Question: I am an enterprise owner who regularly enters into commercial contracts with partners. Our contracts normally prioritize the use of dispute resolution clauses by arbitration. Please advise us on the latest administrative procedures recently amended by the Ministry of Justice, the legal risks if contracts incorrectly refer to arbitration institutions’ information, and the review steps to be taken immediately to ensure legal safety for our enterprise.
Answer: Below is the detailed advisory regarding the new regulations on administrative procedures in the commercial arbitration sector pursuant to Decision 1241/QD-BTP (effective from May 12, 2026):
- Main contents
– Abolition of old administrative procedures: Administrative procedures numbered 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 in the Appendix promulgated together with Decision No. 1856/QD-BTP dated June 23, 2025 shall officially expire.
(Legal basis: Article 2 of Decision 1241/QD-BTP)
– 50% reduction in appraisal fees: The majority of licensing and operation registration procedures for arbitration centers and branches shall be subject to a 50% fee reduction from July 01, 2025 to the end of December 31, 2026. For example: The appraisal fee for the establishment of an arbitration center is reduced from 4,500,000 VND to 2,250,000 VND; the fee for amendment to the License is reduced from 1,000,000 VND to 500,000 VND.
(Legal basis: Appendix promulgated together with Decision 1241/QD-BTP (applying Circular No. 64/2025/TT-BTC))
– Prompt procedure resolution time limit: For the procedures of establishment and operation registration of an arbitration center, the Department of Justice shall appraise the dossier within 20 working days from the date of receipt of a complete dossier, and issue the Operation Registration Certificate within 05 working days from the date of having the Establishment License. The relocation of the head office to another province shall also be resolved within 05 working days.
(Legal basis: Section 1 and Section 5 of Part II of the Appendix promulgated together with Decision 1241/QD-BTP)
– Implementation of end-to-end online public services: Administrative procedures such as the establishment of an arbitration center, establishment of a branch/representative office of a foreign arbitration institution are fully eligible and permitted for online dossier submission on the National Public Service Portal, concurrently with direct submission or submission via postal service.
(Legal basis: Section 1 and Section 3 of Part II of the Appendix promulgated together with Decision 1241/QD-BTP)
- Greatest impacts
The new regulations update and standardize all forms and dossier submission processes for 10 core groups of administrative procedures in commercial arbitration activities. This directly and positively impacts arbitration institutions that are planning new establishments, branch expansions, or operational information amendments, helping save costs through reduced appraisal fees and flexible online dossier submissions. Concurrently, enterprises utilizing arbitration clauses are also indirectly impacted, and are compelled to precisely update the names and addresses of dispute resolution centers to prevent the invalidation of arbitration agreements.
- Risks of non-compliance
– Arbitration institutions submitting dossiers using the old forms or following the old procedures under Decision 1856/QD-BTP shall have their dossiers returned by state agencies, causing delays in the progress of recording license amendments or new establishments.
– Enterprises utilizing arbitration clauses in contracts but incorrectly referring to the names or addresses of arbitration centers (due to the centers having updated according to the new procedures without the enterprises’ knowledge) shall face the risk of jurisdictional disputes when incidents arise.
- Proposed action plan
– For arbitration centers: Review all dossiers for operation registration, branch establishment, and lists of arbitrators prepared for submission to immediately update them according to the new forms (such as Form No. 01, 02, 05, 11-PLIII-TTTM…).
– For enterprises: The legal department shall review standard contracts containing arbitration clauses, cross-checking the current legal information of arbitration centers to ensure accuracy.
- Notes and recommendations for clients
– Note on auto-filling of information upon online submission: When submitting dossiers online, personal information (such as Citizen Identity Card, date of birth, place of permanent residence) shall be automatically extracted by the system from the National Database on Population. The applicant shall only manually declare additional information if the system does not auto-fill, or shall be obliged to manually declare fully upon submission of paper dossiers.
(Legal basis: Form notes in Section 1 of Part II of the Appendix promulgated together with Decision 1241/QD-BTP)
– Note on the procedure for re-issuance of the Operation Registration Certificate: In cases where the Operation Registration Certificate is lost, torn, damaged, burnt, or destroyed, the arbitration institution may submit an application for re-issuance. The Department of Justice shall consider re-issuing within 05 working days and shall collect absolutely no appraisal fee.
(Legal basis: Section 10 of Part II of the Appendix promulgated together with Decision 1241/QD-BTP)
