Vietnam
Southeast Asia's factory floor, with a free-trade agreement with the EU in force
For a European company Vietnam is two things at once: a place to manufacture and import from, and a hundred-million market that is getting richer quickly. The decisive fact is the EVFTA — the free-trade agreement with the Union in force since August 2020, which phases tariffs on most lines to zero. The advantage depends on proving origin.
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Setting up a company
Setting up a company and tax are the part of the profile you cannot assemble elsewhere in an afternoon. The rest of the page is open.
- ·Legal forms
- ·Foreign ownership
- ·Minimum capital
- ·How long registration takes
- ·Documents to incorporate
- ·Notary and legalisation
- ·Registered address
- ·Director and residence
- ·Bank account
- ·What to watch for
Taxes
Setting up a company and tax are the part of the profile you cannot assemble elsewhere in an afternoon. The rest of the page is open.
- ·Corporate income tax
- ·VAT
- ·VAT registration
- ·Withholding tax — dividends
- ·Withholding tax — royalties
- ·Payroll contributions
- ·Double taxation treaty
What it makes and needs
Electronics and phones, textiles and footwear, furniture, coffee, rice, seafood and a growing share of automotive components.
Machinery and production lines, pharmaceuticals and medical devices, quality food and drink, cosmetics, chemical intermediates and energy technology.
Money and payments
The dong is managed against the dollar. Exchange control is strict: cross-border payments run through a licensed bank, and repatriating profit requires an audit and settled tax obligations. The first transfer therefore takes longer.
Importing into their market
Under the EVFTA tariffs on most European goods are removed — some immediately, the rest on a schedule running up to ten years from entry into force. The preference applies only with a proper proof of origin; without it the normal rate applies.
The declaration is filed electronically through VNACCS/VCIS. The consignment needs an invoice, a packing list, the transport document, proof of origin (for the EVFTA, a registered exporter's statement) and, depending on the goods, an import licence or a certificate of conformity.
The original marking must be supplemented by a Vietnamese secondary label carrying the product name, origin, importer, composition and, for food, the use-by date. The label may be applied in a bonded warehouse but never as late as the shop.
Bringing their goods into the EU
The same applies in the other direction: Vietnamese goods enter the Union at the EVFTA preferential rate where origin is proven. Sensitive lines (rice, sugar, some textiles) run under quotas.
Practical matters
Business is done in Vietnamese; English is common in the cities and among younger managers but not in government offices. Contracts are usually bilingual and name the governing version.
The relationship precedes the contract, and decisions are made by a group rather than in the meeting. An order usually follows several visits, and a “yes” in the room means “I understand”, not “I agree”.
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A visa, legalising a document, an invitation letter, the commercial attaché before a trade fair — these only go through a mission. Below are the official registers rather than transcribed addresses: missions move and consular hours change several times a year, so a link to the register stays current where a transcript would not.
Where a country has no mission in Bratislava or Prague it is usually accredited from Vienna, Berlin or Warsaw — the register says which.
Every figure names the authority that published it and the date the line was last worked on. This is not legal or tax advice — verify a figure with the named source before you act on it.