Guidance on Unilateral Divorce Procedure

Divorce is the termination of husband and wife relationship according to the court’s legally effective judgment or decision. Divorce procedures are prescribed in the Civil Procedure Code, Law on Marriage and Family, Law on Mediation at grassroots… There are two forms of divorce in Vietnam: divorce at the request of one party (unilateral divorce) and divorce by mutual consent.

For divorce at the request of one party, the Court shall handle divorce at the request of spouse if it has grounds to believe that a spouse commits domestic violence or seriously infringes upon the rights and obligations of the husband or wife, which seriously deteriorates the marriage and makes their common life no longer impossible and the marriage purposes unachievable. The goals of a marriage that are not achieved include unequal obligations and rights between husband and wife; no husband and wife friendship; husband and wife do not respect each other’s honor, dignity and reputation; do not respect the right to freedom of belief and each other; do not help, and facilitate each other to develop in all aspects. In addition, a husband has no right to request a divorce when his wife is pregnant, gives birth or is nursing an under-12-month child. This provision limits the husband’s right to request a divorce when the wife is pregnant or is raising children under 12 months of age and if the wife requests divorce, whether she is pregnant or raising children under 12 months of age, the court the court still accepts and resolves like other normal cases.

Documents to file divorce petition?

Documents required for unilateral divorce include: Unilateral divorce application form; Marriage certificate (original copy); Identity card of husband and wife (certified copy); Child’s birth certificate (if there are common children, certified copy); Household registration book (certified copy); Documents proving ownership of common property (if there is common property, certified copy).

In order to proceed with a unilateral divorce, the petitioner needs to file a lawsuit for divorce at the competent court. The Court where the defendant resides and works is competent court to settle according to the first-instance procedure disputes about marriage and family. Therefore, in the case of unilateral divorce, the Court where the competent jurisdiction is located is the place where the defendant resides and works. In case of foreigners being husband or wife, the provincial/municipal courts are competent courts to settle.

What is procedure of divorce petition?

Before accepting the divorce petition, the State and society encourage the mediation at the grassroots level when the husband and wife request the divorce with petition. Mediation is conducted in accordance with the Mediation at grassroots.

After receiving the unilateral divorce petition, the Chief Justice of the Court assigns the Judge to examine the application and relevant papers. In case of necessity, the plaintiff shall notify the applicant of additional papers and necessary information. If the dossier is complete and eligible to accept the case, the Court shall notify the plaintiff of the advance payment of court fees at the Civil Judgment Execution Bureau within 7 days and return it to the Court a receipt of court fee advances. The judge proceeds to accept the case upon receiving the receipt of payment of court fee advances and shall notify the plaintiff, the defendant and the persons with relevant rights and obligations regarding the acceptance of the case within 03 days. The defendant and the persons with relevant rights and obligations within 15 days from the date of receipt of the notice of acceptance have the right to make counter-claims to the plaintiffs’ requests.

After the petition has been accepted, the Court shall conduct conciliation according to the law on civil procedures. The judge assigned to solve the case conducts a meeting to check the handover, access, disclosure of evidence and mediation of divorce between the involved parties and analyze clearly the rights and obligations for the involved parties to reach an agreement on the resolution of the case. In case after mediation the husband and wife reunite, it is considered the plaintiff withdraws the petition, and the Court issues a decision to suspend their request. If they cannot reunite but reach an agreement on the divorce, property division and children custody, after 7 days from the date the Court makes the minutes of the mediation to the parties without changing their mind. The Court shall recognize the divorce agreement and issue a decision recognizing the agreement of the parties. In case of unsuccessful mediation, the Court shall issue a decision to bring the case to trial if it is not in the case of suspension of settlement as prescribed.

How court trial is opened for divorce petition case?

Within 01 month from the day on which the decision to bring the case to trial is issued, the Court must open a trial. In case of good reason, this time limit may be extended but for no more than 2 months. At the end of the trial, the result of unilateral divorce resolution will be decided by the civil judgment. In case of unilateral divorce, the settlement time may be longer, maybe from 04 to 06 months. In fact, due to possible child custody and property disputes, the time to resolve may be longer.

For cases with disputes over assets, apart from the court fee of VND 300,000, the involved parties must also bear court costs for the disputed properties, determined according to the value of the disputed properties according to the provisions.

It is important that the parties need to research and prepare for relevant documents and procedures in their case and consult with lawyers in civil, family and property division, child custody disputes in Vietnam before taking action.

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Importants Matters to Consider in M&A Contract

Before carrying out merger or acquisition (M&A), enterprises need to research carefully regulations of law to protect their rights and interests. Regulations on each aspect of M&A activities are referred to in various legal documents such as Law on Enterprises, Commercial Law, Competition law, Law on Investment, Civil Code … When carrying out M&A, enterprises should also pay attention to some basic terms in the contract. The M&A lawyers should be referred to for effective process and minimizing risks of the transaction. Definition, this term is used to define words, phrase used many times or unified understanding between the parties or abbreviations.

