invest in Vietnam. On the other hand, Apple also affirmed that it will actively consider the Prime Minister’s proposal on increasing the number of domestic suppliers and raising the rate of using domestic services and goods higher in Apple products in the near future.

In addition, Intel also showed its interest in the Vietnamese market by emphasizing the very important role of Vietnam and Vietnamese factories in Intel’s production chain. Moreover, Intel also highly appreciates Vietnam’s infrastructure and human resources as potential conditions for technology enterprises to continue to expand their operations. Especially in today’s volatile world, Intel’s expansion of investment in Vietnam is a strategic solution.

Currently, Microsoft is working with Vietnam’s Ministry of Information and Communications to deploy digital skills programs both private and public sector, and data science development in Vietnam. Accordingly, technology will help enhance transparency and trust, prevent and fight corruption. Vietnam has a young population, a dynamic country, ready to receive new technologies Microsoft wishes to strengthen cooperation with Vietnam in the fields of digital transformation, ensuring network security, helping Vietnam achieve the goal of reducing emissions to zero by 2050 and contribute to helping Vietnam build a green economy, digital economy, and sustainable development.

In addition, in order to attract foreign investment, the Prime Minister emphasized that the “sincerity, trust and responsibility” stance, “harmonious benefits, shared risks” between big American and Vietnamese enterprises will help the relationship between the parties is stable and good. In addition, to implement the commitments it has joined, Vietnam is continuing to build and perfect institutions suitable to Vietnam’s conditions and circumstances. Moreover, the development of strategic infrastructure such as digital transformation infrastructure, transport infrastructure, energy infrastructure, healthcare infrastructure… will also be the focus of completion to attract foreign investors to establish company inVietnam.

Besides, Vietnam continues to improve the open and stable business environment, and effectively handle administrative procedures. In particular, digital transformation will help reduce direct transactions, fight negativity, trouble, corruption, save time and costs for people and businesses. Therefore, Vietnamese businesses need to innovate in both capacity and organization to capture this opportunity well.

With highly professional staff and great experience in business in Vietnam, ANT Lawyers – Law firm in Vietnam would like to support you to establish company in Vietnam.

The price indexes has always been on top of information list which investors look for when making investment into a new country. Beside various information i.e. GDP, Stock market, unemployment, producer price, interest rate, balance of trade, the investors also check the consumer price index and income to determine the attractiveness of market entry. There are many attractiveness factors including the low cost of living and low level of income in comparable with other neighboring countries, for making investment in setting up company in Vietnam for manufacturing purpose.

Where in Vietnam is cheapest city to live and work?

 According to statistics of 2021, taking Hanoi as the base indicator, the top 10 localities with the most expensive cost of living include: Hanoi (100%), Quang Ninh (99.5%), Ho Chi Minh City (98.98%), Da Nang (96.4%), Hai Phong (95.58%), Lao Cai (94.75%), Son La (94.58%), Lang Son (94.55%) %), Khanh Hoa (94.55%) and Dien Bien (94.41%).

How it has changed since 2015?

The top 10 provinces and cities with the most expensive cost of living in the country in 2015 include: Lai Chau (100.3%), Hanoi (100%), Son La (99.27%), Lao Cai (99.02%), Dien Bien (98.85%), Ho Chi Minh City City (97.39%), Ha Tinh (97.14%), Ha Giang (96.5%), Da Nang (96.44%) and Binh Phuoc (96.12%).

In 2021, Hanoi’s per capita income reaches more than 6 million VND/month.  Since 2016, Hanoi has always been in the top 3 localities with the highest income in the country.

In 2015, Da Nang ranked 9/63 with a price equal to 96.44% compared to Hanoi. By 2017, the city “jumped” to third place, up 6 places compared to 2015. In 2021, Da Nang’s cost of living is 96.4% of that of Hanoi and ranked 4th in the country in terms of expensiveness. In 2021, Da Nang has per capita income of more than 5.2 million VND/month, ranking 5th out of 63 provinces and cities. Previously, 2019 was the year the city had the highest income in the past 10 years with more than 6 million VND/person/month.

In 2021, Ho Chi Minh City reached 98.98% and ranked 3rd out of 63 provinces and cities in cost of living.   From 2002 to 2016, the city has always been the place with the highest income in the country. From 2018 to present, Ho Chi Minh City maintains the “runner-up” position (behind Binh Duong), in which, 2019 is the year with the highest income with 6.7 million VND/person/month.

Besides the three central cities that are constantly in the top of the most expensive localities in the country, Lao Cai is the only mountainous province.

In 2020, Lao Cai ranked 5th in terms of the expensive level in consumption, equal to 96.52% compared to Hanoi. Lao Cai is the most expensive province among 14 Northern Midlands and Mountainous Provinces (the cheapest is Phu Tho, equal to 91.07% compared to Hanoi, ranked 56th nationwide). By 2021, Lao Cai’s index drop to 94.75%, the lowest level of the place since 2015 until now. With this index, Lao Cai ranks 6th in the country in terms of the expensiveness of the cost of living.

