Originially from: World Arbitration and Mediation Review (WAMR)

An Overview of the Ordinance on
Commercial Arbitration of Vietnam
of February 25, 2003
by
Tran Tuan Pong, Esq.
1. Background
To date, arbitration has not been viewed as among the
“mainstream” modes of dispute resolution in Vietnam. Few companies
take their cases to arbitration centers even though courts in big cities are
overloaded. The main impediment for arbitration is the lack of a
government system that provides for the coercive arbitral awards. This is
ironic because one can seek the enforcement of a foreign arbitral award
under the 1958 New York Convention on Recognition and Enforcement of
This article is from World Arbitration and Mediation Review.
© JurisNet, LLC 2002 www.arbitrationlaw.com
Foreign Arbitral Awards (the “New York Convention”), but cannot seek
the same for a domestic arbitral award.
To cope with that enforcement problem and foster arbitration as a
preferred forum of dispute resolution in the market-based system, the
Ordinance on Commercial Arbitration ("Ordinance on Commercial
Arbitration") was adopted on February 25, 2003 as part of Vietnam's
current program to reform the judicial system. This Ordinance went into
effect on July 1, 2003. This article discusses the main contents of the
Ordinance on Commercial Arbitration.