Question: I’m Japanese Citizen, a member of a japanese business group.
I’m living in Ho chi minh and in charge of research and management.
We have 3 or 4 capital investers in total.
They occasionally come to Ho chi minh and I support them.
We are planning to establish a Japanese language school in Ho chi minh city.
Then we would like to know costs and conditions for that.
We have to consider the three cases if we establish a company as
vietnamese 100%, a japanese 100% or vietnam-japan joint project.
Could you tell me what is requirement and what are advantage and
disadvantage in each case?
I hope you will give us concrete information regarding the law.
If you know any referable documents or web pages, please tell them.
Please reply by tomorrow if you can.
Answen: This is reference to your email below. We understand that you intend to setup a Japanese School in Ho Chi Minh City and you are now studying suitable options for establishment of such Japanese School.
Under Vietnam Law, Foreign Language Training Service is considered as conditional investment sector. After setting up company, you shall be required to obtain sub-license for provision of Foreign Language Training Service from the Provincial Department of Training and Education
The only difference among option of being 100% owned by Japanese Investors or being 100% owned by Vietnamese Investor or jointly owned by Japanese Investors and Vietnamese Investors is procedure for setting up the Company before obtaining Sub-License for provision of foreign language training service.
Under Vietnam Law, for establishment of a pure local company, it shall take you about 05 working days from submission of required application dossier to the competent authority to complete.
However, for setting up either of wholly foreign owned company or joint venture company, it shall require you to obtain Investment Registration Certificate first (15 working days from submission of application dossier to complete) and then to obtain the Certificate of Business Registration (05 working days from submission of application dossier to complete). In practice, the time for completion for establishment of either 100% foreign owned company or joint venture company can be longer due to work load of the competent authority.
Option 1: For setting up wholly foreign owned company or joint venture company for training Japanese, the Licensing process shall be as follows:
Step 1: Obtainment of Investment Registration Certificate: It shall take us about 50 working days from submission of application dossier to complete.
Step 2: Obtainment of Certificate of Business Registration: It shall take us about 05 working days from submission of application dossier to complete.
Step 3: Obtainment of Sub-License for provision of Foreign Language Training Service: It shall take us 30 working days from submission of application dossier to complete.
Option 2: For setting up pure local company for training Japanese, the Licensing Process shall be as follows:
Step 1: Obtainment of Certificate of Business Registration: It shall take us about 05 working days from submission of application dossier to complete.
Step 2: Obtainment of Sub-License for provision of Foreign Language Training Service: It shall take us 30 working days from submission of application dossier to complete.
For the Option 1, our professional fee shall be around 19,800USD . The fee is exclusive of actual cost for translating documents from English into Vietnamese (10USD/150 words). If you need us to translate documents from Japanese into Vietnamese, the translation fee shall be 20USD/150 words.
For the Option 2, our professional fee shall be around 4,000USD. The fee is exclusive of actual cost for translating documents from English into Vietnamese (10USD/150 words), if any. If you need us to translate documents from Japanese into Vietnamese, the translation fee shall be 20USD/150 words.
If you really wish to start up your business in Vietnam, the Option 1 shall be safer for you. For the Option 2, it does not take you much cost. However, it shall be risky due to that you may lose your invested capital into the Japanese School as Vietnam Law does not recognize the agreement that foreign investor invest into business in Vietnam under the name of Vietnamese Citizen.
We do hope that the above information is helpful for you. If you have any further inquiry, please feel free to contact us.
