JAKARTA, 9 November 2021 – Viet Nam’s Ministry for Planning and Industry organised its second framing workshop on 27 October. The workshop was part of the “Handbook for Implementing International Investment Commitments – Stage One: Pilot in Viet Nam” project. The Handbook itself will be finalised and targeted for completion by the end of this year.
At the workshop, Professor N. Jansen Calamita, Head of Investment Law & Policy, Centre for International Law of the National University of Singapore, gave a presentation on the Investment Handbook, including how it would fit into Viet Nam’s dispute prevention strategy.
He elaborated on how Viet Nam’s competent authorities can use the Handbook to implement Viet Nam’s international investment treaties and address investors grievances. He highlighted the examples of issues in areas where disputes and grievances arise most frequently, such as incentives and taxation, selection of investors in land-using investment projects and land-related issues.
National experts, Founder and Managing Director of IDVN law firms and officials from the Ministry of Planning and Investment, and Ministry of Finance, also presented Viet Nam’s experience in defending investor-state disputes, addressing land and tax grievances.
The Handbook aims to (i) teach officials about the practical application of the governments’ treaty and obligations; (ii) improve the quality of government decision-making process; (iii) strengthen the effectiveness of other policies and procedures for effective treaty implementation; and (iv) help officials make better use of government legal resource.
The project will continue with a series of training to relevant Vietnamese government officials involved with the day-to-day management of foreign investment (including the screening and monitoring of investments).
The training series and handbook dissemination seek to improve on-the-ground implementation and awareness of Viet Nam’s specific international investment commitments and minimise the risk of investor-state disputes arising from frontline errors in administration and treatment of investors.
The first framing workshop took place on 15 January. The pilot project aims to (i) enhance the awareness and understanding of Viet Nam’s investment treaty commitments among the country’s government officials and (ii) establish a model for future investment handbooks in the other ASEAN Member States.
For more information on this project or the AECSP, please contact the AANZFTA Support Unit at aanzfta_inquiry@asean.org.
Subscribe to receive email notices when new content is published on the AANZFTA website.
