According to Vietnamese not-for-profit organisation People and Nature Reconciliation’s (PanNature) latest survey on cross-border investment risks, there are two main reasons putting Vietnamese investors in legal risks. Accordingly, the companies do not accurately evaluate opportunities and challenges before venturing into the target country, especially the differences in culture, customs, and environmental policies.
The Voluntary Guidelines on mitigating socio–environmental risks for Vietnamese outward investors in agribusiness were developed on the bases of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights,
To publish and widely circulate these Guidelines among business sector, on Jan 10th, 2019, PanNture, VCCI and Oxfam Vietnam jointly organized a seminar on Vietnam Cross-border Investment: Risks and Challenges on Legal Compliance.
Speaking at the event, head of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI)’s Department of Legal Affairs Dau Anh Tuan said Vietnam’s newly-registered overseas capital increased by 357.5 million USD during 11 months last year. Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar ranked first, second, and eighth among Vietnam’s top business destinations.
PanNature organized this meeting on December 10th, 2018 to connect our business partners in piloting program with NGOs in Laos to strengthen the exchange dialogue between NGOs and Vietnamese private sectors and open an opportunity for further collaboration.
Forum on "Promoting cooperation for sustainable and responsible investment in agricultural and trade" was co-organized by People and Nature Reconciliation (PanNature) and the Vietnam-Laos-Cambodia Association for Economic Cooperation Development (VILACAED) in Vientiane, Laos on October 20, 2017. At the invitation of the Organizing Committee, CIRUM sent a representative to participate and contribute ideas at the forum.
A research group of PanNature, VCCI and Oxfam was drafting instructions for Vietnamese businesses to invest in agriculture overseas, which aimed to reduce risks in investing and build the image of Vietnamese investors in particular and the national image in general.
At a conference held by PanNature at the end of last month, experts said that budget collections from mineral mining activities were not proportional to the exploitation scales. Statistics of the Ministry of Finance revealed that natural resources exploitation (excluding oil) contributed merely between 0.9 per cent and 1.1 per cent to the State budget from 2011 to 2015.
Tax collected from the mining of natural resources, excluding crude oil, accounted for between 0.9 – 1.1 percent of the total state tax collections in the 2011-2013, according to the Ministry of Finance. The amount is a far cry from the scale of exploitation activities, said delegates to a workshop held by People and Nature Reconciliation (PanNature) on May 13.
This briefing paper, "Re-Assessing Greater Mekong Subregion Energy Investments", provides an overview and critical analysis of the large-scale energy investments prioritized by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and World Bank in the Mekong region. Case studies focus on hydropower-related projects in Lao PDR that are intended for exporting electricity to Thailand and Vietnam.