When joining the World Trade Organisation, Vietnam made its commitments to following trade laws and respecting international rules, said Associate Professor and Doctor Duong Dang Hue, head of the Department of Civil and Economic Laws under the Ministry of Justice.

However, the implementation of laws and regulations by Vietnamese enterprises still causes obstacles to this goal as their understanding of law is limited. In particular, enterprises has paid little attention to studying and implementing laws. Many enterprises are not familiar with using consultants in applying and implementing laws in order to minimize risks in trading. Some enterprises has made use of loopholes in laws and State management to evade taxes. This is due to a limited knowledge of laws and legal matters by Vietnamese enterprises. State organizations do not have any mechanisms or policies to help enterprises implement laws effectively. The implementation of laws by Vietnamese enterprises should be given priority in the overall plan for administrative reform in order to devise suitable mechanism to support enterprises.

Dao Trong Cuong, Vice President of the Vietnam Gemstone and Jewellery Association said to help enterprises master laws, there should be regulations on sending legal documents to enterprises. This task is becoming all the more necessary in the integration process.

State management of enterprises’ activities is designed to promulgate and organise the implementation of legal documents. The responsibility of ministries and provincial people’s committees for guiding and organizing the implementation of laws has also been stipulated. However, one reason for difficulty in enterprises’ understanding and implementation of laws is that ministries and provincial people’s committees have not paid due attention to developing mechanisms to support enterprises in enforcing laws.

By not considering enterprises, organisations and business individuals as subjects to be served, legal agencies have not fulfilled their responsibility for guiding enterprises to implement laws.

Moreover, enterprises still find it difficult to contact with State management agencies to have guidelines on legal documents and business procedures relating to land, capital, workshops, labour, tax and customs.

Thang Van Phuc, deputy Minister of Internal Affairs and general secretary of the Government’s Steering Committee on Administrative Reform, said shifting from a give-and-take mechanism to a serving mechanism is a great revolution. The most important thing now is to train professional staff to adapt to the new situation. The whole State apparatus must serve people and create favourable conditions for enterprises.

On January 24, 2006, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 22 on addressing difficulties and petitions from individuals, organisations and enterprises in connection with administrative procedures and the responsibility of those who deal with it. However, the scope of the decision only touches upon administrative procedures without a comprehensive approach on necessary legal contents, as well as not creating an effective supportive framework for enterprises in implementing laws.