According to Article 32.1 of VIAC's Rules of Arbitration, an Arbitral Award shall be in writing and contain the following main information:

a) Date, month, year and place of making the Arbitral Award;

b) Names and addresses of the Claimant and the Respondent;

c) Names of the Arbitrators or the name of the Sole Arbitrator;

d) Summary of the Request for Arbitration and matters in dispute; summary of the Counterclaim and matters in dispute, if any;

dd) Reasons for making the Arbitral Award unless the parties have agreed that no reasons are to be given;

e) Determination of the dispute resolution;

g) Period of time for implementing the Arbitral Award;

h) Allocation of the costs of arbitration and other relevant expenses;

i) Signatures of the Arbitrators or the signature of the Sole Arbitrator.

According to Article 33 of VIAC's Rules of Arbitration:

“Article 33. Correction and interpretation of the Arbitral Award; making an additional Arbitral Award.

1. Unless the parties have agreed otherwise on the period of time, within 30 days from the date of receipt of the Arbitral Award, a party may request the Arbitral Tribunal to correct any spelling, printing, or typographical error, or any error of a similar nature; any numerical errors caused by a mistake or incorrect computation in the Arbitral Award, and shall immediately notify the request to other party. If the Arbitral Tribunal considers the request legitimate and there is proof that the request has been notified to the other party, it shall make a Decision on correction within 30 days from the date of receipt of the request.

2. The Arbitral Tribunal may, on its own initiative, within 30 days from the date on which the Arbitral Award is made, correct any of the above-mentioned errors and make a Decision on correction.

3. Unless the parties have agreed otherwise on the period of time, within 30 days from the date of receipt of the Arbitral Award, a party may request the Arbitral Tribunal to interpret the Arbitral Award, and shall immediately notify the request to the other party. If the Arbitral Tribunal considers the request legitimate and there is proof that the request has been notified to the other party, it shall make a Decision on interpretation within 30 days from the date of receipt of the request.

4. Unless the parties have agreed otherwise on the period of time, within 30 days from the date of receipt of the Arbitral Award, a party may request the Arbitral Tribunal to make an additional Arbitral Award with respect to the issues presented during the arbitral proceedings but not yet recorded in the Arbitral Award, and shall immediately notify the request to the other party. If the Arbitral Tribunal considers such request legitimate and there is proof that the request has been notified to the other party, it shall make an additional Arbitral Award within 30 days from the date of receipt of the request.

5. Where necessary, the Arbitral Tribunal may extend the periods of time for the correction or the interpretation of the Arbitral Award or the making of an additional Arbitral Award as stipulated in paragraphs 1, 3 and 4 of this Article respectively.

6. The Decision on correction or the Decision on interpretation, or the additional Arbitral Award shall constitute part of the Arbitral Award.

7. The correction or the interpretation of an Arbitral Award, or the making of an additional Arbitral Award shall be subject to Article 31 and paragraph 2 of Article 32 of VIAC’s Rules.

To determine the procedures of enforcement of arbitral award, parties should consider whether the arbitral award shall be enforced in Vietnam or abroad.

*Where enforcement in Vietnam:

According to paragraph 1 Article 66 of Law on Commercial Arbitration 2010, if on expiry of the time-limit for carrying out an arbitral award the award debtor has not voluntarily carried out the award, the arbitral award creditor shall have the right to request the competent civil judgment enforcement agency to enforce such award.

According to Article 8 (1) of Law on Commercial Arbitration 2010, The civil enforcement agency with competence to enforce an arbitral award shall be the civil enforcement agency in the province or city under central authority where the arbitration tribunal rendered the award.

Therefore, to carry out the procedures required to enforce the arbitration award, the party requesting enforcement of an arbitral award must file application of enforcement of arbitral awards with a civil enforcement agency in the province or city under central authority where the arbitration tribunal rendered the award.To determine where the Arbitral Tribunal issues arbitral award, the parties need to rely on the arbitration award, which specifies where the arbitral award was issued.

