Circular No. 61/2001/TT-BTC dated August 01, 2001 of the Ministry of Finance guiding the spendings in support of market development and trade promotion activities

CIRCULAR

GUIDING THE SPENDINGS IN SUPPORT OF MARKET DEVELOPMENT AND TRADE PROMOTION ACTIVITIES

In furtherance of the Government’s Resolution No. 05/2001/NQ-CP of May 24, 2001 on a number of additional solutions to the execution of the 2001 economic plan;

On the basis of the comments of the Ministry of Trade, the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Government Pricing Committee, and the Prime Minister’s directing opinion in Official Dispatch No. 3075/VPCP-KTTH of July 10, 2001 of the Government’s Office; in order to further encourage and step up export, the Ministry of Finance hereby prescribes the mechanism of spendings in support of market development and trade promotion activities as follows:

I. GENERAL PROVISIONS

1. Market development and trade promotion activities (hereafter called trade promotion activities for short) aiming to encourage export include:

1.1. Gathering information on export markets, customers and goods;

1.2. Hiring economic and trade consultants;

1.3. Seeking for export markets;

1.4. Organizing fair and exhibition pavilions in foreign countries;

1.5. Establishing Vietnam’s trade promotion centers in foreign countries;

1.6. Setting up representative offices of Vietnam’s enterprises and branch and trade associations in foreign countries.

2. Expenses for these activities shall be covered by the following sources:

- Expenses arising at public-service units shall be covered by the State budget sources through economic public-service spendings and in support of rural production and business lines;

- Expenses arising in enterprises shall be accounted into their production and/or business costs by enterprises themselves and shall be partly provided by the Export Support Fund.

3. This Circular prescribes the spendings in support of trade promotion activities at enterprises from the Export Support Fund.

4. Principles of support:

- The State shall partly support the expenses for trade promotion activities on the basis of the actually spent amount and the annual foreign currency turnover of enterprises;

- Enterprises which are provided with trade promotion expense support by the State must ensure that such funding is used economically and efficiently, and take responsibilities for the spending contents according to current regulations.

II. SPECIFIC PROVISIONS

1. Subjects enjoying support shall be enterprises engaged in export business activities (of all economic sectors) and having annual foreign currency revenues.

- Service enterprises organizing trade promotion activities shall not be provided with trade promotion expense support prescribed in this Circular.

- The spendings in support of trade promotion activities according to the export turnover do not apply to the following cases:

- Goods exported for debt repayment and as aid to foreign countries;

- Goods exported under the Government’s agreements;

- Goods exported in form of barter;

- Re-exported goods;

- Goods of highly commercial competitive nature such as petroleum.

2. Trade promotion support levels:

2.1. For the trade promotion activities mentioned at Points 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 and 1.4 of Part I, the support level is determined as equal to 0.2% of the actually collected export turnover in the year (calculated according to the FOB price at a Vietnamese port or equivalent modes of goods delivery), but must not exceed the actual level of spendings on these activities of enterprises. The support money shall be calculated in Vietnam dong according to the inter-bank market exchange rate at the time of provision of the support.

1.2. For the trade promotion activities mentioned at Points 1.5 and 1.6 of Part I, enterprises initial investment expenses shall be partly supported by the State. The support level is determined as equal to 0.1% of the actually collected export turnover in the year (calculated according to the FOB price at a Vietnamese port or equivalent modes of goods delivery), but must not exceed 50% of initial investment expenses as stipulated for each project by the Finance Ministry and the Trade Ministry and approved by the competent agencies.

3. Branch and trade associations conducting trade promotion activities which yield export contracts for their member units shall be supported through the transfer of support spendings from such member units. The transfer levels shall be agreed upon by the associations and member units.

4. Capital sources: Spendings in support of market development and trade promotion shall be covered by the Export Support Fund.

5. Procedures for support consideration:

5.1. Dossier of support consideration: At the year end, the exporting enterprises shall send trade promotion support-related dossiers to the Finance Ministry, more concretely:

a) For the support spendings prescribed at Point 2.1 of Part II:

a.1. The enterprise’s official dispatch requesting the support;

a.2. A statement of actual export turnover of the enterprise in the reporting period with certification by the Commercial Bank where the enterprise has opened its export goods foreign currency account;

a.3. A report on business results in the reporting period, including the detailed report on trade promotion expenses.

b) For the support spendings specified at Point 2.2 of Part II: Apart from the dossiers stated at Points a.1 and a.2 above, the enterprise must add:

b.1. The Trade Ministry’s proposal;

b.2. Project(s) already approved by competent agency(ies);

b.3. A report on actually arising expenses;

b.4. A report on business results in the reporting period.

5.2. Basing himself on the above-said dossier and the support levels prescribed in this Circular, the Finance Minister shall decide to support enterprises with funding from the Export Support Fund.

6. Stipulations on accounting:

- For enterprises: Spendings in support of market development and trade promotion shall be accounted as follows:

+ The support spendings mentioned at Point 2.1 of Part II shall be accounted as decrease of the enterprise’s business costs (management expenses);

+ The support spendings mentioned at Point 2.2 of Part II shall be accounted into the State capital source investing in projects.

- For associations: The expenses transferred from member enterprises shall be accounted into the revenues of funding for the associations trade promotion activities.

The enterprises’ directors and the associations chairmen shall have to manage, use and account the above-said support spendings according to the State’s regulations.

III. IMPLEMENTATION PROVISIONS

1. This Circular takes effect as from January 1, 2001.

2. In the course of implementation, if any difficulties or problems arise, enterprises are requested to report them to the Ministry of Finance for study and settlement.