On
November 15, the National Congress delegates discussed about Law on Anti-money
laundering consisting of five chapters, 53 articles. In which, the most
concerned matter was channels of money laundering in Vietnam, a local newswire
reported.
Back to the history of the Law, on June 7,
2005 Vietnam had Decree 74 ruling scheme and solutions of preventing money
laundering in monetary or other asset transactions; responsibility of
individuals, agencies and organizations in anti-money laundering; and
international corporation in the field.
For a long time, “the world sees us [Vietnam]
as the ideal destination for money laundering”, delegate Duong Trung Quoc
stated, because “we had legislative documents (lower than law in terms of
enforcement) on adjusting money-laundering. Till now, all these documents are
not able to be implemented”.
According to experts, Decree 74 was very
simple and not strong enough to hinder the evil. It also was not matched to
international norms. The fact showed that during the last 7 years, Vietnam’s
capacity of developing and dealing with money-laundering cases by this decree
is unclear.
In addition, Vietnam just concerned the sole
money-laundering channel that is banking system. Yet, in fact, there are a lot
of money-laundering channels in Vietnam. We can launder hundreds of US dollar
by buying a high-class apartment in cash. Even the taxes on that apartment are
uncontrollable, the delegate explained.
The existing design of the law is not able to
improve the happening in Vietnam. They, who used cash to launder money, will
use various channels, he noted. He also was worried about the feasibility of
the law because of popular cash and gold payment in the country.
The NA delegate compared, whole content of the
law is like a regime of internal banks to protect themselves.
Few banks in the world were established mainly
to launder money. Complicated component of Central Bank will become a favorable
channel for money-laundering (to earn illegal profits). The law is like a
two-edge knife.
On the other hand, Vietnam’s total export
import turnover annually accounts for 150% of GDP. Whether is the
money-laundering conducted via the export and import operations?
HCM City delegate Tran Hoang Ngan said: “2010
export import turnover reached $160 billion and the figure is estimated at $200
billion. Thus I have worrisome that the money-laundering is hidden in these
operations.”
But the draft law is consisting of only 3
writing lines on anti-money laundering in this section.
Another method of money-laundering is
remittances repatriated from Vietnamese overseas (without via official
transactions to evade taxes), and then local relatives will send back money to
the overseas people. The sum of money will become “clean money” that can be
used to buy houses and pay study fees.
Mr Duong Trung Quoc shared the case showed the
weak and loose management of Vietnam. It is necessary to define which subjects
to the Law and which channels people use to launder money.
Vietbiz24
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