1. Land rentals and land use fees

On 6 November 2025, the Government issued Decree No. 291/2025/ND-CP (“Decree 291”) amending Decree No. 103/2024/ND-CP dated 30 July 2024 on land use fees and land rentals (“Decree 103”) and Decree No. 104/2024/ND-CP dated 31 July 2024 on land development fund. Decree 291 took effect from 6 November 2025 and introduced some major amendments as follows.

Additional amounts payable

Article 257.2(d) of the Land Law 2024 requires land users who have been issued with a land allocation decision or land lease decision before the effective date of the Land Law 2024 (i.e., 1 August 2024) but land prices have not been determined to pay an additional amount for the time the land use fee or rental has not been calculated. Under Decree 291, such additional amount is calculated at the rate of 3.6%/year of the payable land use fee or rental amount (replacing the rate of 5.4%/year provided under Decree 103). The additional amounts shall be treated as other State budget revenues.

New principle in the application of land incentives

Decree 291 adds a new principle for exemption or reduction of land use fees or rentals based on severable and corresponding geographical areas. Accordingly, if the land that is allocated or leased by the State and eligible for land use fee or rental incentives locates over multiple geographical areas, the exemption or reduction of land use fees or rentals shall be determined according to the corresponding area in each geographical area.

Refund of the exempted or reduced land use fee or rental

Article 17.6 and Article 38.9 of Decree 103 provide that a land user must refund to the State budget the exempted or reduced land use fee or rental in the event that the land user fails to satisfy the conditions for land use fee or rental incentives or uses the land for purposes other than those stated in the land allocation decision, land lease decision or contract but does not fall into the case of land recovery pursuant to the land law. Decree 291 amends these provisions to: (i) further clarify the calculation of the land use fee or rental to be recovered, and (ii) detail the procedures for calculation and recovery of the exempted or reduced land use fee or rental.

Land clearance and compensation costs

Under Decree 291, if an investor advanced an amount for land compensation, support and resettlement according to the plan approved by the competent agency and the project has many forms of land use (land allocation without a land use fee, land allocation with a land use fee and land lease), the advanced amount shall be deducted from the total amount of payable land use fees and lump sum land rentals, the remaining (un-deducted amount) shall be further deducted from payable annual land rentals (including land rentals for underground construction area of the project, if any). The amount that has not yet been deducted from the land use fees and land rentals shall be accounted as investment costs of the project.

2. Securities

On 25 November 2025, the Government issued Decree No. 306/2025/ND-CP (“Decree 306”) amending Decree No. 156/2020/ND-CP on administrative sanctions in the field of securities and securities market, as amended (“Decree 156”) and Decree No. 158/2020/ND-CP on derivative securities and derivative securities market (“Decree 158”). Decree 306 takes effect from 9 January 2026.

Amendments of Decree 156

To further improve the regulations on supervision and handling with violations in the field of securities to ensure market order, safety and transparency, Decree 306 introduces the following key changes to Decree 156:

–   Individuals and institutions who commit specific acts of Decree 156 are subject to administrative penalties, including suspension of securities transactions, and suspension of tender offer, securities trading and services and some other operations for a fixed period. Decree 306 increases the maximum suspension period from the current 12 months to 24 months. There are also some new remedial measures such as enforced to suspend securities trading, services operations or other financial services, enforced to report to the nearest General Meeting of Shareholders or the Board of Directors or the Chairman of the company or the owner of the company on premature redemption of bonds or bond swap.

–   Decree 306 provides a separate set of provisions on handling with violations on private placement of bonds by non-public companies to have appropriate penalties for handling with same. Decree 306 also increases fines for a number of acts that affect the interests of investors such as private offering of shares or bonds when failing to meet all conditions as required by laws subject to a fine from VND300 million to VND400 million; disclosing information 15 days later than the time limit prescribed by law or requested by the State Securities Commission, Vietnam Stock Exchange and its subsidiary companies subject to a fine from VND70 million to VND100 million.

–   In addition to detailing and supplementing violating acts and increasing fines for violations on anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing, Decree 306 applies these administrative penalties to violations on anti-financing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Amendments of Decree 158

Some of the conditions for issuing derivatives trading eligibility certificates or derivatives clearing and payment eligibility certificates have been removed under Decree 306. Among others, a securities company or a securities investment fund management company is no longer required to maintain the liquidity ratio of at least 220% for the last 12 months as a condition for obtaining a derivatives trading eligibility certificate.

Decree 306 reduces several documents required for obtaining the above certificates, and amends Form No. 02 (List of members of the executive board and staff in charge of professional activities) submitted as an attachment to the application for the derivatives trading eligibility certificate.

