On October 16th, 2018, Vietnam
Government issued Decree No. 144/2018/ND-CP amending, supplementing the decrees
on multimodal transport. Under the law of Vietnam, multimodal transport (“MT”)
is the transportation of goods performed with at least two different modes of transport
under the multimodal transport contract from an original place to a place
designated for delivery, the carrier is liable for the entire carriage. MT
business includes: International multimodal transport (“IMT”) and Domestic
multimodal transport (“DMT”).
The
new decree eliminates and simplifies regulations on IMT business conditions and
abolishes DMT business as a conditional business line. In fact, DMT including
many transportations such as transport by sea, air,… is governed by specialized
laws on each transport, hence it is not necessary to stipulate additional
business conditions when conducting the combined transport.
Regarding
the conditions of IMT business, the new Decree no longer differentiates between
domestic and foreign enterprises as in the past, all enterprises therefore must
meet the followings:
(1)
Maintaining a minimum amount of assets equivalent to SDR 80,000 or provide an
equivalent guarantee or an alternative of financial character as regulated by
laws;
(2)
Having a liability insurance policy for multimodal transport operator or an
equivalent guarantee.
In
addition, in order to facilitate member state of the ASEAN Framework Agreement
on Multimodal Transport or another international treaty on multimodal transport
to which Vietnam is a signatory, new regulations are stipulated as follows:
(1)
Having a registration certificate of international multimodal transport or
another document of equivalent validity issued by the competent national body
of its country;
(2)
Having a liability insurance policy for multimodal transport operator or an
equivalent guarantee.
The
licenses to provide international multimodal transport service issued by
competent authorities of Vietnam before the date of entry into force of this Decree
are still valid until their expiration dates.
With
the role of supporting trading activities, modern transports need to meet the
increasingly complex requirements of the domestic and international transport
market, which not only deliver goods but also connect the transport process
into an uninterrupted transport chain to ensure a faster and safer transport
process.
Transport lawyers at ANT Lawyers, the law firm in Vietnam have always following up
the legal development on transportation to provide our clients with regular
update on the matters.