Legal Validity of Criminal Records Card in Vietnam

Criminal record or judicial record is a record of criminal convictions of convicted persons with criminal judgments and decisions of courts which have taken legal effect, judgment execution status and ban on individuals to hold positions or setting up company in Vietnam, or managing enterprises and cooperatives in Vietnam in cases where enterprises or cooperatives are declared bankrupt by Courts.

The competent state authority will grant individuals a criminal or judicial record card, which is issued by the department of justice or data center of judicial records to provide information whether or not an individual has any criminal record; prohibited or not prohibited from holding the position, establishing company in Vietnam, managing enterprises and cooperatives in Vietnam in case the enterprise or cooperative is declared bankrupt. Within the enterprise, judicial record cards will support human resource management, business registration, establishment, management of enterprises, cooperatives … Besides, many government agencies and organizations requesting individuals to provide judicial record cards for some necessary activities i.e. criminal record requirement for employment, criminal record for work permit application, criminal record for immigration purposes. According to Clause 1, Article 44, Law on Judicial Records 2009, there are two types of judicial record cards, including:

– Judicial record card No. 1 issued to Vietnamese citizens, foreigners who have or are residing in Vietnam to serve the purpose of human resource management, business registration, establishment, management of enterprises and cooperatives.

– Judicial record card No. 2 issued to Vietnamese citizen or foreigners whom have or are residing in Vietnam to serve the purpose of immigration, or others.

Depending on the purpose of using judicial record cards, individuals, agencies and organizations request the issuance of judicial record cards No. 1 or No. 2.

Pursuant to the Law on Judicial Records in 2009, Decree 111/2010 / ND-CP guiding the implementation of the Law on Judicial Records, the time limit for judicial record cards of Vietnam so far has not been clearly defined. Criminal record card’s time limit depend on the provisions in the documents of each relevant legal field and depending on the decision of the agency or organization that need to verify the status of judicial record of this individual.

As Articles 20, 24 and 28 of the Nationality Law of 2008, amended and supplemented in 2017, the application for admission, renunciation and return to Vietnamese nationality must have a judicial record card issued within no more than 90 days. For visa applications (VISA) at the US Embassy or the US Consulate General, the individual must have a judicial record card issued within 1 year for immigration verification.

Therefore, when individuals are required to provide judicial record cards at agencies and organizations, they must consider the regulations on the time limit that such agencies allow for judicial record cards. It is not contrary to the Law on Judicial Records in 2009, because the Law does not clearly stipulate the legal effect on two judicial record cards No. 1 and 2, as well as there are no regulations limiting the agencies and organizations to set the time limit for the criminal record cards in Vietnam.

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Da Nang – Japan Signed a Memorandum of Establishing Cooperative Relations between Da Nang city and Kisararu city

On July 26th, 2019, representatives of Da Nang City People’s Committee and representatives of Kisararu city, Japan signed a Memorandum of establishing cooperative relations between the two cities, to promote business and investment in Vietnam.

The content of the Memorandum include the discussion of the experience and cooperation in the investment attraction of the two cities. In addition, the parties committed to create the most favorable conditions for the investors of the parties to explore the market and invest in each city. In addition, Da Nang City pledged to regularly hold periodic local seminars to introduce investment opportunities, potentials and investment areas.

In addition, the parties are committed to supporting each other in introducing each other’s information to the businesses of the parties. The parties also proactively proposed organized Vietnam-Japan cultural exchange activities, aimed at promoting the culture and tourism of the two cities and promoting the labor exchange of the two parties. Kisarazu City will assist Da Nang City in training Japanese interpreters and the parties will make efforts to organize exchange programs for students and students to enhance mutual understanding.

Da Nang City and Kisarazu City starts to cooperate as well as sign the Memorandum in an extremely favorable time, promising to bring good results in the future. Danang wishes that in the coming time, the two cities’ Governments will cooperate more strongly in exchanges and exchange of experiences on urban management and personnel training.

It is the most favorable time for Japanese investors to invest in Da Nang. The Memorandum is the first step for Japanese investors to research the market and invest in Da Nang in the future through foreign direct investment projects to be carried out in Vietnam.

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Da Nang and Austria cooperate to develop tourism and investment

In July 2019, the delegation of Danang city attended the Introduction and Promotion Program in Danang in Vienna, Austria. The delegation of Danang Promotion Agency discussed the development of tourism with Graz city (Austria) of the two cities and investment into Vietnam.

