(MPI) – Date November 11, 2024, Ministry of Planning and Investment Organize a Seminar to collect opinions on supplementing regulations on beneficial owners of enterprises in the Law on Enterprises (amended).
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| Overview of the discussion. Photo: MPI |
The seminar was attended by representatives of specialized units of the State Bank of Vietnam, Police, The financial, Judicial, Ministry of Home Affairs, Supreme People's Procuracy, Department of Planning and Investment; Vietnam Bar Federation and representatives of several commercial banks.
Speaking at the opening of the Seminar, Director of the Department of Business Registration Management, Ministry of Planning and Investment Do Nhat Hoang said that the regulation on beneficial owners of enterprises is a new and important content that needs to be widely consulted to report to all levels for inclusion in the Law on Enterprises (amended). The Seminar will present the initial results of research on this issue so that relevant parties can support, accompany, and contribute ideas during the research process, combined with opinions from an international perspective to be able to approach the issue more clearly, and legalize it into the legal framework of Vietnam.
The purpose of developing regulations on collecting information on beneficial owners is to find out the ultimate individual who actually controls and governs the investment and business activities of the enterprise. Completing this regulation will contribute to improving Vietnam's anti-money laundering ranking and making the investment and business environment transparent and healthy, attracting investors, contributing to preventing and combating money laundering crimes.
Legal regulations and mechanisms for collecting information on beneficial owners of enterprises are one of the indicators of the World Bank's new Doing Business Index; International organizations (IMF; UN; OECD) include relevant documents, instruments, and international declarations and agreements.
Date June 16, 2023, Goverment Vietnam has signed a commitment with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on preventing and combating money laundering, terrorist financing, and the financing of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, including 17 specific actions. Implementing the above commitment, on February 23, 2024, Prime minister The Government has issued a National Action Plan in Decision No. 194/QD-TTg, in which, the Ministry of Planning and Investment is assigned to “Develop a mechanism to provide competent authorities with timely access to complete, accurate and up-to-date information on beneficial owners of legal entities (and legal agreements, if applicable) and to apply appropriate, effective, proportionate and deterrent measures to violations”, with a completion deadline of May 2025 month.
Currently, Vietnam is on the FATF “Gray List”. If there is no change in the legal framework, including the content on beneficial ownership, the FATF may consider putting Vietnam on the “Black List”. This will affect the investment and business environment and the Vietnamese economy. Accordingly, the private sector will be most affected. These measures will directly affect the effective operation of the financial system and indirectly affect many economic, political and social aspects of the country.
Building a mechanism to collect, update and store information on beneficial owners of enterprises is necessary, however, this requires a lot of effort because the Vietnamese Government's commitment to complete the legal amendment is the month May 2025. However, the time to amend the Law must be implemented according to the Law and Ordinance Development Program of the Government. Congress with many procedures according to the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents. Secondly, most of the business community is still unfamiliar with this concept, so the legalization of requirements for collecting information on beneficial owners of enterprises needs to be fully communicated for more effective implementation.
At this Seminar, representatives of specialized units of the agencies exchanged and discussed the necessity of building a legal framework on beneficial owners of enterprises; the concept of beneficial owners; the role of state management agencies; the responsibility of enterprises to provide information; the disclosure of information on beneficial owners; resources for implementation... This demonstrates the effort in implementing the commitment to FATF, as well as the benefits when implementing according to international standards.
Concluding the Seminar, Director Do Nhat Hoang thanked the valuable comments that were very close to the purpose of the Seminar. The drafting agency will collect the comments and combine them with studies in international regulations to soon legalize these contents into the Enterprise Law (amended) to help enhance the role of state management in anti-money laundering, contributing to improving the quality of the investment and business environment in Vietnam./.
Sources: https://www.mpi.gov.vn/portal/Pages/2024-11-11/Toa-dam-Lay-y-kien-ve-Du-thao-Quy-dinh-ve-chu-so-h9wrpl7.aspx
