On the morning of October 29, 2019, Mr. Nguyen Van Vu, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Justice chaired a meeting within the framework of the implementation of Plan No. 8818/KHPH-TAND-CTHA-STP-HTTTM (Plan 8818) on coordinating to improve the efficiency of commercial arbitration activities in Ho Chi Minh City in the period of 2018-2020. Attending the meeting were representatives of the Judicial Supplementation Department (Mr. Phan Thanh Tung, Head of Department), of Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court (Nguyen Thi Thuy Dung, Chief of Economic Court), of Ho Chi Minh City Civil Judgment Execution Department, of Ho Chi Minh City Commercial Arbitration Association (LS. Nguyen Van Hau, President of Association) and representatives of a number of commercial arbitration centers located in Ho Chi Minh City. Representing the HTA Commercial Arbitration Center, Prof. Dr. Phan Huy Hong, President of the Center and Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Huyen, Founding Arbitrator, attended the meeting.
At the meeting, Mr. Nguyen Van Vu informed about the activities to implement Plan No. 8818, as well as the performance of commercial arbitration centers in the City. Accordingly, in 2018, the commercial arbitration centers in the City received 5,898 requests for arbitration, of which resolved and issued arbitral awards for 5,777 disputes. Thus, the number of disputes resolved by arbitration in 2018 increased compared to previous years. However, according to a representative of a commercial arbitration center, credit contract disputes account for a high proportion of the total number of disputes.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy Dung, Chief of Economic Court of Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court, informed, that in 2018 the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court has accepted 102 requests for cancellation of arbitral awards, but only decided to cancel 04 arbitral awards. Thus, the rate of canceled arbitral awards on total arbitral awards is only 0.069%, the rate of canceled arbitral awards on the total number of requests for cancellation is only 3.9%. According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy Dung, this is an “ideal” rate, showing that the dispute resolution by arbitration in the City has achieved very high quality. The Review Council’s is always careful in its consideration and decision, because the decision of the Council is final.
However, a representative of the Ho Chi Minh City Civil Judgment Execution Department said, some cases of execution of arbitral awards have difficulties or are delayed due to unclear content of the arbitral awards, incorrect determination of properties subject to execution. Answering questions from the representative of a commercial arbitration center about the mechanism to help “accelerate” the execution of arbitral awards, the representative of the Civil Judgment Execution Department of Ho Chi Minh City affirmed, there is no separate mechanism for the execution of arbitral awards, but the execution of arbitral awards must also comply with the general principles, order and procedures.
Facing the questions of Mr. Nguyen Van Hau, President of Ho Chi Minh City Commercial Arbitration Association, on the case that the commercial arbitration centers were not notified of the results of the consideration of the request to cancel the arbitral award, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy Dung, Chief of Economic Court, promised to consider and review related process.
The participants of the meeting also discussed many issues related to the coordination mechanism among the concerned agencies, Ho Chi Minh City Commercial Arbitration Association and commercial arbitration centers located in Ho Chi Minh City on popularizing of dispute resolving by commercial arbitration, promoting and improving the quality of commercial arbitration activities in the City, in order to provide the business community with an effective way of dispute resolving.