The representative of Vietnam emphasizes that Danang is one of the most attractive tourist destinations in Vietnam and invited Austrian travel companies to set up travel programs to bring tourists to Vietnam and promote investment through setting up company in Danang.

During the program, the delegation worked with the City Mayor of Graz city and the representatives of Graz City Council on the promotion of the establishment of local-level cooperation between Danang and Graz. Graz city is the second largest city in Austria with a developed economy based on tourism, education and training pillars, high technology. These are also business lines that Danang City is very interested in.

The representatives of Danang city and representatives of Graz City Council have many programs to attract the tourism of both cities and wish to further develop the relations in many fields, including investment.

In the coming time, the investment cooperation of Austria and Danang city will have positive changes, this will create favorable conditions for Austrian investors to invest in Danang. Investors in the tourism and high-tech sector will be investors have many opportunities to invest in Danang in the future.

Echoing the initiative between Da Nang and Graz, Mr Tuan Nguyen of ANT Lawyers visited Vienna and Graz, Austria during the business trip between Jul 10 to Jul 12, 2019 to meet with long term European law firm partner Mr Markus Leitner of Leitner & Hirth, a law firm in Graz, Austria

And together meet and discuss potential business plan with a number of Austrian clients whom are interested in expanding business to Vietnam through different forms i.e. set up company in Vietnam to distribute plug and play hydroelectric power plant or establish factory to produce sustainable non-woven bags for export, or export agricultural machinery from Austria to Vietnam, in particular:

Doro Turbine Gmbh, represented by Stefen Stein, CEO

An award-winning start-up company, based in Graz-Austria, that is developing solutions for the simple utilisation of hydropower with very low heads. The doro-C Compact comes totally prefabricated in a 20ft standard container, which includes not just the turbine itself, but also the entire automation system as well as the electrical components. This makes doro-C the first plug & play hydroelectric power plant, especially designed for non-experts, which are simple, reliable & affordable.

Weforyou, represented by Armin Amirpanah, CEO

-International developer, producer and consultant of biopolymers and sustainable packaging solutions with a focus on the needs of retailers and polymer processing markets.

-Produce and provide customized PLA and PLA compounds. All weforyou’s bioplastics are 100% biodegradable, 100% compostable and 100% non-GMO.

RWA Wien AG, represented by Stefen Mariel

-A wholesaler of agricultural products and inputs as well as energy, building materials and products for home & garden;

-A wholesaler and retailer of agricultural machinery and spare parts;

-A franchisor for building & garden centres and building materials under the Lagerhaus brand;

-A developer of high quality own brands for the Lagerhaus cooperatives;

-A service provider enabling synergies in the areas of IT, modern business organisation, marketing and legal advice.

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The Note of New Provisions of Law on Planning Decree No.37/2019/ND-CP

The Law on Planning 2017 has been effective from January 01st, 2019. On May 07th, 2019, the Decree no. 37/2019/ND-CP details some articles of Law on planning is effective. This Decree details some articles of Law on Planning including the Article 15,17,19,24,25,26,27,30,40,41 and 49 of Law on Planning.

This Decree applies to organizations and individuals involved in the formulation, appraisal, decision or approval, announcement, implementation, assessment and adjustment of the planning under the national planning system and other relevant organizations and individuals.

Therefore, the time duration for formulation of the national comprehensive planning, national marine spatial planning and national land use planning is not over 30 months, since the day approving the planning task. In the case the national planning system and province planning system, the time duration is 24 months.

This Decree details the contents of planning need to be published on the mass media: A summary of the planning contents must be published at least 01 time on the first page of a printed newspaper or on the homepage of the online newspaper for at least 30 days; The planning contents must be announced on news programs and television channels of national radio and television stations or provincial television stations.

