Phuong Thi Minh Tran, an associate in Tilleke & Gibbins’ office Ho Chi Minh City, contributed the Vietnam chapter of Foreign Investment Review 2022, a recently published global guide to the legal and regulatory environment for foreign investment in 29 jurisdictions worldwide. Published and distributed by Getting the Deal Through (GTDT), the guide discusses law and policy on oversight of foreign investment, regulatory frameworks, procedural requirements, and other important stipulations for foreign investors. The Vietnam chapter covers the following topics: Law and Policy: Government policies and practices, main laws and their scope of application (including details on investment promotional measures), definitions, rules for state-owned enterprises and sovereign wealth funds, relevant authorities and oversight, and national interest provisions. Procedure: Jurisdictional thresholds, national interest clearance, securing approval, the review process for competition clearance and associated penalties, involvement of authorities, facilitation of clearance, and post-closing regulatory powers. Substantive assessment: Substantive tests for clearance, authorities’ consultation with other countries and other relevant parties, transactional prohibitions and objections, mitigating arrangements and challenges to a decision, and protection of confidential information. Recent cases, updates, and trends: Relevant recent case law, key recent and ongoing developments. A PDF of the Vietnam chapter can be accessed through the button below. Tilleke & Gibbins also contributed the Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar chapters to Foreign Investment Review 2022. To browse all 29 jurisdictions covered by the guide, please visit the Getting the Deal Through website.

This article discusses the anticipated challenges and opportunities for IP rights owners operating in the metaverse.

On January 28, 2022, the government of Vietnam issued Decree No. 15/2022/ND-CP guiding the tax reduction and exemption policies to support post-pandemic recovery (Decree 15). Decree 15 was issued to implement the National Assembly’s Resolution No. 43/2022/QH15 dated January 11, 2022, on fiscal and monetary policies for the recovery of the national economy from the complications of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Notably, Decree 15 sets out tax relief for value-added tax (VAT) and corporate income tax (CIT). Various kinds of goods and services will be entitled to a reduced VAT rate of 8% (instead of the current 10%) for the period from February 1 until December 31, 2022. The reduction is applicable for both methods of VAT payment (i.e., the deduction method and the direct method). It is worth noting, however, that telecom services, banking and financial services, real estate business, as well as goods and services subject to special consumption tax are not eligible for this relief measure. Details of the goods and services which are not entitled to VAT rate reduction are listed in the appendices attached to Decree 15. With regard to CIT, grants and donations of enterprises and organizations to COVID-19 control operations in Vietnam will be deducted from taxable income when calculating the CIT of the tax period of 2022. The amount of grants or donations must be confirmed in writing (including via electronic means) by the receiving authority or agency. Decree 15 takes effect on February 1, 2022. It should be noted that there may be further guiding circulars after the enactment of the decree. Therefore, it is recommended that businesses keep a close watch on any further implementing guidance of Decree 15.

Thailand and Vietnam are major destinations for foreign direct investment (FDI) in Asia, resulting in significant levels of cross-border transactions. According to the World Bank, in 2018 and 2019 Thailand attracted a combined net inflow of about USD 18 billion in FDI.  During the same period, net inflows to Vietnam were USD 31.62 billion. These high volumes of inbound investment inevitably lead to a higher risk of disputes with everyone from suppliers, contractors, joint venture partners, borrowers, and of course state-owned companies and government agencies. International arbitration is a viable means of handling such disputes. Both Thailand and Vietnam are contracting states to the United Nations Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (the “New York Convention”), so arbitral awards from other member states are enforceable. With this in mind, an international arbitration award has to be enforced. This usually means filing cases in the local Thai and Vietnamese courts. As explained in this report, both Thailand and Vietnam have legislative frameworks in place to enforce arbitral awards, but in practice, enforcement can be a challenging and time-consuming endeavor. Before electing to pursue arbitration against private and state entities, foreign investors should be aware of how awards are actually enforced in these emerging Asian jurisdictions. To read the full article, please download the report through the button below.   This article was first published in September 2021 by the Practising Law Institute as part of their course materials for International Investment Law & Investor-State Dispute Settlement 2021.

The Energy Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) has launched a pilot project to study the energy consumption and the economic, social, and environmental impact of electric motorcycle taxis, as well as the behavior of drivers and passengers. The project, which was launched on December 27, 2021, as part of EGAT’s Carbon Neutrality Policy, will continue for a year, after which EGAT will consider the data and decide whether electric motorcycle taxis should be introduced nationwide. EGAT is also currently encouraging the use of electric bikes within their own organization, and they initially expect this to help reduce annual carbon dioxide emissions by 37 tons and prevent the release of about 838,000 milligrams of dust per year. EGAT expects additional significant reductions from electric motorcycle taxi pilot projects in multiple locations. A study conducted in Kenya in 2015 by that country’s energy regulator found that sub-150cc motorcycles emit approximately 46.5 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer, and these emissions increase proportionally in accordance with engine size. According to Thailand’s Office of Industrial Economics, citing data collected by the Federation of Thai Industries Automotive Industry Group, a total of 1,516,096 motorcycles were sold in Thailand in 2020—a surprisingly robust figure in light of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Assuming that public motorcycles travel an average of 15,000 kilometers per year, each motorcycle is therefore producing approximately 0.7 tons of carbon dioxide per year. If Thailand is able to change 50% of its yearly sales of standard motorcycle to electric motorcycles, annual carbon dioxide emissions could decrease by approximately 530,000 tons. Furthermore, since 28.8% of carbon dioxide emissions in Thailand are generated from the transport sector, the transition to electric mobility vehicles looks to be one of the most promising solutions for lowering carbon dioxide emissions in the country. Considering developments such as this one is an