Entity, the parties should specify the parties’ information such as: corporate names, address of headquarter, name, position of legal representative, identity card number (or passport number) of legal representative, corporate tax code, … according to enterprise registration certificate or investment registration certificate. When entering into contract, the parties can contact and ask partners to provide copies of enterprise registration certificate or investment registration certificate to ensure correct information and authority to sign.

M&A conditions in M&A contract. Conditions for M&A are conditions agreed by two parties to carry out M&A. M&A is carried out only when these conditions have been met. These conditions include conditions agreed by General Meeting of Shareholders, Board of Directors, the company owner; Conditions of announcing company status, financial obligations, business activities …, announcing to relevant third parties; Conditions of business activities, company activities; Conditions of people, personnel.

Declaration and commitment of both parties on the status of enterprises, contract need to have term of affirmation and commitment of seller about corporate debt. This will limit disputes and risks for the buyer.

Determination of assets and financial obligations in M&A contract. This determination includes time of determination, entity, related costs, methods for disposal of assets.

Transfer of rights and obligations in M&A contract. The time of transfer, the time of enjoying rights and generating obligations, the conditions for transfer, the mode for transfer, the transfer procedures and the papers, documents needed to transfer, includes: transfer of ownership rights, economic rights; transfer of effective contract; Arising benefits enjoyed by merged company; Tax obligations, insurance obligations, wages for employees and debt repayment obligations.

Methods and time of payment, parties need to specify methods for payment and specific duration of payment with amount of each installment payment. In order to ensure safety, the parties should request a competent reputable organization to provide intermediary financial services. This third party will stand out to ensure the parties of the contract to comply correctly and legally with the agreement.

Conditions, time limit, procedure of M&A, the buyer needs to specify attached conditions and specific time in process of M&A to let the seller perform obligations of transfer of asset, stocks, shares under regulations of contract. Procedures include procedures under law and other procedures under company’s charter.

Legal rights and obligations, parties need to detail obligations in previous period, during and after contract performance as well as the specific time of termination.

Time limit of contract performance, parties need to specify the time of taking effect and termination, or arising grounds which result in the termination of the contract.

Term of dispute resolution, dispute may be brought to the competent Court or Commercial Arbitration for settlement.

Term of fines against violations is also necessary to pay attention. This is a type of sanctions made by the parties but this must be suitable for the regulations of law.

Force majeure clause. Force majeure is a legal event arising out of subjective will of the parties. These cases make one or both parties unable to perform or perform improperly their obligations. When breaching the contract due to a force majeure event, the law would not force to take responsibility for the asset.

Besides, merger contract should have term of transfer of stock, term of employee utilization plan after merger and acquisition.

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Flourishes in Attracting Investment in Can Tho

Can Tho has welcomed many large-scale investment projects from foreign and domestic investors come to set up company in Can Tho.

The city has issued investment policy decisions for 18 domestic projects, with a total registered capital of over 25,046 billion VND and 9 projects with foreign direct investment (FDI) with a total registered capital of 65.28 million USD. Accumulated to date, Can Tho has a total of 103 domestic investment projects, with a registered capital of over 63,324.76 billion VND and 86 FDI projects, with a total registered capital of over 748 million USD.

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Business development situation of Can Tho also has positive changes. It is estimated that in 2019, the city issue new business registration certificates to 1,500 enterprises of all types, with a total registered capital of 11,500 billion VND, an increase of 7.37% in the number of businesses and an increase of 46.98% of registered capital compared to 2018, bringing the total number of active businesses to about 10,000; accounting for about 26% of all businesses in the Mekong Delta region.

Over the years, Can Tho has invested strongly in the infrastructure system, especially the transport infrastructure, step by step completed in a synchronous and modern manner, better meeting the needs of socio-economic development and attracting investment not only for Can Tho, but also for the whole Mekong Delta region.

In terms of maritime, the central port of Can Tho including Hoang Dieu and Cai Cui wharves has completed upgrading and basically completed to accommodate such vessels as 10,000 DWT full-load and 20,000 DWT to reduce loading. The shipping channel project for large vessels entering the Hau River has been completed and cleared with technical channels, creating favorable conditions for transporting import and export goods.

Regarding aviation, Can Tho International Airport has strengthened the exploitation of more domestic routes to and from major cities in the country, along with two international routes to Thailand and Malaysia. Especially, from the beginning of 2020, the route of Can Tho – Seoul (Korea) operated by VietJet will officially open with the frequency of 3 flights/week.

