The VIFC court and specialised forums: the specialised court of the Vietnam International Financial Centre under Law 150/2025, the centre's international arbitration centre, and the routes for labour, administrative, tax, intellectual property and competition disputes

A new forum for the financial centre

The Vietnam International Financial Centre (VIFC), a single centre with hubs in Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang, was created by National Assembly Resolution No. 222/2025/QH15, effective from 1 September 2025, and launched on 21 December 2025 (FAQ 69). Its legal regime, membership, foreign exchange rules and financial incentives are explained in Project finance, security and the financial centre. Two dispute institutions form part of the design: a specialised court created by statute, and an international arbitration centre provided for by Government decree. Both are intended to offer foreign investors in the centre a forum operating in English, applying international practice and resolving disputes quickly, closer to the model of the Dubai International Financial Centre or the Astana International Financial Centre than to the ordinary people's courts.

Both are new, and their practical value depends on rules and appointments still being made. This section describes what the law provides as at October 2026, and what an investor should check before relying on either.

The specialised court under Law No. 150/2025/QH15

Law No. 150/2025/QH15 on the Specialised Court at the International Financial Centre was passed on 11 December 2025 and took effect on 1 January 2026. The court sits within the people's court system in Ho Chi Minh City and comprises a first-instance court, an appellate court and a supporting apparatus. Its jurisdiction covers: investment and business disputes between centre members, or between a member and a non-member; the recognition and enforcement in Vietnam of foreign court judgments and foreign arbitral awards in such disputes; requests relating to commercial arbitration under the arbitration law, such as appointing arbitrators, interim measures and evidence, where at least one party is a member; and other matters the Supreme People's Court specifies where at least one party is a member. Matters involving State interests or the public interest are excluded. Commentary describes the jurisdiction as exclusive within its scope, so a member's commercial dispute that would otherwise go to a regional court goes to the specialised court, unless a valid arbitration agreement applies. Disputes over jurisdiction between the specialised court and the people's courts are resolved by the chief judge, with complaints to the Supreme People's Court, whose decision is final.

The procedure departs from the Civil Procedure Code in important respects. English is a working language: proceedings and judgments may be in English alone or in English with a Vietnamese translation. A first-instance case is heard by a single judge, or, for complex cases at the parties' request, by a panel of three; appeals are heard by three judges, and no judge who heard the first instance may sit on the appeal. Appellate judgments are final and not subject to cassation or retrial, unlike judgments of the ordinary courts. Judges may be Vietnamese or foreign, and must have at least ten years' experience in investment and business disputes and English sufficient to adjudicate. Parties may be represented by Vietnamese lawyers or by foreign lawyers holding a valid practising certificate from a foreign authority, and a legal entity must be represented by a lawyer unless the procedural rules provide otherwise. The procuracy does not take part. Filing, service, payment of fees, evidence and hearings may all be electronic.

On substance, parties to transactions with a foreign element may choose foreign law or international commercial custom, provided the result does not breach Vietnam's public order; disputes over ownership and other property rights in real estate, including leases and security over it, follow the law of the place where the property is located. Commentary on the law reports a limitation period of six years from the triggering event, which the parties may vary by agreement within limits to be clarified by the procedural rules. The costs of proceedings include court fees and reasonable lawyers' costs, advanced by the requesting party and borne by the unsuccessful party unless agreed otherwise, at levels to be set by the Supreme People's Court with the Ministry of Finance. The court issues its own enforcement decisions, carried out by a designated enforcement judge.

When the court will be usable

Law No. 150/2025/QH15 leaves the detail to the Specialised Rules of Procedure, to be adopted by resolution of the Judges' Council of the Supreme People's Court. The Supreme People's Court's implementation plan, reported in January 2026, set 31 March 2026 for a circular on appointing judges, 30 June 2026 for instruments on fees and costs, enforcement and judicial ethics, and 31 December 2026 for the procedural rules themselves. Until the rules are in force and judges appointed, the court should be treated as available in principle but untested, and an investor should not choose it as the sole forum in a contract without a fallback (Project finance, security and the financial centre).

For contracts signed now by centre members, a practical approach is to choose arbitration, VIAC, the VIFC arbitration centre once operating, or an offshore institution, and to rely on the specialised court for supporting functions and for recognition of awards involving a member, which it will handle in any event. Where the parties prefer litigation, a clause choosing the specialised court should identify the member party and state what happens if the court is not yet able to hear the case.