In this guest piece, Andy Chua, senior vice president of the Lazada IP Rights (IPR) Protection Team, reveals how Southeast Asia’s leading e-commerce platform protects IP rights online while meeting rights holders’ needs for efficiency and responsiveness. This article, which was first published in World Trademark Review, is the first in a two-part series about trademark enforcement against online counterfeits.   It is no secret that online marketplaces have experienced rapid growth due to the digitalisation of retail and related fields. This rapid development has unfortunately also created an additional avenue for bad actors to distribute counterfeit goods to largely unaware consumers—thereby causing losses and reputational damage to brands associated with these counterfeit products. As Southeast Asia’s leading e-commerce platform, Lazada has long prioritised protecting the IP rights of brands and sellers on our platforms and has invested in safeguards that ensure consumers can shop and transact with confidence on Lazada. In March 2019, Lazada established the IPR Protection Team, which is charged with the mission of developing a comprehensive IP rights protection programme at Lazada. To our knowledge, Lazada is the only e-commerce company in Southeast Asia with a team dedicated to addressing rights holders’ IP concerns. Beyond the initial setting up of the dedicated IPR Protection Team, Lazada continues to invest significantly in human resources and technology infrastructure to meet rights holders’ needs for efficiency and responsiveness. Presently, more than 30 people are employed full time and assigned to this effort. The IP rights protection programme at Lazada comprises four core components: a strict IP rights policy; merchant education; technology-driven governance; and stakeholder collaboration. Strict IP rights policy On each of the six Lazada country platforms, the IP rights policy is publicly available in the respective local language and clearly sets out the types of listings that would violate Lazada’s IP policy. Generally, the policy prohibits the

Thailand has completed the establishment of the Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC), the regulator under the country’s Personal Data Protection Act B.E. 2562 (PDPA), strongly indicating that the planned full enforcement of the PDPA on June 1, 2022, is likely to proceed as scheduled. The establishment of the PDPC was finalized on January 18, 2022, when the Announcement of the Prime Minister’s Office on the Appointment of Chairperson and Honorary Members of the PDPC was published in the Government Gazette. As stipulated in the PDPA, the PDPC consists of: The chairperson, appointed based on knowledge, skills, and experience; The vice-chairperson, who is the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society; Five commission members, designated based on their positions in certain government agencies (as prescribed under the PDPA); and Nine honorary commission members appointed based on knowledge, skills, and experience in personal data protection, consumer protection, technology and telecommunication, social science, law, health, finance, or other relevant fields. As the vice-chairperson and the five commission members are appointed to the PDPC based on their positions, the January 18 announcement appointing the chairperson and the nine honorary commission members completes the formation of the PDPC. The full enforcement of the PDPA has been previously postponed, and many businesses had expressed concern that another extension would be forthcoming before the current enforcement date. However, the successful establishment of the PDPC is a fundamental prerequisite to enforcement and indicates that the effective date of the PDPA on June 1, 2022, is unlikely to be further postponed. In addition, the PDPA’s draft subordinate regulations that were the subject of a series of public hearings last year are likely to be issued in the near future. Companies and other organizations that are not yet compliant with the PDPA should now assess their current practices for handling and processing personal data in

Intellectual property experts from Tilleke & Gibbins were engaged by ARISE+ IPR, a regional support program funded by the European Union and implemented by the European Intellectual Property Office, to craft a series of IP enforcement guides for Southeast Asian countries, aimed at raising local awareness of the importance of IP protection. The five-year, EUR 5.5 million ARISE+ IPR program supports regional integration through IP cooperation and aims to upgrade national IP systems for creation, protection, utilization, administration, and enforcement to be in line with international best practices and standards and the strategic objectives of the ASEAN Intellectual Property Rights Action Plan 2016-2025. The guides were developed by Tilleke & Gibbins’ lawyers in cooperation with the IP offices of each participating country, and cover issues related to trademarks, industrial designs, and geographical indications. Each guide was produced in a compact leaflet form in English as well as the local language, and is considered an official publication of the respective national IP office. The guides can be accessed from the ARISE+ IPR site (under “Leaflets, brochures and booklets”), or by clicking on the links below: Cambodia: English | Khmer Indonesia: English | Bahasa Indonesia Thailand: English | Thai Vietnam: English | Vietnamese