In particular, although the cost of living is quite high, the income of people in Lao Cai is not high. The average income of people in this locality was only 1.8 million VND/person/month in 2016 and ranked 53rd in the country. In 2021, people in Lao Cai earn an average of 2.51 million VND, ranking 55th in the country.

The low level of income and least living cost make Vietnam a favourable destination for investment.  Many labour intensive manufacturers in garment, shoes, furniture… have long chosen Vietnam as a place for establishing company in manufacturing. There are growing number of companies in electronics also manufacture in Vietnam to take advantage of the comparable low wage workforce.

With highly professional staff and great experience in foreign investment, ANT Lawyers - law firm in Vietnam would like to support you to establish company in Vietnam.

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The UKVFTA has provided regulations governing bilateral trade between the two countries with a value of up to 5.1 billion pound, which is a foundation for trade and investment development, creating a strong framework for UK and Vietnamese businesses.

In addition, the Agreement also provides market access commitments with a schedule to reduce preferential tariffs for import and export goods between the UK and Vietnam. Specifically, the commitment to eliminate 65% of tariff lines in the framework of bilateral trade continues to be maintained in this Agreement. In the next 6 years, 99% of tariff lines will continue to be eliminated tariffs, facilitating import and export for machinery, mechanical equipment, and pharmaceuticals.

In addition, Vietnam has also made commitments higher than Vietnam’s commitments in the WTO to create favorable conditions for UK investors to access Vietnam’s markets, including finance, telecommunications and education. This will help the UK investors to easily access the market and make investments and set up company in Vietnam.

In the field of intellectual property, the parties continue to commit to a high level of protection. The iconic UK products, including Scotch whiskey, Scottish farmed Salmon, Irish whiskey and Irish cream, as well as 36 Vietnamese agricultural products, including Moc Chau tea, Buon Ma Thuot coffee, Hai Hau rice and Phu Quoc fish sauce continue to be protected.

The official entry into force of the UKVFTA is the latest milestone in a year of strengthening bilateral and commercial relations between the UK and Vietnam. The implementation of the UKVFTA Agreement will help investors and enterprises of the two countries easily make investments, ensure the best benefits from the agreement, thereby bringing long-term economic benefits to investment and business.

ANT Lawyers – A Law Firm in Vietnam with international standard, local expertise and strong international network. We focus on customers’ needs and provide clients with a high quality legal advice and services. For advice or services request, please contact us via email ant@antlawyers.vn, or call us +84 24 730 86 529.

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The parties highly appreciated JETRO’s practical and effective contributions to Vietnam in recent years in promoting investment cooperation. In the 10 months of 2021, Japan ranked 3rd among countries making investments in Vietnam, with a total registered investment capital of nearly USD 3.4 billion. Up to now, Japan is the second largest investor in Vietnam with over USD 63.9 billion (accounting for 15.8% of total FDI investment).

Vietnam encourages Japanese businesses to invest and set up company in Vietnam, apply investment registration certificates in Vietnam, expand investment cooperation in infrastructure, energy, manufacturing industry, high-quality agriculture, information technology, smart cities, financial and banking services, and banking, innovation. The Government is committed to accompanying the business community, supporting and creating all favorable conditions for business investment activities on establishment of company in Vietnam, bringing about more benefits for the parties, contributing to bringing Vietnam-Japan relations to a new level.

During this visit, the two countries signed more than 40 cooperation agreements with a total investment value of more than USD 3 billion. In addition to investment commitments, during this visit, there were many cooperation agreements on human resource training or other environmental protection solutions signed between ministries, sectors and businesses.

In the meeting, the Prime Minister of Vietnam also met and discussed with leaders of Nippon Foundation, MUFG Group, INFRONEER Group, JBIC Bank, Idemitsu Group and Mizuho Bank on market development, business, human resource training.

The Prime Minister shared with the difficulties of Japanese businesses in Vietnam over the past time, he said that Vietnam has changed to a safe and flexible adaptation, effectively controlling the epidemic. The competent authorities at all levels must discuss with businesses and citizen to deploy solutions appropriate to the situation, bring life back to normal, both open production and business, and effectively prevent epidemics. Vietnam also suggested that Japanese businesses corporate with Vietnamese in epidemic prevention and control, continue to contribute to improving institutions, training human resources, investing in hard and soft infrastructure, and cooperating in areas such as: climate change response, digital economy, green economy, circular economy…

In addition, to ensure investment and trade, Vietnam is expected to start reopening international flights in early December, including flights to Japan. This will make it easier for Japanese investors to make investment, market surveys, and deploy their investment projects.

By the visit, Vietnam wishes to further develop cooperation in investment, human resources and diplomacy with Japan, thereby creating favorable conditions for investors of the two countries to expand their business, form company in Vietnam and contribute to national economic development.

ANT Lawyers – Law firm in Vietnam with international standard, local expertise and strong international network. We focus on customers’ needs and provide clients with a high quality legal advice and services. For advice or service request, please contact us via email ant@antlawyers.vn, or call us +84 24 730 86 529.