The announcement of planning contents is also carried out through the following forms: model display, planning maps; conferences and workshops to disseminate planning contents and plan implementation plans; publications such as books, atlas, introductory videos…

The Decree specifies the professional capacity of this planning consultancy organization not belonging to state agencies. Pursuant to the Law on Planning 2017, the power to organize planning formulation includes: The Government shall organize formulation of the national comprehensive planning, national marine spatial planning and national land use planning; The Prime Minister shall organize formulation of regional planning; Ministry and ministerial authorities shall organize formulation of national sector planning; The People’s Committees of provinces shall organize formulation of provincial planning. However, the planning organization, the Ministries and Ministerial authorities and local governments shall select a planning consultancy in accordance with regulations of the Law on Bidding. The planning consultancy shall have a legal status and satisfy qualification requirements applied to its assigned tasks in accordance with regulations of the Government is regulated at Article 4 Decree 37/2019/ND-CP includes the conditions as follow:

-Planning consultancy organizations must have at least 01 consultant, who is the planning project manager and must have a university degree or higher in the discipline related to the planning to be established to meet the prescribed conditions and at least 05 consultants presided over the planning component or planning contents for the national sector planning and provincial planning to meet the prescribed conditions. Consultancy organizations that formulate planning components or planning contents for national and provincial planning must have at least one consultant meeting the prescribed conditions.

-The Consultants who are managers of planning projects must have a university degree or higher in the discipline related to the planning, and have established at least 01 planning of the same planning level that needs to be elaborated or directly participated in set up at least 02 plans of the same planning level.

-In case the national master plan is first established in Vietnam, the consultant who is the planning project manager must have a university degree or higher in the discipline related to the planning needed to be established and the owner has established at least 02 regional plans or planning for the inter-provincial river basin.

-Consultants who lead the formulation of planning components or planning contents for national and provincial planning sectors must have a university degree or higher in a discipline related to the planning component or planning contents. It is necessary to set up and directly participate in setting up at least 01 planning of the same planning level.

-If the national master plan is first established in Vietnam, the consultant who presides over the planning component or the planning content for the national sector planning must have a university degree or higher in the specialized field. relating to the planning component or the planning content to be prepared and presided over at least 01 planning or directly involved in setting up at least 02 regional or planning for the scope of the inter-river basin the provincial.

Organizations that meet the above requirements may conduct planning consultancy for competent state agencies for planning. In Chapter II of Decree 37/2019/ND-CP stipulating the issue of planning, in this chapter, the responsibilities of planning agencies, for each planning, will specify the responsibilities Specific agencies such as: Responsibilities of agencies that formulate national master plans, national maritime space planning, regional planning; Responsibilities of agencies organizing the formulation of planning components and agencies making planning components… prescribe the time limits, tasks and contents of planning, but the planning contents must comply with orientations and points and development objectives of socio-economic space, regional space, social and technical infrastructure… according to regulations, create uniform consistency and ensure sustainable development objectives.

The Decree details about the information system and the national database about planning at Chapter V of this Decree, includes the contents about information and database as follow:

The information, database of the information system and national database about planning and information, the database is digitized, linked, integrated with each other, linked to the national geographic database and appraised in accordance with the law.

The scale of implementing the construction of national geographic database is determined by district administrative units; use VN-2000 reference frame and coordinate system for all types of information, map database.

Information and database collected to build a national planning information and database system include:

-Database of national planning documents, regional planning, provincial planning, specialized technical planning, special administrative – economic unit planning, urban planning and planning rural areas have been approved and stored according to Article 44 of the Law on Planning;

-Specialized database managed by Ministries, Ministerial authorities, People’s Committees of provinces and cities under the central government, including national statistical database and national statistical indicators system, provincial, district and commune levels; database on water resources; database on geology and minerals; environmental database; database on meteorology and hydrology; database of marine and island environmental resources; database on climate change; land statistics and inventory database; database of land use planning and plans; information and databases related to basic land surveys; database on technical infrastructure systems; database on social infrastructure systems; database on construction; database on urban systems and rural population points; database on housing and real estate market; database on national defense and security; relevant measurement and mapping databases;

-National geographic database is standardized and updated regularly;

-Information and databases on other planning.

The Decree stipulating the planning contents must be announced on the mass media: notices on national radio and television news programs for national planning and regional planning or provincial radio and television stations for provincial plans on summarizing the contents of decisions or approving planning and lists of projects prioritized for investment in the planning period.

Planning law and construction law have a close relationship. An important principle of planning activities is to ensure stability, avoid disturbance to business and production activities of enterprises and people’s lives. Decree 37 is expected to help clarifying issues, reducing overlapping in relevant legal provisions.

ANT Lawyers attorneys, a law firm with offices in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang regularly monitor legal changes to update customers regularly.

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