OneStepVietnam presents
Monthly Newsletter of July 2024
ECONOMIC NEWS
According to the General Statistics Office (GSO), Viet Nam recorded a trade surplus of US$14.08 billion in the first seven months of the year. The overall value of products imported and exported during this period was US$439.88 billion, up 17.1% year over year. Of this amount, imports jumped by 18.5% to US$212.9 billion while exports increased by 15.7% to US$226.98 billion, in which 30 items joined the US$1 billion export club, making up 91.9 percent of the total export value.
Another positive index in the first seven months of 2024 is the foreign direct investment inflows, in which Viet Nam received US$18 billion, an increase of 10.9 percent year over year, as reported by the Foreign Trade Agency of the Ministry of Planning and Investment. The processing and manufacturing sector garnered the greatest amount, accounting for over US$12.65 billion, 70.3 percent of the total. Out of 91 nations and territories that made investments in the country during the studied period, Singapore was the largest investor, meanwhile, Bac Ninh was the top recipient destination with nearly US$3.2 billion.
Moreover, over 95,200 firms were established in the first seven months of this year with a total registered capital of nearly VND 854 trillion, representing gains year over year of 6.3 and 2.4 percent respectively. Specifically, in July, 14,700 new businesses were founded with a total registered capital of VND110 trillion, generating 88,400 jobs.
Source: Online Newspaper of the Government
NEW LEGAL REQUIREMENTS
1. Decree No. 72/2024/ND-CP on Prescribing Value-Added Tax Reduction Under Resolution No. 142/2024/QH15 dated June 29, 2024 of National Assembly of Vietnam
This Decree continues to apply Resolution No. 142/2024/QH15 of the National Assembly of Vietnam to reduce the value-added tax from 10% to 8% on goods and services which are not mentioned in Article 1 of the Decree.
A 2% reduction in VAT helps reduce production costs and product prices, thereby helping businesses increase their competitiveness, increase consumption of goods and services, and expand production and business.
The Decree was issued on June 30, 2024 and came into force from July 1, 2024 to December 31, 2024.
2. Decree No. 80/2024/ND-CP on Mechanisms for Direct Electricity Trading Between Renewable Energy Generation Units and Clients Who Are Large Electricity Consumers
This Decree provides for the mechanisms for direct electricity trading between renewable energy generation units and clients who are large electricity consumers (hereinafter referred to as “clients”) through private connection lines and the national grid.
Direct electricity trading mechanisms: Direct electricity trading means activities of electricity purchase, sale, and delivery carried out through the following 2 forms:
1. Direct electricity trading through private connection lines means activities of concluding agreements on power purchase and electricity delivery through private connection lines between renewable energy generation units and clients under Chapter II of this Decree.
2. Direct electricity trading through the nation grid means activities of electricity trading through forward power purchase agreements between renewable energy generation units and clients (or authorized electricity retailers), carried out under Chapter III of this Decree, including:
a) Renewable energy generation units selling all of their produced electricity to the spot electricity market of the competitive wholesale electricity market;
b) Clients or authorized electricity retailers concluding power purchase agreements with power corporations (or authorized/assigned units) to purchase all of the electricity meeting their demands;
c) Renewable energy generation units and clients or authorized electricity retailers engaging in electricity trading through forward power purchase agreements.
“Renewable energy generation units” refer to electricity units possessing small hydropower plants, power plants generating electricity from sunlight, wind, biomass, geothermal heat, tides, waves, sea currents, and other forms of renewable energy, or rooftop solar systems licensed to engage in electricity or exempted from licenses concerning electricity generation as per regulation.
This Decree continues to promote the installation of the renewable energy generation units, in which the units can sell the renewable electricity directly to the National Load Dispatch Centers or others depending on the level of electricity market development that carry out the dispatching function within the national grid and regulate transactions in the electricity market.
The Decree was issued on July 3, 2024 and came into force on the same day.
3. Circular No. 32/2024/TT-BCA on Amending and Supplementing a Number of Articles of Circular No. 149/2020/TT-BCA Dated December 31, 2020 of The Minister of Public Security
There was the new Decree No. 50/2024/ND-CP regarding fire safety which was presented in our Newsletter of May 2024 (https://onestepvietnam.com/onestepvietnam-presents-monthly-newsletter-of-may-2024/). This Decree made amendments for Decree No. 136/2020/ND-CP meanwhile the Circular No. 149/2020/TT-BCA was amended by the new Circular No. 32/2024/TT-BCA to update the old Circular to reflect with the new Decree No. 50/2024/ND-CP, in which most of the contents remain unchanged in fire safety practices of the enterprises.
ONESTEPVIETNAM NEWS
This month, we provided regular audit, assessment, Higg FEM and SLCP verification services for its customers as our usual business.
OneStepVietnam team – July 2024