Regarding road traffic, as planned, in April 2021, Trung Luong – My Thuan expressway will be put into use. Along with that, the My Thuan – Can Tho expressway deployed to invest will connect smoothly and quickly Can Tho with Ho Chi Minh City – the largest economic center of the country.

Besides, the investment promotion and image promotion of the locality are paid special attention. In 2019, the City has organized many missions to promote domestic and foreign investment cooperation, focusing on potential markets suitable to local investment attraction needs, such as Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Czech Republic, Russia…

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Binh Duong Finished the FDI Attraction Plan 2016 – 2020

With more than 9.9 billion USD of FDI capital from 2016 to October 2019, Binh Duong has completed early and exceeded the plan to attract FDI and investors come to set up company in Binh Duong in the period 2016 – 2020, creating a premise for the breakthrough developments in next time.

According to the latest report of Binh Duong Department of Planning and Investment, from the beginning of the year to October 31st 2019, over 2.77 billion USD of FDI was licensed to invest in Binh Duong, increases by 69% compared to the same period last year and far surpassed this year’s plan (the plan is to attract 1.5 billion USD).

This result has brought Binh Duong to the third position in the country in terms of FDI attraction. Up to now, Binh Duong province has attracted more than 3,700 FDI projects from 64 countries and territories with a total registered capital of nearly 34 billion USD, mainly in the fields of industrial production, trade and services.

Some large-scale projects licensed to invest in industrial zones from the beginning of the year until now are: projects of Sharp Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (Japan), investment capital of 135 million USD; 2 projects of BW Industrial Development Company Limited (joint venture between Becamex IDC and Warburg Pincus LLC, USA) with total registered capital of 106 million USD; the project of Nitto Denko Co., Ltd (Japan), investment capital of more than 186 million USD…

In order to attract sustainable FDI, Binh Duong province has implemented the Renewal Program to attract investment in the 2016 – 2020 period, which aims to attract 7 billion USD of FDI in the whole period.

Updated information from the Department of Planning and Investment of Binh Duong shows that from 2016 to the end of October 2019, Binh Duong attracted more than 9.9 billion USD of FDI, exceeding 41% compared to the 2016 – 2020 5-year plan, exceeding both the attracted investment capital and the completion time compared to the set plan.

According to the statistics of functional departments of Binh Duong province, with nearly 75% of total FDI capital in the field of industrial production, in the period of 2011 – 2016, the FDI sector contributed over 67% of the industrial production value of the province, ensuring the economic structure of the province in the right direction with industry and services playing a leading role.

In 2018, the FDI sector contributed over 49.6% of the total social investment capital and accounted for nearly 20% of Binh Duong’s total budget revenue. FDI enterprises also contribute to connecting with domestic enterprises, focusing on industries with high technology content, supporting industries, producing competitive products, contributing to meeting supply needs of raw materials for production of domestic enterprises as well as creating high export value, contributing to the province’s trade surplus in 2018 reached nearly 5 billion USD…

Program No. 34-CTr / TU of December 15th 2016 of Binh Duong Provincial Party Committee on renovation and attraction of investment in the 2016 – 2020 period in Binh Duong province aims to focus investment attraction in the cooperation with large economic corporations in the world; strengthen calling and attracting FDI in high-tech fields with high added value, less labor-intensive and environmentally friendly; focusing on attracting to industrial zones, planned industrial clusters…

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Vinh Phuc Wants to Attract Investment in High Technology

The results of investment attraction are not commensurate with the potential and advantages of Vinh Phuc province, not meeting the expectation of attracting resources for development investment. Therefore, Vinh Phuc urgently needs investors come to set up company in Vinh Phuc, especially technology projects, high quality, environmental-friendly and great socio-economic efficiency.

According to the Chairman of the Provincial People’s Committee, although Vinh Phuc is considered a bright spot in attracting investment in the Northern region with 752 domestic direct investment projects in the country (DDI) with a total capital of over 78,000 billion VND (3.3 billion USD) and 378 FDI projects with a total registered capital of over 5 billion USD, but this result is not commensurate with the potential and advantages of the province, not meeting the expectation of attracting resources for development investment to achieve long-term goals.

Many large corporations in the world such as Toyota, Honda, Daewoo, Samsung, Compal,… have invested in Vinh Phuc, focusing mainly on the fields of processing technology, manufacturing and assembling electronics. Foreign investors in Vinh Phuc are mainly from Northeast Asian countries, such as Japan, Korea. European aand US investors account for a relatively modest proportion.

Vinh Phuc currently has 10/376 FDI projects, accounting for nearly 3% of the total FDI projects from European countries and the US.

In the coming time, Vinh Phuc needs technology projects, high quality, environmental- friendly, bringing great socio-economic efficiency. In particular, in order to encourage investment in the development of supporting industries for automobiles, motorcycles, electronics, telecommunications, and food processing industry.