3. Import of used technological lines and equipment

On 14 November 2025, the Ministry of Science and Technology issued Circular No. 30/2025/TT-BKHCN (“Circular 30”) providing for criteria for used technological lines and equipment permitted to import to serve semiconductor chip projects, research and development of digital technology products and services. Circular 30 takes effect from 1 January 2026.

The Law on Digital Technology Industry allows the import of used equipment, machineries and tools (referred as “equipment”) and technological lines to (i) directly serve projects for semiconductor chip manufacturing, packaging and testing and (ii) serve the training, research and development of digital technology products and services.

Under Circular 30, a used technological line must satisfy the following criteria to be permitted to import into Vietnam:

1)   It is not on the list of used items exporting countries announced as obsolete, poor quality and environment pollution;

2)   The technology is not on the list of technologies restricted or banned from transfer as stipulated in the law on technology transfer;

3)   Being produced based on standards that are conformity with the national technical regulations (QCVN) or, in the absence of the relevant national technical regulations, the national standards (TCVN) of Vietnam or national standards of G7 countries or of the Republic of Korea regarding safety and energy saving and environment protection;

4)   The residual capacity or efficiency must be at least 85% of the designed capacity or efficiency; and

5)   The consumption level of materials and energy must not exceed 15% of the designed level.

In addition to the criteria 1, 2 and 3 above, a used equipment shall be permitted to be imported only if its age is not over 20 years from the manufacture date.

For import of used technological lines and equipment for training, research and development of digital technology products and services, there is no requirement to comply with the criteria on residual capacity/efficiency and consumption level (in case of import of used technological lines) or equipment age (in case of import of used equipment).

Importers must provide a written commitment confirming that the used technological lines and/or equipment meet the import criteria, and are only used for the purposes for which the import is allowed under the Law on Digital Technology Industry and Circular 30. In case of violation of its commitment, the importer will be responsible for re-export of all imported used technological lines and/or equipment, and liable for the penalty in accordance with laws.

4. Minimum wages

On 10 November 2025, the Government issued Decree No. 293/2025/ND-CP (“Decree 293”) regulating minimum wages for employees working under labour contracts. Decree 293 will be effective on 1 January 2025 and replace Decree No. 74/2024/ND-CP dated 30 June 2024.

As of 1 January 2026, the monthly minimum wage will be increased as follows:

• VND5,310,000 per month applicable to employees in Region I (increased from VND4,960,000).
• VND4,730,000 per month applicable to employees in Region II (increased from VND4,410,000).
• VND4,140,000 per month applicable to employees in Region III (increased from VND3,860,000)
• VND3,700,000 per month applicable to employees in Region IV (increased from VND3,450,000).

The hourly minimum wage for employees will also be increased respectively. The hourly minimum wage is VND25,500/hour for those working in Region I, VND22,700/hour for those working in Region II, VND20,000/hour for those working in Region III and VND17,800/hour for those working in Region IV.

The regions are detailed in the Appendix of Decree 293 and classified based on commune (ward)-level administrative units. Region I includes most wards of Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh and Hai Phong Cities, and certain communes and wards of Quang Ninh, Dong Nai and Tay Ninh provinces. Communes and wards of other provinces are classified into Regions II, III and IV, or Regions III and IV (for some remote and mountainous provinces such as Tuyen Quang, Lang Son, Gia Lai and Dak Lak).

5. Public-utility telecom activities

On 15 November 2025, the Government issued Decree No. 295/2025/ND-CP (“Decree 295”) regarding financial mechanism for implementation of public-utility telecom activities. Decree 295 takes effect from 1 January 2026. Below are some key issues of Decree 295.

Public-utility telecom activities are financed by the Vietnam Public-Utility Telecommunication Service Fund (VTF). Telecom enterprises are required to contribute a percentage of the telecom service turnover (excluding turnover from public-ulitity telecom services) to the VTF. Decree 295 provides the maximum contribution rate of 1.5% and leaves the specific contribution rate for the Prime Minister to decide from time to time.

Under Decree 295, telecom enterprises that have been issued with the first licence to provide telecom services without network facilities are exempted from contribution to the VTF for 2 years from the date of licence and entitled to a 50% reduction of contribution in the subsequent 2 years.

Telecom enterprises may participate in providing public-utility telecom services when certain conditions are met. The selection of public-utility telecom service providers will have to be done through task assignment, ordering or bidding process under Decree 295. The VTF will provide support to these telecom service providers to offset costs related to development and maintaince of telecom insfrastructure in remote areas and other selected areas (e.g. depreciation costs, expenses for maintaining telecom infrastructure). The level of support depends on the method of service providers selection and the type of services and is determined for each service provider.