Cooperative Law 2012 of Vietnam: Prohibited acts

Specifically, according to Article 7 of the Cooperative Law 2012 of Vietnam, cooperatives and unions of cooperatives shall operate according to the following principles:

- Individuals, households and legal entities may voluntarily establish, join or leave cooperatives. Cooperatives may voluntarily establish, join and leave unions of cooperatives.

- Cooperatives and unions of cooperatives may widely admit members or member cooperatives.

- Members or member cooperatives enjoy equality and have equal votes regardless of contributed capital in deciding on the organization, management and operation of their cooperatives or unions of cooperatives; are provided with adequate, timely and accurate information on production and business activities, finance, income distribution and other contents as prescribed by the charter.

- Cooperatives and unions of cooperatives shall enjoy autonomy and take responsibility for their activities before law.

- Members and member cooperatives and cooperatives and unions of cooperatives shall implement their commitments under service contracts and as prescribed by their charters. Incomes of cooperatives or unions of cooperatives must be mainly distributed according to the level of use of products and services of members or member cooperatives or, for job creation cooperatives, by members’ contributed labor.

- Cooperatives or unions of cooperatives shall pay attention to education, training and retraining for their members or member cooperatives, managers and employees, and provide information about the nature and benefits of cooperatives or unions of cooperatives.

- Cooperatives or unions of cooperatives shall care for the sustainable development of their members or member cooperatives and cooperate with one another in developing the cooperative movement on local, regional, national and international scales.

Concurrently, the law also stipulates acts that are strictly prohibited in Article 12 of the Cooperative Law 2012 of Vietnam, including:

- Issuing certificates of registration of cooperatives or unions of cooperatives in the case of ineligibility; refusing to issue certificate of registration of cooperatives or cooperatives unions in the case of eligibility prescribed by this Law; hindering or harassing the registration and operation of cooperatives or unions of cooperatives.

- Hindering the exercise of the rights and performance of the obligations of cooperatives, unions of cooperatives, members and member cooperatives under this Law and their charter.

- Operating in the name of cooperatives or unions of cooperatives without a certificate of registration; continuing to operate even after the withdrawal of certificate of registration.

- Declaring untruthful and inaccurate contents to register cooperatives or unions of cooperatives.

- Committing fraud in the valuation of contributed assets and capital.

- Conducting business lines which are not recorded in the certificate of registration; conducting conditional business lines when lacking business conditions prescribed by law.

- Failing to abide by the principles of organization and operation prescribed in Article 7 of this Law.

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