Regarding agriculture, Vinh Phuc hopes to develop high-tech agriculture, clean vegetable production projects and high-tech cattle and poultry breeding, and agricultural product processing projects. The province gives priority to attracting investment projects on infrastructure business of industrial parks and clusters, especially investment in specialized infrastructure, creating connections and linking clusters.

With a very diverse and abundant number of businesses both domestically and abroad, Vinh Phuc has created an extremely convenient industrial ecosystem in recent years, in accordance with the requirements of businesses and investors from Europe and the US who are inherently high technology, source technology and want to take advantage of existing businesses as a supply and support partner in the province.

In addition to the advantages of transportation system, Vinh Phuc has advantages that locating in the Northern key economic region, Kunming – Lao Cai – Hanoi – Quang Ninh economic corridor and the Northern industrial development belt.

With these potentials, advantages and the supportive attention of authorities at all levels in solving difficulties and obstacles for businesses, it is believed that Vinh Phuc will become a favorite destination for European the US investors.

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Directive No.10/CT-TTg on Promoting Prevention and Control of Covid-19

At the moment many countries in the world, the epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (Covid-19) continues to have many new complicated and unpredictable developments, especially in Korea, Japan, Italy, Iran and other countries. On February 25, 2020, the Prime Minister signed the Directive no.10/CT-TTg on promoting prevention and control of the Covid-19 epidemic (“Directive no.10/CT-TTg) to continue the effective implementation of Covid-19 anti-epidemic solutions.

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Ministries, Departments, People’s Committee of Provinces and cities under central continues to improve against epidemic, do not neglect, subjective, strictly implementation of prevention solutions, anti-epidemic in accordance with Directive no.05/CT-TTg dated January 28, 2020 and Directive no.06 / CT-TTg dated January 31, 2020 of the Prime Minister; continue to strictly control people crossing trails and openings in border provinces; strictly implement solutions on the management, control and prevention of epidemics in aviation activities, tourism and cross-border transportation of goods. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs continued to discuss with the Chinese about the Vietnamese citizens who come from epidemic cities and provinces of China could only enter Vietnam through international border gates.

For the people who enter from epidemic areas of South Korea and from epidemic areas of territories or other countries: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs immediately announced to the South Korea and countries and territories with Covid-19 epidemic of anti-epidemic measures which are applied in Vietnam, in which Vietnam will pause for entry Vietnam for persons who coming from or passing through the epidemic area, the people who entry for official purposes in special cases need to declare the medical situation and isolate for 14 days. The government notices Vietnamese citizens not to go to epidemic areas in other countries, except in case of necessity. If they do go to this area, when they enter Vietnam again, they will be isolated for 14 days. In addition, it is important to notice and pursuade the Vietnamese citizen living and working in South Korea (especially in Daegu and Gyeongsangbuk) to comply with guidance on local measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19, do not go to an infected area and has the ability to be affected by the epidemic recommended by the host country.

In addition, the Ministry of Health performs the isolation in the medical facility for the suspected person and other people as required by the health organizations. The Ministry of Defense prepare material facilities, equipment and places for reception and accommodation to conduct intensive isolation for people who are not in cases of concentrated isolation at health organizations; directing the application of measures to reduce the density of isolation in border provinces to ensure cross-contamination in isolated areas. The Ministry of Public Security shall notify the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Health and the People’s Committees of provinces and cities concerned about information on passengers from the epidemic area to enter Vietnam for the implementation of medical isolation. The Ministry of Transport direct the flights from the region of South Korea landing in Van Don Airports (Quang Ninh Province), Phu Cat (Binh Dinh province) and Can Tho (Can Tho city). The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism recommends that people restrict travel to epidemic areas in the unnecessary case; If they still go this place, when they enter Vietnam, they will have to be isolated for 14 days as the regulation.

In addition, the Ministry of Health continues to implement mandatory medical declarations for cases of entry from epidemic countries and territories. People’s committees of provinces and cities under central authority performs medical monitoring and timely medical isolation when there are any symptoms of the disease against the persons coming from the epidemic area into Vietnam within 14 days; perform supervision, medical declaration, health monitoring for citizens from other parts of South Korea.

By the issuance and implementation of Directive no.10/CT-TTg, the Government of Vietnam hopes to quickly prevent and reverse the Covid-19 epidemic to stabilize the socio-economic situation for the country.

The legal direct impact to companies and business will be the delay in visa, work permit, temporary residence card application for foreigners entering Vietnam. Manufacturing companies and other companies in other sectors impacted by disrupted goods transportation, people traveling restriction will face financial loses, leading to being unable to pay salary, social insurance and other mandatory contributions. Further, they might unlawfully terminate the labour contracts with employee. Potential disputes in labour areas would rise in big scale. The disruption of goods and services would also lead to dispute in performance of contracts, which will need to be closely monitored.

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