Q: Our company is interested in starting up a trading export company in Viet Nam. We want to know roughly how much and how long does it take to set up a company there and which is the easier/cheaper way to do it (100% foreign investment for a pty ltd company (TNHH) or partner with a Vietnamese person (hợp danh)).
Also if you can give me a rough idea of the procedure and your service quote. That would be great.
A: Trading and export is classified to conditional investment sectors in Vietnam. Thus, under current Vietnam Investment Law, it shall take you 45 days from submission application dossier for competent authority to grant you the Investment Certificate (Business License of Foreign Invested Company).
In practice, it may be longer as it takes time for the licensing authority to consult relevant ministries before granting the license.
From July 2015, as the new investment law become effective, the licensing procedure may be faster.
Regarding to your question on whether it is easier or cheaper if you partner with a Vietnamese Investor to setup company in Vietnam, we can only say that partnership with a Vietnamese Investor shall help you to gain more favors from competent authorities during the licensing process.
However, the cost may not be cheaper as we shall need to prepare the joint venture contract which is not required in case of establishment of 100% foreign invested company.
For preparation of our legal service proposal, we shall need to collect information from you so that we can understand more about your business plan in Vietnam.
– Where will you locate the company in Vietnam?
– Will the Company in Vietnam involve with whole sale or retailed sale of goods in Vietnam?
– Will the Company in Vietnam import goods for whole sale or retailed sale?
– What kind of products to be traded or exported? We need detailed name of each product as we need to check whether the product is fall in list of products inhibited or prohibited from import, export or trading.
– How much will you invest into the business in Vietnam? (Vietnam Law does not impose the minimum capital for running this business. However, your information shall much help us to access success possibility of the case).
– Will your director register the company in Vietnam under his/her personal name or parent company in Australia?
We are looking forward to hearing from you soon.
