Delegate: Why can people from 16 years old contribute capital to establish a business or open a milk tea shop?

Delegate Phan Duc Hieu - Photo: Quochoi.vn

According to regulations, individuals who are allowed to contribute capital to establish a business must be 18 years of age or older, but Delegate Phan Duc Hieu ( Thai Binh delegation) proposed lowering the age to 16 to be able to contribute capital and establish a business.

Reduce the age limit for contributing capital to establish a business

The reason is that in the current legal system, children under 16 years old and 16 years old and above are no longer considered children. Regarding the regulation of working age, those from 15 years old and above have the right to work. Regarding civil capacity, people under 18 years old do not have full civil capacity.

However, there are also regulations that people aged 15 and over can establish their own civil acts and transactions, except for land use rights and real estate. Therefore, Mr. Hieu believes that people aged 15 and over, if they have money, can completely have the right to conduct civil acts, contribute capital and participate in businesses.

“For example, a high school student has a career orientation, attends a vocational college, opens a milk tea shop, why not give them this right? Therefore, I suggest that those who participate in contributing capital to establish a business must be 16 years of age or older to participate in contributing capital to establish a business,” said Mr. Hieu.

However, the proposal to expand capital contribution to establish enterprises for 16-year-olds was expressed by Mr. Dong Ngoc Ba - member of the Law and Justice Committee - as "needs careful consideration". Because for more than ten years, the rights to establish and operate enterprises have been clearly stipulated.

According to him, the right to establish and manage a business requires management capacity. In fact, Article 17, Clause 2 clearly distinguishes the right to establish and manage.

“We do not prohibit it, we have long recognized the right to contribute capital for non-members. In general, any individual with assets has the right to contribute capital to establish a business. Only certain groups are prohibited according to regulations such as civil servants, units of the People's Armed Forces... to avoid conflicts of interest,” said Mr. Ba.

According to the delegate, the number of people who can contribute capital is very broad, not just those aged 16 and over to mobilize social resources.

Reiterating delegate Hieu's point of view on "the right to participate in contributing capital to establish a business, people from 16 to 18 years old can participate in establishing a business", Mr. Ba said that the person who establishes a business is the founder.

However, if the founders are minors, management and operation will be difficult, and will have a great impact on society. Therefore, careful evaluation is needed when a business participates in many economic relations and the founder of the business is a minor.

Delegate Do Duc Hien - Photo: Quochoi.vn

Mandatory reduction of charter capital when purchasing shares from shareholders is a formal procedure.

Regarding the regulation requiring joint stock companies to reduce their charter capital when buying back shares from shareholders, delegate Do Duc Hien (HCMC delegation) said that it is revealing shortcomings. Also because buying back shares to use for the purpose of reducing charter capital is only one of the cases where enterprises buy back shares from shareholders.

The forced reduction of charter capital after share repurchase makes it impossible for the company to maintain treasury stock, while this is a necessary tool in business management and operation, often used to reward employees or improve some financial indicators such as return on equity and earnings per share.

On the other hand, share repurchase is also one of the important financial solutions of a joint stock company, especially in the case where the company's stock value decreases in the trading market compared to its actual value due to the impact of some unusual factors.

Delegate Hien cited the recent stock market plunge due to the impact of the US's new tariff policy. Many companies wanted to buy back their own shares to preserve asset value and sell them when the market stabilized, but were unable to do so.

While the regulation requiring registration of charter capital reduction is a very formal and unnecessary procedure, this regulation is no longer consistent with the policy of innovation in thinking about building and organizing law enforcement.

Therefore, it is necessary to minimize intervention and remove administrative barriers, strongly shifting from pre-control to post-control associated with increased inspection and supervision.

NGOC AN

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/dai-bieu-nguoi-tu-16-tuoi-gop-von-thanh-lap-doanh-nghiep-mo-quan-tra-sua-tai-sao-khong-20250520120411601.htm