Example: If the arbitration award states that the arbitral award was made in Hanoi, the application of enforcement of an arbitral award shall be filed at the Hanoi Department of Civil Enforcement Agency (Address: 142 Tran Phu, Van Mo, Ha Dong, Hanoi. Phone: +84 24 3382 5097). If the arbitration award states that the arbitral award was made in Ho Chi Minh, the application of enforcement of an arbitral award shall be filed at Ho Chi Minh City the Department of Civil Enforcement Agency (Address: 200C Vo Van Tan, Ward 5, District 3, HCMC. Tel: +84 28 39292146. Email: hochiminh@moj.gov.vn).

According to Article 31 of Law on Enforcement of Civil Judgments 2008 (amended and supplemented in 2014). A written request for judgment enforcement contains the following principal details:

a) Full name and address of the requester;

b) Name of the civil judgment enforcement agency requested to enforce the judgment;

c) Full names and addresses of the judgment creditor and judgment debtor;

d) Contents of the judgment requested to be enforced;

dd) Information on assets or judgment execution conditions of the judgment debtor.

The judgment enforcement requester shall clearly write the date of making the request and give his/her signature or fingerprint. For a legal entity, its written request must be appended the signature of its lawful representative and its seal. Enclosed with the written request for judgment enforcement must be the judgment or ruling requested to be enforced and other related documents, if any.

A written request for judgment enforcement can be filed in person at a civil judgment enforcement agency or sent by post. The date of sending a written request for judgment enforcement is the date the judgment enforcement requester files the written request or makes an oral request at the civil judgment enforcement agency or the date of the postmark affixed by the sending post office (pursuant to Article 32 of Law on Enforcement of Civil Judgments).

*Where the arbitral award issued by VIAC is enforced a broadly:

The enforcement of arbitral awards in foreign countries will be carried out according to the procedures stipulated in the 1958 New York Convention on the recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards (New York Convention) and the law of the states and territories of the debtor.

Under Article IV of the New York Convention, to achieve the recognition and enforcement of an arbitral award, the requester when filing the request must provide:

a) The duly authenticated original award or a duly certified copy thereof;

b) The original agreement referred to in Article II or a duly certified thereof.

If the said award or agreement is not made in an official language of the country in which the award is relied upon, the party applying for recognition and enforcement of the award shall produce a translation of these documents into such language. The translation shall be certified by an official or sworn translator or by a diplomatic or consular agent.

Since each country has different regulations on the order and procedures of recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards, parties must check the laws of the country or territory in which the recognition and enforcement of arbitral award are requested. The country or territory where recognition and enforcement of an arbitral award is requested is usually the country or territory where the debtor has its headquarters or the property.

The parties should contact lawyers of the requested for advice and support. The parties can also contact Vietnam’s diplomatic, commercial agent at the requested country to be supported or provided information.

Example: If a foreign arbitral award wants to be enforced in Vietnam, it will be enforced according to the Code of Civil Procedure 2015 and Law on Enforcement of Civil Judgments 2008 (amended and supplemented in 2014):

According to Article 452 of the Code of Civil Procedure, the party wishing to request recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards in Vietnam must submit a Application for recognition and enforcement in Vietnam of the foreign arbitral award (application). The Application must be sent to the Ministry of Justice of Vietnam (Address: 60 Tran Phu, Ba Dinh, Hanoi. Tel: 04.62739450.  Fax: 04.62739359. Email: plqt@moj.gov.vn) and must contain the following principal details:

a) Full names and addresses of residence places or work places of the judgment creditors or their lawful representatives in Vietnam; if the judgment creditors are agencies or organizations, the full names and addresses of their head-offices must be fully inscribed;

b) Full names and addresses of residence places or work places of the judgments debtors; if the judgments debtors are agencies or organizations, the full names and addresses of their head-offices must be fully inscribed; in cases where the judgment debtors being individuals do not have residence places or work places in Vietnam or the judgment debtors being agencies or organizations do not have head-offices in Vietnam, their applications must also specify the addresses of the places where exist the properties and assorted properties relating to the enforcement in Vietnam of foreign arbitrator’s award;

c) Requests of the judgment creditors.