Add cars into the conditional business lines: not patent protection

Automotive industry is in high demand of tech skills.

On the afternoon of 17th November 2016, discussing the Bill amending and supplementing the list of conditional business lines of Investment Law, many members of the National Assembly supported to add car manufacturing, and import into the list of conditional business lines.

According to National Assembly member Luu Duc Long from Vinh Phuc Province, the Draft states that, it does not prohibit car production, manufacturing and import but investment and business activities must meet all the conditions. They are conditions on car production, manufacturing and import, when individuals and organizations meet all the conditions, they can operate their business activities without any problem.

“Cars is the sector that requires higher demands on technology, which is not usual goods, it is special goods. The organization of production and manufacturing must have modern production lines, a high-skilled team of engineers, requires a standard technology scale rather than any individual can do. Similarly, car import is not based on having enough money to purchase then sale, there must have a strict procedure to ensure health and safety. Besides, it is necessary to have an automotive maintenance, warranty, even summoning to repair error system if any, in accordance with requirements of genuine manufacturers. If the problem is not reviewed carefully, the corollary will be incalculable”, Mr Luu Duc Long analyzed.

Agreeing with the comment above, National Assembly member Le Ngoc Hai from Quang Nam Province cited in the legal documents of the Party and the State related to support and develop enterprises. According to the National Assembly member, the instruments of 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th National Congresses of the Communist Party of Vietnam advocated to facilitate domestic enterprise development. The Government has also decided on the strategy for developing the automotive industry over the periods. Recently, at the question-and-answer session of the meeting, the Prime Minister presented to the National Assembly about the consistent policy of the Government as it “facilitates the best for domestic enterprises to develop”.

Supplementing the lines of car production, manufacturing and import into the conditional business lines does not violate international commitments, and it is an opportunity for the automotive industry development strategy, according to National Assembly member Luu Duc Long. “There is more than one year left to prepare competitiveness of the domestic auto industry, if our policy is not clear, stable, consistent, investors will withdraw from our market or shift into other markets, by accident, we continue to make domestic automotive industry die young or weak. With the market of nearly a hundred million people and a developing economy, the automotive industry plays an important role, if not produced, we must depend on import and if trade deficit increases, it will effect 100 thousand jobs and about 2% of GDP. Besides, the domestic automotive industry will maintain, develop many sectors to ensure auxiliary industries which contribute more into the State budget, and reduce trade deficit.

National Assembly member Le Ngoc Hai from Quang Nam province also confirmed, supplementing the lines of automotive production and manufacturing into the conditional business lines is “the national interests, and a core for our enterprise development”. According to the National Assembly member, when enterprises in the automotive industry, SMEs and start-up enterprises develop, they will form a strong business chain association to support each other to develop together.

National Assembly member Tran Van Tien from Vinh Phuc Province also agreed with supplementing the lines of automotive production and manufacturing into the conditional business lines. Such rules are not patent protection, because there are a dozens of authorized car distributors in the Vietnam market, said the National Assembly member. Now, Vietnam has full genuine import manufacturers of famous carmakers in the world and the region. The market has fierce competition in terms of feature, designs, service prices, which brings many choices for consumers.

Earlier, in the explanatory report to the National Assembly, the National Assembly Economic Committee had agreed to supplement the lines of automotive production and manufacturing into the conditional business lines. According to the Committee, supplementtng the lines of automotive production, manufacturing and import was necessary to develop the automotive industry in orientation above, meet the requirements of improving product quality, ensure consumer rights, protect environment and safety, life and health of community.