Under Current Vietnam Law on importation and exportation of foreign investor, Vietnam grant exportation rights to (i) Foreign Companies duly established and operating in foreign countries not having commercial representative (i.e. representative office or branch) in Vietnam and (ii) Foreign Invested Company.
Having also checked legal instruments regulating on operation of Representative Office and/or Branch of Foreign Companies, we did not find any specific paragraph stipulating on exportation right of Representative Office or Branch of Foreign Companies in Vietnam. In particular as follows:
1. Representative Office in Vietnam
Regulations on representative offices, branches of foreign company in Vietnam, a foreign company can establish representative office in Vietnam to:
- Operate as contact office of foreign company in Vietnam;
- Promote cooperation projects of foreign company in Vietnam;
- Research market to push up chances to purchase commodities, supply and consume commercial services of foreign company in Vietnam;
- Supervise implementation of foreign company’s contracts signed with Vietnamese partners or related to Vietnam market
- Conduct other works allowed by applicable law
It is noted that under Vietnam Law, a representative office is not permitted to offer service(s) for profit-making purposes on its behalf in Vietnam. Thus, the Representative Office can only assist investors in market research or promote business chances in Vietnam. The Representative Office can not be recorded as Exporter of goods from Vietnam.
Estimated time frame for establishment of a representative office in Vietnam shall be from 15 to 20 working days from submission of application dossier to the competent authority.
2. Branch of foreign company in Vietnam.
Regulations on representative offices, branches of foreign company in Vietnam, a foreign company can establish branch in Vietnam to execute sale and purchasing contracts as stipulated in the License for establishment of Branch in Vietnam. However, actually, at present, Vietnam does not encourage foreign companies to setup their branches in our countries. Usually, they advised foreign companies to transform branches into foreign invested companies in Vietnam.
3. Foreign Invested Company in Vietnam
In Vietnam, foreign investor can setup a foreign invested company under the form of wholly foreign invested company or joint venture company to conduct importation right or exportation right.
In this case, the Foreign Invested Company can either promote trading activities in Vietnam and act as an authorized exporter to export goods from Vietnam.
Profits generated from operation of the Foreign Invested Company can be transferred to foreign company after the Foreign Invested Company fulfils all its financial obligations to competent authorities as well as its business partner.
Estimated time for establishment of foreign invested company in Vietnam conducting export right in Vietnam shall be about 1-2.5 months. For ease of reference, hereinafter is an overview roadmap of this procedure as follows:
| Step 1 | Step 2 | Step 3 | Step 4 | Step 5 |
| Preparation of application dossier | Submission of application dossier to Provincial Department of Planning and Investment | Comments from relevant Ministries | Provincial People’s Committee grant the amended Investment Certificate | Publication on News Paper |
| Comments from relevant Provincial Department |
Time frame
| Step 1 | 5-7 working days from receipt of necessary information and documents from your company |
| Step 2 | 02-03 working days from receipt of signed and sealed documents from your company |
| Step 3 | 1-2 months from submission of dossier to Provincial Department of Planning and Investment |
| Step 4 | 5-10 working days from receipt of comments from relevant competent authorities |
| Step 5 | 05 working days from receipt of Investment Certificate |
From above analysis, we strongly recommend foreign investor to setup the Foreign Invested Company under the form of wholly foreign invested company to run his/her proposed business plan in Vietnam.
