Can Foreigners Establish an English Center in Vietnam

According to the WTO commitment form; the foreign language training profession belongs to the group of other services, code CPC 929, which Vietnam has committed to open freely; unlimited from January 1, 2009. Therefore, any Foreign Investor that is a member of the WTO can establish a foreign language training institution with a maximum foreign capital of 100% in Vietnam.

In Clause 1, Article 5″ Investors have the right to conduct business and investment activities in industries that are accepted by this Law. 

For conditional business sectors, the investor must satisfy the conditions for business investment as prescribed by the law.

According to the provisions of the Investment Law in 2020, the operation of foreign-invested educational institutions is a CONDITIONAL BUSINESS LINE as prescribed in Decree 86/2018. /ND-CP. Therefore, when establishing an English language center, foreign investors must also meet the conditions prescribed by the Investment Law and relevant documents.

Conditions to establish an English center in Vietnam

Regarding investment capital

According to Decree 86/2018/ND-CP; English language centers are classified as short-term training and retraining institutions and must have an investment rate of at least VND 20 million/student (excluding land use costs). The minimum total investment capital is calculated based on the time with the highest expected scale.

For the establishment of an English center; If you do not build new facilities but only rent them out or contribute capital with existing facilities from the Vietnamese party to carry out operations, the investment level must be at least 70%.

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Regarding facilities and equipment

• Having appropriate classrooms in terms of lighting, furniture, equipment and teaching aids;
• Having an area used for learning and teaching to ensure an average of at least 2.5 m2/learner;
• There are offices of the board of directors, leaders, teachers’ rooms, libraries and other functional rooms.

In case of using rent facilities, the English center must ensure a stable lease term of 5 years and must satisfy the above-mentioned material conditions.

Regarding the educational program

The educational program implemented at the Center must reflect the educational objectives; possess no content harmful to national defense, security or community interests; must not propagate religion, distort history; must not adversely affect the culture, morality, customs and traditions of Vietnam and must ensure the connection conditions between educational levels and training levels.

Regarding the teaching staff

• Teachers must have at least a college degree or equivalent; have a training discipline suitable to their assigned teaching profession.
• The maximum student/teacher ratio is 25 students/teacher.

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Regarding the name of Foreign-Invested Language Center

• The name of a foreign-invested foreign language center must include the following elements arranged in the following order: “Education or training center”; “Main field or group of majors” and proper name.
• The proper name of the foreign-invested center must not coincide with or cause confusion with the name of the registered educational institution; with the name of the enterprise implementing the investment project. Do not use words; symbols that violate the historical, cultural, ethical and fine traditions of the Vietnamese nation.
• The Center can put the transaction name in Vietnamese and the international transaction name in English (or in another common foreign language) with equivalent content.

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