E-commerce service is a
new concept in Vietnam and under WTO’s commitment, Vietnam does also not
clearly have any commitment about opening the E-commerce services to the
foreign investor and in this regard, Vietnam is free to decide on whether to
open its’ market or not and has the sole discretion on promulgating the
regulation on management and licensing of E-commerce.
We understand from the
applicable regulations on E-commerce of Vietnam that E-commerce activity means
conducting part or the whole of the process of commercial activity by
electronic means connected to the Internet, mobile telecommunications network
or other open networks. Therefore, the E-commerce activities are quietly large,
mixed with other telecommunication, internet or even computer and related
services and need to be classified into detailed activities.
At present, the
Government of Vietnam is also drafting a decree on telecommunication services
that define the web search portal service and under this draft, the web search portal services may be relevant to the activities of Ecommerce services.
Please see the quoted
definition under the draft decree:
“13. Web search portal means a gateway or electronic
information site that has functions to use a search engine in order to search
information from websites, electronic portals, and databases over the network.
14. A
web search portal service means a service that allows users to search
information from websites, electronic portals, databases in the network
environment, via the portal provided by the service providers”
Under this latest draft,
we also see that there are several requirements, even specific licenses subject
to the service provider. However this regulatory is still in the drafting
process and we are not able to comment in details until this is officially
issued.
Based on the foregoing,
in the case that Foreign investor decide to perform investment project for
E-commerce activities in Vietnam, Foreign investor will have to provide the
licensing authority with an explanatory on what activities Foreign investor is
planning to perform in the registration dossier. Then the licensing authority
will decide whether Foreign investor is entitled to incorporate as a 100%
subsidiary to perform the proposed activities or not.