Why Vietnam

dMTV - de Masi Taddei Vasoli is currently the pioneering sole Italian law firm with its own fully licensed branch-office in Vietnam and one of the few foreign ones in this jurisdiction. Vietnam represents a strategic location for dMTV: an office in one of the world’s most dynamic emerging economies with fastest yet sustainable growth rates and sound stability factors in a perfect geopolitical positions proved a winning vision. With a strong national culture and identity and influenced for centuries by Chinese culture and yet open and close to other major ones, including Indian, Cham, Thai and European, the young, educated and industrious Vietnamese population in enjoying its longest consecutive period of peace and prosperity. Whilst obviously presenting a number of challenges and risks that clients can overcome solely with the help of prepared professionals that work in teams of foreign-educated and local lawyers, like dMTV’s, Vietnam is a very safe Country whose legal  and tax framework promotes and protects foreign interests and direct investments.

Opportunities

Vietnam displays a wide range of business opportunities that can be summarised as follows:

1. •A growing market composed of over 80 million people, half of whom are less than 30 years old, brand-aware and inclined to quality production, plus other ASEAN Member States’ consumers, for virtually any product or service (including telecommunications, insurance and banking) in whatever segment, whether luxury or mass item;
   

2. •A high-quality, low-cost manufacturing centre, ideally located at the heart of South East Asia, with skilled and tasteful individuals and workforce;
   

3. •An important trading centre for raw materials;
   

4. •Large public infrastructure tenders for major roads, railways, seaports, new-towns, telecommunication, healthcare;
   

5. •Private projects welcoming foreign enterprises in a variety of industries, including tourism, real-estate, agriculture and smaller infrastructures;
   

6. •Investments or business ventures carried out by large, leading local companies outside Vietnam, in various industries. Not only are Vietnamese companies already selling their products abroad, but also investing in manufacturing higher quality output outside Vietnam to then serve their own market.
   

Our presence

dMTV’s branch-office has been based since 2007 in Hanoi, where firm’s partners Mrs Patricia de Masi Taddei and Mr Federico Vasoli are admitted as foreign lawyers by the Vietnamese Ministry of Justice and where our resident managing partner, Mr Riccardo Bianco Levrin, has been working and living for almost two decades. Italian professionals are flanked by Vietnamese staff and lawyers including partners from one of the top local law firms with a strong international expertise. We can easily serve our clients throughout the Country, including the strongly business-oriented Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), as well as in neighbouring jurisdictions, including Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand and the emerging Cambodia and Laos.

Departments

dMTV’s practice in its Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) offices is divided into four departments, each led by a Vietnamese qualified parter and all co-ordinated by our Italian partners admitted to practice in Vietnam:

1. •International and domestic contracts;
   

2. •Commercial and corporate law;
   

3. •Intellectual property rights;
   

4. •Litigation and debt recovery;
   

5. •Insurance law.
   

Practice areas in Vietnam and South East Asia

1. •International and domestic contracts;
   

2. •Openings of representative and branch-offices;
   

3. •Company and commercial (incorporation, company structures, shareholders’ agreements, mergers and acquisitions, split-ups, business transfers);
   

4. •Start-ups;
   

5. •Company diligence;
   

6. •Insurance;
   

7. •Debt recovery;
   

8. •Intellectual property rights;
   

9. •Dispute resolution.
   

dMTV’s clients that wish to commence a new venture in Vietnam or anywhere in South East Asia can enjoy the above-mentioned legal services, as well as a practical knowledge of the local cultures and opportunities and introduction to the business community. Our start-up work is thus divided into four independent, though consequential phases:

1. 1.Examination of the case and of the most opportune cultural and business strategies and legal solutions, including an in-depth study of the specific jurisdiction and relevant domestic and international norms;
   

2. 2.Direct mission in South East Asia, with a full agenda of meetings to investigate partners’ reliability and business opportunities;
   

3. 3.Finalisation of the project, usually with the incorporation of a new company in the local jurisdiction – We strongly advise our clients to seriously consider opening their local unit to promote their business and safeguard their interests;
   

4. 4.Continuous assistance in favour of both the local and the parent company.
   

Thanks to a network of top-level relations in Vietnam and in Vietnam-related business and public institution outside the Country, dMTV is also able to procure potential partners and business opportunities in a variety of industries, including fashion, food, tourism and real-estate, to be evaluated by clients.

Our professionals regularly cooperate with private and public institutions for publications and seminars about Vietnam and, among others, we helped organise President Nguyen Minh Triet’s State visit to Italy in December 2009.