In recent years, Vietnam's rapid development has become an important topic of global attention, and some commentaries suggest that Vietnam will replace China as the next global manufacturing base. Regardless of whether such comments are well founded or not, there are many signs that Vietnam is indeed working hard in this direction and is making deep innovations in environmental protection, free trade agreements, business environment, rule of law environment and many other aspects.
Since the implementation of the "Innovation Policy" (the Vietnamese version of reform and opening up) in 1986, Vietnam's economy has been growing steadily, and in 2021 it ranked fourth in terms of economic output and sixth in terms of per capita income among ASEAN countries. Vietnam is an important part of ASEAN's business environment, but its rule of law environment has an inherent shortcoming, so the Vietnamese government has paid more attention to this in recent years.
In 2016, the steel plant project invested by Taiwan's Formosa Plastics Group in Vietnam's Ha Tinh sparked a huge controversy over environmental issues, and the Vietnamese government's series of opaque operations in dealing with the incident had once sparked doubts and anxiety among foreign-funded enterprises, including those from Taiwan.
As an exemplary country with significant achievements in reform and opening up, China has been a role model for Vietnam to follow in its modernization efforts. This past November and December 2021, Vietnamese authorities held two video symposiums with the Constitution and Law Committee of the National People's Congress of China and the Supreme People's Court of China respectively to exchange judicial practices in learning from China's socialist rule of law, with special reference to strengthening the training of judges and judicial cooperation between the two countries in border courts.
In the afternoon of November 4, 2021, the Legal Committee of the National Assembly of Vietnam and the Constitutional and Legal Committee of the National People's Congress of China held an online symposium to exchange experiences on legislative work with each other (Photo credit: Vietnam+).
Nguyen Hoa Binh, President of the Supreme People's Court of Vietnam, holds a meeting with Zhou Qiang, President of the Supreme People's Court of China, by video on December 27, 2021 (Photo credit: Vietnam+)
With the long border between China and Vietnam, the development of the traditional land trade ports between the two countries has become more prosperous with the improvement of bilateral relations, and many Chinese companies have launched investment and M&A plans in Vietnam.
On January 26, 2022, the Vietnamese government once again said through the media that Vietnam will firmly continue to implement the "Strategy for Building and Improving a Socialist State under the Rule of Law in Vietnam in 2030", believing that in 2022, when the impact of the epidemic gradually dissipates, the economic and trade development of China and Vietnam will definitely usher in a new situation.
Author: Lawyer Johnny Cui (Founder of Johnny Cui Law Firm)
Email: johnny@johnnycuilaw.com
Tel: 86-592-5179599
