In brief
- Regulators continue to review economic concentration notifications
- Vietnam issues draft Decree on the management of costs incurred in competition procedures
In Q1 2021, the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) cleared 11 economic concentration notifications, most of which were acquisitions. The Ministry of Finance issues a draft Decree regulating the management, use and settlement of expenses relating to several competition proceedings.
This update was published on 13 April 2021, as part of our quarterly newsletter, Asia Pacific Competition Highlights. Click here to access the full report, which covers the most notable antitrust developments across 10 Asia Pacific jurisdictions.
Regulators continue to review economic concentration notifications
In Q1 2021, the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) cleared 11 economic concentration notifications, most of which were acquisitions.
As reported on the VCCA’s portal, in Q1 2021, the Ministry of Industry and Trade (“MOIT”) cleared 11 economic concentration notifications.
A majority of the notifications involved transactions in the form of acquisitions. This is inclusive of both onshore and offshore acquisitions and involved a wide variety of markets, including:
- livestock and pork processing;
- animal feed production;
- manufacturing and distribution of steel products;
- crude oil and natural gas extraction;
- manufacturing of pre-prepared steel modules;
- industrial construction services;
- disposable food services packaging;
- manufacturing of sports shoes, sports sandals, glue, and related plastics packaging and fabric printing;
- cancer treatment solutions;
- plastic coating; and
- trading plastic raw materials/products.
The VCCA/Ministry of Industry and Trade also cleared one economic concentration notification regarding a proposed joint venture. The main business of such a joint venture involved the steel sector.
Vietnam issues draft Decree on the management of costs incurred in competition procedures
The Ministry of Finance issued a draft guiding regulation on the management, use and settlement of expenses relating to several competition proceedings.
On 16 March 2021, the Ministry of Finance issued a draft guiding regulation on the management, use and settlement of expenses regularly incurred during the appraisal process of anti-competitive agreement exemption applications, economic concentration notification dossiers, investigation of competition cases, and competition proceedings (“draft guiding regulation”).
While the draft guiding regulation is mainly concerned with aspects of state management, it indicates that the competition authority may purchase information, join foreign and domestic networks, hire consultants for an assessment of anti-competitive effects, etc., for the purpose of investigating competition cases, appraisal of the application for exemption from anti-competitive agreements and evaluation of economic concentration notification dossiers.
For more information, please refer to the latest version of the draft guiding regulation (see here).
