UNIS/L/345
24 July 2023

Viet Nam signs a memorandum of understanding with UNCITRAL

Enhanced cooperation between Viet Nam and the UN on commercial law reforms

VIENNA, 24 July (UN Information Service) – During an official visit to the Vienna International Centre by President Vo Van Thuong, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Viet Nam signed a memorandum of understanding with the secretariat of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) to increase the cooperation between the UN and Viet Nam in the modernization of the commercial law framework in the country. The memorandum of understanding will support collaborative efforts to promote UNCITRAL texts and capacity-building initiatives regarding the harmonized use of UNCITRAL instruments in Viet Nam.

This memorandum of understanding follows the increasing use of and interest in UNCITRAL texts by Viet Nam and the strong economic growth of the country in the last three decades. Viet Nam became a party to the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (New York, 1958) in 1995 and the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (Vienna, 1980) in 2017. Recent achievements include the use of the UNCITRAL Public-Private Partnerships Model Legislative Provisions and Legislative Guide (2019) to draft the Law on Public-Private Partnerships (2021) of Viet Nam, as well as awareness raising events on UNCITRAL insolvency instruments in relation to the ongoing reform of the Vietnam insolvency legal framework (2022).

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The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) is the core legal body of the United Nations system in the field of international trade law. Its mandate is to remove legal obstacles to international trade by progressively modernizing and harmonizing trade law. It prepares legal texts in a number of key areas such as international commercial dispute settlement, electronic commerce, insolvency, international payments, sale of goods, transport law, procurement and infrastructure development. 

UNCITRAL also provides technical assistance to law reform activities, including assisting Member States to review and assess their law reform needs and to draft the legislation required to implement UNCITRAL texts. The UNCITRAL secretariat is located in Vienna, Austria. For more information, visit: uncitral.un.org.

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For information, please contact:

José Angelo Estrella-Faria 
Principal Legal Officer and Head, Legislative Branch 
UNCITRAL Secretariat 
Email: joseangelo.estrella-faria[at]un.org