Business lines banned from foreign investors

According to Decree 31/2021/ND-CP, which officially took effect from March 26, 2021, business lines that are “banned” from foreign investors or rather, are foreign investors. Access in the Vietnamese market includes 25 business lines. Accordingly, when a foreign investor establishes a foreign-invested company, if he applies for a license in these industries, he/she will be denied an investment license and enterprise registration certificate in Vietnam. Viet An Law Firm would like to summarize the list of 25 business lines that are “banned” for foreign investors as follows:

1. Services exercised with state monopoly in the field of commerce.

2. Press activities and information gathering in any form.

3. Catching or exploiting seafood.

4. Investigation and security services.

5. Administrative and judicial services, including judicial assessment service, redundancy service, property auction service, notary service, administrator service.

6. Services of sending workers to work abroad under contracts.

7. Investment in the construction of infrastructure of cemeteries and graveyards to transfer land use rights associated with the infrastructure.

8. Garbage collection services directly from households.

9. Public opinion polling service (public opinion polling).

10. Blasting service.

11. Manufacturing and trading weapons, explosives, and supporting tools.

12. Importing and dismantling used ships.

13. Public postal services.

14. Goods transfer business.

15. Trading in temporary import for re-export.

16. Exercise of the right to export, import, and distribution of goods on the list of goods, foreign investors, foreign-invested economic organizations are not allowed to exercise the right to export or to import, distribution rights.

17. Collection, purchase, and handling of public property in units of the armed forces.

18. Manufacture of military materials or equipment; dealing in military equipment, military for the armed forces, military weapons, equipment, techniques, weapons, military, and police specialized means, components, parts, spare parts, supplies, and special equipment and technologies for their manufacture;

19. Providing industrial property representation services and intellectual property assessment services.

20. Services of setting up, operating, maintaining, and maintaining navigation aids, water zones, water areas, public navigational channels, and maritime routes; service of surveying water zones, water areas, public navigational channels, and maritime routes serving the announcement of maritime notices; Services of surveying, constructing and publishing nautical charts for water bodies, seaports, navigational channels, and maritime routes; building and publishing marine safety documents and publications.

21. Navigation services to ensure maritime safety in water zones, water areas, and public navigational channels; marine electronic information service.

22. Inspection (inspection, testing) and certification services for means of transport (including systems, components, equipment, and components of vehicles); inspection and issuance of certificates of technical safety and environmental protection for vehicles, specialized equipment, containers, and dangerous goods packaging equipment used in transportation; inspection and issuance of certificates of technical safety and environmental protection for oil and gas exploration, exploitation and transportation means and equipment at sea; technical inspection service of occupational safety for machines and equipment with strict requirements on occupational safety installed on means of transport and means, exploration and exploitation equipment and oil and gas transportation at sea; fishing vessel registry service.

23. Services of investigation, assessment, and exploitation of natural forests (including logging and hunting, trapping of rare and precious wild animals, management of the fund for plant genes, livestock, and microorganisms used in Agriculture).

24. Studying or using genetic resources of new livestock breeds before being appraised and evaluated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

25. Business travel services, except international travel services for international tourists to Vietnam.

Customers wishing to establish a foreign-invested company, please contact Viet An Law Firm for specific advice.