The VIFC international arbitration centre

Decree No. 328/2025/ND-CP of 18 December 2025, one of eight decrees implementing Resolution No. 222/2025/QH15, provides for an international arbitration centre within the VIFC. The centre must be an independent legal entity headquartered within the centre's perimeter and licensed by the Minister of Justice. It resolves investment and commercial disputes arising from activities at the VIFC where the parties agree to its jurisdiction, excluding disputes over administrative decisions and acts, labour disputes, disputes over personal rights and matters already decided by a court or competent authority. Parties to foreign-element disputes may choose foreign law, provided it does not contravene the fundamental principles of Vietnamese law, and the tribunal may apply international trade usages; English may be used. The specialised court supports the arbitrations, appointing arbitrators where the parties cannot agree, assisting with evidence and witnesses, granting interim measures and recognising foreign awards connected to the centre.

The decree's most distinctive feature is the waiver of annulment: the parties may expressly waive, in the original arbitration agreement, their right to ask a court to annul the award, in which case the award is final and enforceable from issue, except where the arbitration agreement is void under Article 18 of the Law on Commercial Arbitration or the waiver was made after an annulment petition had been filed. Commentary noted that the centre's own procedural rules had not been published when the decree took effect, so that proceedings would default to the Law on Commercial Arbitration and the Resolution. This guide has not been able to confirm that the centre is accepting cases as at October 2026; an investor should check its licence, rules and panel before naming it in a clause, and should not combine a waiver of annulment with an untested institution without advice.

Labour disputes

Disputes between an employer and an employee are outside commercial arbitration and follow the Labour Code (Law No. 45/2019/QH14). An individual labour dispute goes first to a labour mediator appointed by the provincial labour authority, now within the Ministry of Home Affairs' system, completed within five working days, except for disputes over disciplinary dismissal, unilateral termination, termination payments, insurance and certain others, which may go straight to court; if mediation fails, the parties may agree to refer the dispute to the provincial labour arbitration council, or either may sue in court (Articles 187 to 190). Limitation periods are six months for mediation, nine months for arbitration and one year for court proceedings. Collective disputes over rights and interests follow separate routes, and only an interest dispute can lead to a lawful strike, whose legality is decided by the regional court. These rules, with their practical consequences for a foreign employer, are in Internal labour rules, unions and disputes and, for termination, Termination, severance and redundancy (FAQ 58).

Administrative and tax disputes

A decision of a State authority, refusing or revoking a licence, terminating an investment project, imposing an administrative penalty, assessing tax or recovering land, is challenged in two ways, which can be used in sequence. The first is an administrative complaint under the Law on Complaints to the authority that issued the decision, generally within 90 days of receiving it, and then to the next level if the complaint is rejected or not decided in time. The second is an administrative lawsuit under the Law on Administrative Procedure (Law No. 93/2015/QH13, amended by Law No. 85/2025/QH15), generally within one year of receiving the decision; since 1 July 2025 first-instance administrative cases are heard by the reorganised regional and provincial courts. Law No. 58/2020/QH14 allows pre-acceptance dialogue between the claimant and the authority. The decision usually remains enforceable while it is challenged, so an investor may need to comply under protest.

Tax disputes follow this route with the special rules of Law No. 108/2025/QH15 on Tax Administration: a complaint to the tax authority generally within 90 days, a second complaint or an administrative lawsuit, and payment of the assessed tax meanwhile, with recovery if the challenge succeeds; treaty issues can also be taken to the mutual agreement procedure (FAQ 30; Tax administration, audits and disputes). Where an administrative measure also breaches an investment treaty, the choice of an administrative lawsuit can close the treaty route under a fork-in-the-road clause such as CPTPP Annex 9-J (Investor-State disputes and treaty claims).

Intellectual property and competition

Infringement of intellectual property rights can be pursued through administrative enforcement by inspectorates, market surveillance and customs, through civil proceedings for injunctions and damages, and, for serious counterfeiting, through criminal prosecution. Since 1 July 2025 civil IP cases are heard at first instance by the Intellectual Property Courts of Regional People's Court No. 2 in Hanoi and Regional People's Court No. 1 in Ho Chi Minh City, with appeals to the economic courts of the Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City People's Courts. Disputes over the grant, validity or invalidation of registered rights go first to the Intellectual Property Office of Vietnam. Licence and technology transfer disputes between businesses are commercial and may be arbitrated. The choice between administrative and judicial enforcement, and the evidence needed, are explained in IP enforcement and anti-counterfeiting (FAQ 84).

Competition matters, including cartel and abuse-of-dominance investigations, merger control and private complaints, are handled by the National Competition Commission under Law No. 23/2018/QH14 on Competition, whose decisions can be challenged through the procedures in that law and then in the administrative court; damages for anti-competitive conduct may be claimed in the civil courts. Notification thresholds, procedures and penalties are covered in Merger control and competition law (FAQ 87).