Market Entry Services

Doing business in Vietnam business effectively requires specific skills, knowledge, and contacts.  Robust planning and quality decision making attribute directly to value-creation and governance. Awareness of the opportunities and pitfalls of your new business ventures will enable you to do it right from day one, and quality market entry advice will help you do it right.

We provide quality market entry services that help connect you, the authorities and your business partners. We can provide you the intelligence, advice and support you need to set up the right business platform in Vietnam from day one. Be it a comprehensive market entry solution or an advice on specific matters, we have the right resources and expertise to support you in exploring, entering or structuring or re-structuring your business in Vietnam. The key to successful market entry is pre-entry study before decisions or commitments, whether your market entry is through merger and acquisition (M&A) or a greenfield project.

Our market entry services offer you strategic advice on local regulatory and practical aspects of your proposed market entry. We can provide a single coordinated approach that is tailored to your needs and that matters to your market entry decisions. Our services cover a spectrum of the following areas:

• Market Entry Intelligence

Based on your business plan for Vietnam, we will draw on our practical knowledge and experience to advise on the market size, growth potential, industry attractiveness, regulatory and competitive environment, specific market entry issues, barriers, opportunities and pitfalls, key drivers and trends and help you build strategies around them.  Whether you are considering a simple business platform of non-commercial market presence (such as a representative office), casual market entries (such as being a foreign contractor) or full commercial presence (such as company incorporation) through M&A or through a green-field project, or even expansion, divestment or other form of alliances, our service can be tailored to your specific needs from pre-entry study through implementation, to exit planning.

• Deal or Business Structuring

We can help you evaluate the alternative business structures and recommend to you the most appropriate structure for your deal and business presence in Vietnam and highlight the pros and cons of each structure to enable you to make right decisions from day one.

• Search and Selection

Choosing the right business partner or employees in a new market is critical. We can help you identify and assess your prospective business partners or employees in Vietnam by evaluating their competencies, credentials as well as their reputation in the local market.  Finding the right geographical location for your business can also be challenging as you may have to consider not only the costs of investment involved, but also the local norms and diversities of each province or city in Vietnam. We can help you identify and evaluate the pros and cons that help you make informed decisions. Our search and selection are often conducted on anonymous basis to ensure strict confidentiality.

• Licensing

We can assist you in familiarising with the licensing policies, requirements, procedures and best practices that suit your needs. We can work with the licensing authorities on your behalf to address the licensing issues and obstacles. Business initiatives in Vietnam, whether M&A transactions and greenfield projects are often contingent upon the licensing authorities’ pre-approval and delays are not uncommon.

We can support you throughout the licensing process, including handling all application paperwork, liaison and follow-up with the authorities until the relevant licences, approvals or permits are granted. Our government liaison team will help you maintain regular contacts with the licensing authorities to ensure that your application receives adequate attention and are processed appropriately and in a timely manner. Leveraging our excellent relationships with the licensing authorities at local and national levels, we will help you navigate through the bureaucracy and deliver results to you in a most efficient manner.

• Tax Planning

Proper tax planning contributes to sustainable successes. Tax planning that aligns with your business strategies and realities and adapt to changes are crucial to sustainable growth. We can help you analyse your business strategies and advise you the most tax efficient business platform for your market entry to Vietnam, including advice on tax incentives, corporate taxes, indirect taxes, transaction taxes, cross-border withholding taxes and customs duties, and personal income tax and other statutory levies and contributions.  Please refer to our Tax Services for more details.

• Financing and Fund Remittances

Vietnam has strict rules on foreign exchange control and financing a business or transactions in Vietnam, or repatriation of funds could encounter unexpected obstacles. We can advise you on the foreign exchange control, regulatory, accounting and financial reporting requirements that relate to financing your investment in Vietnam and cross-border remittance of funds, such as inter-company remittances, or repatriation of dividends or capital etc.

• Human Capital

Recruiting and terminating personnel (both locals and expatriates) in Vietnam can be challenging in Vietnam. We can advise you the local labour rules, norms and best practices to ensure that the employment and termination of your local and expatriate personnel comply fully with local labour, tax and immigration requirements.

• Due Diligence 

Due diligence involves the process of appraisal of a target business or business partner by examining whether that business or partner has the right fits for your business plan in Vietnam. We can help you examine those fits through a stand-alone or integrated legal, commercial, financial, and/or tax due diligence to examine the key matters such as market position and outlook, macroeconomic drivers, industry attractiveness, regulatory environment, competitive position and relationships with stakeholders such as customers, suppliers and authorities, to enable you to understand thoroughly the target business and make informed decisions. Where necessary, we will work with external parties such as your financial or legal advisors to ensure your market entry project achieve its goals.

• Business Negotiation

Negotiating to win essentially requires specific skills and comprehensive knowledge of the environment in which your counterpart operates, and their culture, motives and agenda.  Leveraging our natural knowledge of Vietnamese culture, local expertise, and extensive practical experience in dealing with the local businesses and authorities, we can assist you in negotiating with your business counterparts or the authorities to ensure that the outcome your negotiations will be a win-win and without surprises.