Asia Counsel Insights gives readers a concise insight into legal and business developments in Vietnam. This edition has news on: the new law on Cybersecurity; the new law on access to Government information; the new decree on foreign investment in the education sector; and the new circular on health care subsidization.

1. ASIA COUNSEL INSIGHTS
June 2018
Asia Counsel Insights provide an
overview of the key trending legal
and business issues in Vietnam and
how they may impact your
business. Please enjoy your read.
Asia Counsel Vietnam is now
located in Deutsches Haus,
Level 15, 33 Le Duan Boulevard,
District 1, Ho Chi Minh City
to provide users’ information to the
police as requested for investigating
and dealing with violations; record
system logs to assist such
investigations; prevent sharing and
removal of any contents violating the
law within 24 hours from the such
request from the police; not post,
provide or share information with
content violating the law.
• Provision of data to the authorities:
users’ information must be provided
at the request of the competent
authorities in certain cases.
• Information system audit: the police
shall carry out the audit of
information systems, including
hardware and software, digital
devices, and stored, processed and
transmitted data, and measures to
protect the State secrets in certain
cases.
In addition, the law sets out a broad
scope of information that will be
deemed to have content in violation
of the law. The Law on Cybersecurity
comes into effect on 1 January 2019.
Education
Foreign Investment
The Government recently passed
Decree No. 86/2018/NP-CP on foreign
investment and cooperation in
education which comes into effect on
1 August 2018. Below are some key
points of Decree 86:
• The minimum investment capital to
establish a foreign-invested university
is increased to VND1,000 billion
(excluding the land-use fees), from
the current VND300 billion.
• A foreign-invested kindergarten
using a foreign education program
will now be permitted to accept
Vietnamese students for such
program. The portion of the
Vietnamese students must be under
50% of total students in the
kindergarten.
• A decision on approval of
establishment will no longer be
required to set up a foreign short-
term training institution.
Technology
Cybersecurity
On 12 June 2018, the National
Assembly adopted the Law on
Cybersecurity.
This law introduces strict requirements
on companies (both local and
foreign-invested companies)
providing services on the telecoms
network, the internet and cyberspace
value-added services:
• Data localisation requirement: data
relating to service users in Vietnam
(i.e. personal information, data
relating to users’ relationship, data
generated by users) must be stored
locally.
• Presence in Vietnam: foreign-
invested companies providing
internet services in Vietnam must
have a local branch or
representative office.
• Data management: this includes a
number of broad and pervasive
requirement, such as the
requirement to:
About Asia Counsel
Asia Counsel is a dynamic international corporate and commercial law firm dedicated to serving clients in Vietnam. Our partners have over ten years of
experience in working on complex and challenging matters in Vietnam. We are committed to helping clients achieve their business strategies and providing
outstanding legal services.
If you have any questions on any of the items discussed above, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Christian Schaefer
Managing Partner
E christian@asia-counsel.com
Minh Duong
Partner
E minh@asia-counsel.com
Asia Counsel Vietnam Law Company Limited, Level 15, Deutsches Haus, 33 Le Duan Boulevard, Ben Nghe Ward, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City

2. ASIA COUNSEL INSIGHTS
June 2018
Vietnam Fact Box
According to the Foreign
Investment Agency,
Vietnamese firms invested
USD222.48 million in 67 newly-
licensed projects overseas in
the first six months of 2018.
Finance and banking were
the most attractive sectors for
Vietnamese businesses with
USD106.17 million, accounting
for 40% of the total
investment capital.
Vietnamese companies are
also expanding to markets
like Australia, New Zealand,
the US and Canada, beyond
more traditional markets such
as Laos and Cambodia.
Source: VIETNAMNET
Trading
Importation of Goods
Circular No. 38/2018/TT-BTC regulating
identification of origin of exported and
imported goods came into effect on 5
June 2018. Circular 38 expands on
requirements for valid documents
evidencing the origin of goods
(“Documents of Origin”) and clarifies
certain errors in such documents that
are permitted by customs:
• Any differences between units of
measurement used in the Documents
of Origin and those used in other
documents of the customs dossiers
(e.g., customs declarations, invoices
and bills of lading);
• Any minor differences between
description of goods in the
Documents of Origin and that set out
under other documents;
• Any differences between the code
under the Documents of Origin and
the code provided in the declaration
form without causing any
fundamental changes in the origin of
the goods, and provided that the
actual imported goods must be
relevant to the description in the
Documents of Origin.
Circular 38 took effect on 5 June 2018.
Access to Information
Law on Access to Information
The Law on Access to Information,
was passed by the National Assembly
on 6 April 2016. This law allows citizens
to request information from the state
agencies and at the same time,
encourages state agencies to provide
information to citizens where possible.
Below are some cases in which the
citizens can exercise their rights to get
access to information:
• Information related to trade secrets,
subject to consent of owner of such
trade secrets; and
• Private lives and secrets of
individuals or families, subject to
consent of such individual or family
member(s).
The head of the relevant state agency
with the authority to provide such
information may disclose the
information to the requester without
the consent of the concerned people
as mentioned above if, pursuant to
the laws, it is deemed in the public
interests or necessary for the wellbeing
of the community.
This law came into effect on 1 July
2018.
Health
Medical services fees
The Ministry of Health recently
adopted Circular 15/2018/TT-BYT
providing regulations on official
medical service fees subject to
medical insurance applicable to
hospitals nationwide (“Circular
15”).
Circular 15 only covers the medical
service fees discharged from the
medical insurance fund, and
applies a fee discount for 88 types
of medical services. The discounted
fees are applied to inpatient and
outpatient care, who start using the
medical services as of 15 July 2018.
An aim of Circular 15 is to improve
the quality of medical services by
requiring hospitals to arrange a
sufficient amount of specialized
staff and medical examination
desks. Such desk may only be used
a maximum of 65 examinations per
day. Any examinations beyond the
daily maximum will only be
subsidized at the discretion of the
social insurance agencies and only
up to a maximum of 50% of the
medical services fees.
Circular 15 takes effect on 15 July.
2018.
Labor
Increase of retirement pension
On 15 June 2018, the Government issued Decree No. 88/2018/ND-CP on adjustment of
retirement pension, social insurance and monthly allowances.
From 1st July 2018, the amount payable to certain beneficiaries under these state
benefit allowance schemes will increase by 6.92% in comparison with June 2018.
This adjustment mainly benefits: (i) government officials subject to retirement pension;
(ii) employees subject to monthly work-capacity loss allowance; and (iii) employees
subject to monthly occupational accident and disease benefits.
Funds for this increase have been allocated out of the State budget and the Social
Insurance Fund.
The competent management authority shall issue specific guidance on this adjustment.