The Vietnamese Government has promulgated a number of new legal provisions in an urge to ascend to the WTO and implement Bilateral Trade Agreement commitments between the governments of Viet Nam and the United States. In banking, after the amended and supplemented law on credit institutions dated 15 June 2004 (herein after referred to as Amended Law) was issued on 28 February 2006, Decree No 22 was released detailing the positive changes in the Amended Law.

Five laws approved by the National Assembly on November 29 have been promulgated by President Tran Duc Luong. The Law on Amendments to the Special Consumption Tax and Value-Added Tax Laws will be effective from January 1.

A recent sojourn by the Netherlands' crown prince to Vietnam, accompanied by representatives from Dutch businesses, resulted in the establishment of a number of long-term business partnerships - mainly in maritime industries. On the final day of the Prince's visit, Vietnam Investment Reivew's Ha Giang talked with Martin Bloem, CEO of HME - a Dutch assocation of maritime equipment makers involved in market surveys and trade promotion activities - about the strength of the relationship between the Netherlands and Vietnam.

Dutch inves­tors are interested in Vietnam's maritime development, and are seeking to expand bilateral co­operation in shipbuilding in­dustry and port infrastructure development, said the head of a Dutch business delegation.

The application of two property certificates as mentioned in the draft Housing Law will cause trouble for the people due to complicated administrative formalities, said a lawmaker at the June 2 National Assembly meeting.

The National Assembly passed the Viet Nam Maritime Code (revised) on May 23 to replace the 1990 version. The code, comprising 18 chapters and 261 articles, will come into force on January 1, 2006.

All economic sectors may take part in building and exploiting sea ports, said Transport Minister Dao Dinh Binh at yesterday's session of the National Assembly, which focused on the draft Maritime Navigation Law.

HA NOI - A series of port fees on export-import goods has become a financial burden to export-import businesses, shrinking profits and competitive abilities, many enterprises have complained.

The private economic sector in Vietnam will be likely allowed to invest to build sea ports, according to a meeting to discuss a draft of the Maritime Law in Hanoi April 18.

IMO's efforts to assist in the wider United Nations campaign to bring relief and reconstruction to the regions devastated by the Indian Ocean tsunami received a major boost today (10 January 2005) when the International Mobile Satellite Organization (IMSO) announced that, in co-operation with Inmarsat, it will make available up to 1000 digital land-mobile satellite communication terminals, free of charge, to the Secretary-General of IMO, for long term disaster response and relief purposes in the south Asia region.