The Announcement took place with the presence of over 100 participants coming from the Government, Business associations, big law firms and leading enterprises in Vietnam and attracted the huge interests of media. The Announcement was to introduce new contents of the VIAC Rules of Arbitration 2017 (“VIAC Rules 2017”), provided the audiences with useful information related to the dispute resolution mechanism of commercial arbitration in Vietnam in general and at VIAC in particular.
Mr. President Tran Huu Huynh of VIAC gave the commencement address, emphasizing on the effort of VIAC, as the arbitration institution at the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), in valuing and absorbing feedback from enterprises and lawyers known as the arbitration users as well as the competent state administrative bodies in order to keep reinventing ourselves and completing our arbitration service under our philosophy of building up a Friendly – Transparent – Efficient arbitration method as the preferred alternative for the Court proceedings.
The Announcement had two sessions. The first session is for VIAC to introduce new contents of the VIAC Rules 2017 and followed by an open session for experts, lawyers and businesses to discuss on the new VIAC Rules 2017.
The first session was led by Mr. Phan Trong Đat, Vice Secretary General of VIAC, MCiArb. Dat presented an overview of this 2017 version, focusing on new provisions: Article 6 – Multiple Contracts, Article 15 – Consolidation and Article 37 – Expedited Procedure.
VIAC Rules 2017 is the first one in Vietnam being in adaptability to the change in law at Resolution 01/2014/HDTP/TANDTC dated 22 March 2014 regulating the consolidation of multiple legal relations to be resolved in a single arbitration. With the brand new provisions at Article 6 and Article 15 of VIAC Rules 2017, disputes arising from multiple legal relations may be jointly resolved in a single arbitration under the laws, which helps to save 15%-37% the costs of arbitration, minimize the time disputing parties have to spend for arbitration (participated in ONE consolidated arbitration instead of multiple arbitrations) to save more on legal costs, traveling costs as well as other expenses for the enterprises.
Duration of an arbitration is proud to always be a highlight in dispute resolution at VIAC. In 2016, VIAC continued to keep the average duration at 153.6 days per case. In the VIAC Rules 2017, the Expedited Procedure is supplemented at Article 37. The Expedited Procedure is expected to continue to cut short the duration for an arbitral proceeding, especially in less complex cases with considerably small amount of documents, evidence such as disputes in finance and banking, insurance and trade. With a panel of 158 arbitrators who are leading experts in various fields of commerce, a team of 13 outstanding Secretariat members who are well - experienced in administering arbitration proceedings, VIAC is confident to conduct the Expedited Procedure for a prompt dispute resolution with an ensured quality.
In the second session, experts, enterprises and lawyers has opportunities to go straight to discuss on the adaptability, the compatibility and the interpretation of the new Rules.
Mr. Truong Thanh Duc, Chairman of Vietnam Banking Legislation Club, VIAC Listed Arbitrator gave some positives comments on the adaptability of the news Rules, especially the provisions on Multiple contracts and Consolidation, to the disputes in finance and banking sectors where the disputing legal relations are often closely related.
Mr. Khuc Hoang Duy from Insurance Association of Vietnam said that there were some insurance cases being resolved in about 30 days at VIAC under the 2012 Rules but with a quite long preparation of parties to agree on the detailed procedure prior to the commencement of the arbitration procedure. Duy hopes that the 2017 Rules shall solve such matter for the convenience of parties in future insurance disputes.
There were also supporting comments from enterprises and lawyers on the changes in the new Rules which are believed to remove difficulties and inconvenience for arbitration users, then helps to save the costs for the arbitration.
At the end of the Announcement, with the demand of further discussion on the new Rules from experts and lawyers, there was a closed session hosted by the VIAC Secretariat. By the question-answer method, the VIAC Secretariat gave the lawyers and experts the general interpretation and practical application of the 2017 Rules.
2017 Rules.
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