Chương I Nghị định 55/2019/NĐ: Những quy định chung

Chapter I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1. Scope

This Decree deals with legal assistance for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), responsibility of ministries, ministerial agencies, provincial governments, other authorities, organizations and individuals involved in the provision of legal assistance for SMEs.

Article 2. Regulated entities

1. Ministries, ministerial agencies and provincial governments.

2. SMEs.

3. Enterprises’ representative organizations.

4. Authorities, organizations and individuals providing legal assistance services for SMEs.

5. Other authorities, organizations and individuals involving in the provision of legal assistance for SMEs.

Article 3. Interpretation of terms

For the purposes of this Decree, these terms are construed as follows:

1. “provision of legal assistance for SMEs” means ministries, ministerial agencies and provincial governments’ acts of creating, managing, maintaining and updating law databases, establishing and implementing legal assistance programs with the aims of increasing SMEs’ knowledge and awareness of law, developing their habit of complying with law, minimizing legal risks and issues encountered by SMEs during their operation, and then improving the competitiveness of SMEs and effectiveness in law enforcement.

2. “legal assistance program for SMEs” means a series of actions that are performed by a regulatory authority or an organization in a specific form within a given period as regulated herein with the aims of improving legal knowledge and providing law-related information and legal advice for SMEs.

3. “legal consultant network" means a division of the consultant network as prescribed in the Law on assistance for small and medium-sized enterprises, including lawyers, law firms, legal consultants and legal consulting centers that are eligible for provision of legal advice in accordance with law regulations, voluntarily apply for participation in the network and are approved and published by ministries or ministerial agencies to provide legal assistance for SMEs (hereinafter referred to as “legal consultants”).

4. “law database” in this Decree includes database on legislative documents and database on legal cases and issues that are created, managed, maintained and updated by ministries, ministerial agencies and provincial People's Committees for the purpose of providing legal assistance for SMEs.

Article 4. Rules for provision of legal assistance for SMEs

1. Legal assistance shall be provided for SMEs with certain focuses within a limited period of time and conformable with legal assistance objectives and the capability of balancing resources; the provision of legal assistance for SMEs must ensure publicity, transparency and effectiveness, and avoid overlapping.

2. Legal assistance shall be provided for SMEs through the cooperation between regulatory authorities, representative organizations of SMEs, providers of legal assistance for SMEs and other relevant authorities, organizations and individuals.

3. The provision of legal assistance for SMEs through legal assistance service providers shall be given priority.

4. Authorities and organizations providing legal assistance for SMEs shall, based on their resources and assistance programs, decide the provision of legal assistance in the following order of priority:

a) Women-owned SMEs and SMEs using more women employees will be provided with legal assistance first if their applications for legal assistance are satisfactory;

b) SMEs in which 30% or more of their employees are the disabled as defined in the Disability Law;

c) SMEs that submit applications for legal assistance first shall be provided with legal assistance first if their applications are satisfactory.

5. The State encourages and adopts policies for assistance and facilitation of regulatory authorities, organizations, enterprises and individuals in provision of legal assistance for SMEs, and mobilizes private sector involvement in provision of legal assistance for SMEs.