In June 2019, the National Assembly enacted Law No. 42 to amend certain provisions of the existing Law on Insurance Business.
The most notable amendment, which will come into effect from November 2020, is the introduction of regulations to govern auxiliary insurance services (e.g. insurance consultancy, claims settlement, actuarial services). Until this amendment comes into force, these auxiliary insurance services remain unregulated in Vietnam. The existing Law on Insurance Business primarily governs insurers and insurance agents/brokers, as opposed to the auxiliary insurance service providers.
The requirements to be imposed on such providers under Law No. 42 remain relatively general, and no specific licensing processes have been prescribed. However, once Law No. 42 comes into operation, it is possible that it may be supplemented by further government guidance or specifications in the form of decrees.
In September 2019, the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam submitted to the Prime Minister and Office of Government the final draft of the Prime Minister's decision on the mechanism for encouraging the development of solar power projects in Vietnam ("Final Draft"). The Final Draft sets out the proposed feed-in-tariff ("FiT") rates which would be applied for solar projects until 31 December 2021.
Under the most recent FiT regime which was in place from 1 June 2017 to 30 June 2019, a FiT of US$0.935 per kWh was applied across the board for all types of solar projects (i.e. floating, ground-mounted and rooftop). The attractive FiT saw an influx in investment in solar energy in Vietnam over the past two years. With that regime having lapsed, there has been considerable interest in the FiT that would be applied going forward.
Based on the Final Draft, the following FiT would apply (save for select provinces): US$0.709 per kWh for ground-mounted solar projects, US$0.769 per kWh for floating solar projects and US$0.935 per kWh for rooftop solar projects. The latest proposal is for the FiT for rooftop solar projects to retain the same rate.
On 1 July 2019, Vietnam's new Law on Anti-Corruption came into effect. Shortly thereafter, its implementing decree also came into force. Unlike its predecessor (which generally only covered the public sector and state-owned companies), the law also regulates certain non-state organisations, including credit institutions and public companies.
A key introduction made in the law is the requirement for these non-state organisations to now have in place internal mechanisms (e.g., corporate policies) to handle corruption-related issues within their organisations. Furthermore, these organisations will be subject to Government audits from time to time to determine if they are compliant with the anti-corruption regulations.
However, no specific penalties have been enacted for non-compliance with these requirements, and the law has left the implementation of these requirements to be subject to self-governing by the organisations.
Further, the law does not – at least at this stage – impose any specific administrative or criminal penalties on private organisations that are not within the scope of the term “non-state organisations” listed in the law.
