Requirements for investment and trading in military weapons in service of national defense and security in Vietnam

Requirements for investment and trading in military weapons in service of national defense and security in Vietnam (Internet image)

Regarding this issue, LawNet would like to answer as follows:

1. What are military weapons?

Military weapons in Vietnam include:

(i) Weapons that are manufactured or crafted satisfactory to technical standards and design of legal manufacturers and provided for people’s armed forces and other forces as specified herein to perform certain tasks, including:

- Firearms: handguns, rifles, submachine guns, light machine guns, anti-tank guns, grenade launchers;

- Light weapons: heavy machine guns, mortars, DKZ rifles, anti-aircraft machine guns, man-portable anti-tank rocket launchers;

- Heavy weapons: fighter aircrafts, attack helicopters, tanks, armored vehicles, warships, submarines, artillery, anti-aircraft artillery, rockets;

- Bombs, mines, grenades, torpedoes, naval mines; ammunition for weapons specified in this Point;

(ii) Weapons that are manufactured or crafted manually or industrially without satisfying technical standards and design of legal manufacturers capable of inflicting damage and harm to lives and health of humans, destroying matter structures similar to weapons specified in (i) and not provided for people’s armed forces and other forces specified in Article 18 of the Law on management and use of weapons, explosives and combat gears 2017 to perform tasks.

(Clause 2, Article 3 of the Law on management and use of weapons, explosives and combat gears 2017 (amended 2019))

2. Requirements for investment and trading in military weapons in service of national defense and security in Vietnam

According to Article 7 of Decree 101/2022/ND-CP, the requirements for investment and trading in military weapons in service of national defense and security in Vietnam are as follows:

(1) Enterprises and organizations under the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Public Security shall be eligible for investment and trading in military weapons in service of national defense and security when they fully meet requirements prescribed in Articles 7 and 8 of Decree 79/2018/ND-CP:

* Conditions for research into, manufacture, trading, import, export and repair of weapons to be satisfied by the organization/enterprise affiliated to the Ministry of National Defense and Ministry of Public Security

- The organization/enterprise is assigned the plan for or tasks of researching, manufacturing, trading, importing, exporting and repairing weapons by the Ministry of National Defense and Ministry of Public Security

- Conditions for security, order, fire prevention and fighting, incident response and prevention and environmental protection shall be satisfied. To be specific:

+ Regulations on entry and exit and security and order assurance plans should be made. Equipment, items and commodities transported into and out of the organization/enterprise should be kept under control. Security forces should be set up.

+ Regulations, sufficient equipment, forces in charge of inspecting fire safety and internal fire fighting plans should be in place. It is required to carry out fire drills and adopt fire safety measures as prescribed.

+ Measures for reducing, collecting and treating materials and wastes, and tackling environmental pollution on site shall be adopted. It is prohibited to leak or spread toxic to the environment.

Provision of sources and equipment for prevention and response to environmental emergencies shall be ensured.

- The place for manufacture and repair of weapons shall be conformable to conditions for security, order, fire prevention and fighting and environmental protection.

It is required to set a safe distance from residential areas, cultural, social and historic constructions, security areas and prohibited areas.

- There must be equipment and instrument suitable for testing and monitoring specifications and serving quality inspection during manufacture and repair of weapons, and a separate testing place (except for research into and manufacture of cold weapons).

Finished product warehouse shall comply with technical regulations and standards.

- Types of weapons shall ensure quality and comply with technical standards and regulations. Each military weapon and each sporting weapon shall have its own trademark, number, symbol, manufacturing country and year of manufacture.

- The manager of an organization/enterprise shall be provided with training in management and use of weapons, fire safety and incident prevention and response during manufacture and repair of weapon.

- Employees directly involved in manufacture and repair of weapons shall provide with training in fire safety and incident prevention and response, occupational safety and hygiene assurance during manufacture and repair of weapon.

* Conditions for trading in weapons to be satisfied by the organization/enterprise affiliated to the Ministry of National Defense and Ministry of Public Security

- The organization/enterprise is assigned the plan for or task of weapon trading by the Minister of National Defense or Minister of Public Security.

- The conditions specified in Clause 2 Article 7 of Decree 79/2018/ND-CP are satisfied.

- Warehouses, storage places and equipment in service of weapon trading shall fulfill conditions for security, order, fire prevention and fighting, incident response and prevention and environmental protection in accordance with regulations.

- The manager of an organization/enterprise shall be provided with training in management and use of weapons, fire safety and incident prevention and response during trading process.

(2) Organizations and enterprises

Organizations and enterprises other than those prescribed in (1) may participate in research, manufacture and repair of military weapons in service of national defense and security when they satisfy the provisions in Article 10 of Decree 79/2018/ND-CP.

- Be a Vietnamese organization/enterprise established as prescribed by law; and

- Satisfy the conditions specified in Clauses 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 Article 7 of Decree 79/2018/ND-CP.

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