Interesting business news

Vietnam's National Assembly is in session, and the papers are doing some interesting coverage of the issues under debate.  Here is an interesting article from the English edition of Thanh Nien news (May 8) , on the discussion of how to define "businessmen" in Vietnam

Lawmakers split over definition of businessman

Street vendors in Vietnam should also be recognized by the country’s Trade Law as businessmen, some legislators said May 7 while reviewing the revised law at the national parliament’s month-long seventh session.

The National Assembly discussed a revised draft of the Trade Law which stated street vendors, who did not have to get business licenses, were not businessmen. A legislator said the current draft regulation was adequate as businessmen had to be professional business organizations and individuals. Street vendors do not do business regularly as they have lack of understanding and knowledge over business contracts, he said. Important business network But, another legislator disagreed.  He said street vendors had set up a very “important business network”. If the Trade Law does not regulate these vendors then which legal document would apply to them, he questioned. Another legislator said the law did not establish control over street vendors in order to facilitate their operations by not collecting taxes from them.  Otherwise, if we collected taxes, this would drive street vendors out of society. But, there are tens of thousands of street vendors, said another legislator. Even though they don’t have business licenses, they still pay taxes, he said. Many of them do not do large-scale business, but they are still a type of businessman, he added. Reported by Manh Quan & Tuyet Nhung – Translated by Hieu Trung