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The purpose of this paper is to analyze the Vietnamese laws and practices concerning the confiscation of proceeds of crime, especially in view of Vietnam’s obligations to meet the international standards on money laundering and terrorist financing, set by the Financial Action Task Force and relevant international conventions that Vietnam ratified. To limit the scope of this paper, the analysis focuses on the confiscation of proceeds of domestic crimes that do not require international legal assistance. This paper concludes with recommendations for improving the legal framework on criminal asset recovery in Vietnam.

This is a doctrinal study that considers the applicable legal framework. This study is supported by brief case studies of major cases involving the confiscation of proceeds of crime.

Vietnam has a functioning asset confiscation regime but gaps in the law, lack of financial investigation expertise and lack of focused investigative attention on asset preservation and confiscation are hampering its effectiveness. The key gaps can easily be closed with appropriate amendments to the law. These reforms should be combined with a dedicated skills development program to produce sufficient number of financial investigation experts and criminal asset management experts to support the regime. The training should extend to judicial officers to ensure an appropriate understanding of the asset confiscation law. Reforms such as these should follow on a comprehensive review of Vietnam’s law and practices relating to the confiscation and forfeiture of criminal assets. This review should extend to assets linked to the financing of terrorism and proliferation to ensure that Vietnam has a comprehensive regime to deal with criminal assets.

This paper draws on publicly available information regarding the confiscation of proceeds of crime in Vietnam. Little data is available on asset confiscation and that prevents an in-depth assessment of the regime.

This paper highlights gaps in the current asset confiscation regime and proposes reforms and approaches that will ensure a more effective asset confiscation regime for Vietnam.

This study aims to consider the anti-money laundering/combating of financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regime that applies to microfinance institutions (MFIs) and microfinance programmes and projects (MFPs) in Vietnam to identify ways in which to improve the alignment between financial inclusion and financial integrity objectives in relation to this sector.

This doctrinal study is informed by the Financial Action Task Force mutual evaluation methodology.

The AML/CFT regulatory framework for MFIs/MFPs is inadequate but improving. The money laundering and terrorist financing risks posed by microfinance are low and so is the capacity of many providers to comply with AML/CFT obligations. Given the low risk, there is space to simplify AML/CFT requirements for this sector in a manner that will better align financial inclusion and financial integrity policy objectives.

This paper considers the implementation of AML/CFT obligations of MFIs/MFPs based on existing studies as well as own research relating to compliance and supervisory practices. Further empirical studies to determine for the whole microfinance sector could provide a more granular understanding of crime risks and compliance capacities in the sector.

AML/CFT regulators in Vietnam can take concrete steps to simplify the AML/CFT due diligence obligations of MFIs/MFPs and support these institutions to formalise and implement appropriate AML/CFT measures.

MFIs/MFPs play a vital socio-economic role by providing financial services to the poor. Appropriate AML/CFT control measures can enable these providers to continue providing these services while strengthening economic formalisation and integrity goals of the government.

The paper provides novel supervisory perspectives on the AML/CFT regime in relation to MFIs/MFPs.

Recognition that not every climate adaptation policy is a good one has shifted attention to new tools and methods to measure the adequacy and effectiveness of adaptation policies. This study aims to propose and apply and applies an innovative adaptation policy assessment framework to identify the extent to which climate adaptation policies in Vietnam exhibit conditions that are likely to ensure a sufficient, credible and effective adaptation.

In total, 21 conditions, categorized under five normative principles and covering critical issue areas in adaptation domain, form the climate adaptation policy assessment framework. The principles were double-checked and tested in case studies through observations and analyses of policy documents to ensure that each condition should be distinct and not overlapping across principles. To see if the principles and attendant conditions were able to capture all relevant aspects of adaptation, the authors used structured expert judgment. In total, 39 policy documents pertaining to climate change adaptation were selected for qualitative document analysis. In-depth interviews with local officials and experts were conducted to address data gaps.

The study reveals major weaknesses constituting a reasonably worrisome picture of the adaptation policies in Vietnam since several critical conditions were underrepresented. These results shed new light on why some adaptation policies falter or are posing adverse impacts. The findings suggest that a sound policy assessment framework can provide evidence on what effective adaptation policy looks like and how it can be enabled. The framework for climate adaptation policy assessment in this study can be easily adjusted and used for different socio-environmental contexts in which new conditions for policy assessment might emerge.

The findings show underlying weaknesses constituting a reasonably worrisome picture of the adaptation regime in Vietnam. In the absence of mechanisms and measures for accountability and transparency in policy processes, adaptation in Vietnam appears more likely to be prone to maladaptation and corruption. While solving these problems will not be easy for Vietnam, the government needs to evaluate whether the short-term gains in sustaining the existing adaptation policies really make progress and serve its long-term climate-adaptive development goals.

Although interpretations of adaptation effectiveness may be very divergent in different normative views on adaptation outcomes, the authors argue that a common, agreed-upon effectiveness can be reached if it is clearly defined and measurable in adaptation policies. Thus, the climate adaptation policy assessment framework proposed in this study is critical for policymakers, practitioners, donors and stakeholders dealing with adaptation to better understand the weaknesses in policymaking processes, pinpoint priority areas of action and timely prevent or prepare for possible adverse impacts of policies.

Most governments around the world rely heavily on tax revenue to fund not only their recurrent expenditure but also their long-term development goals. There is some evidence suggesting that tax evasion in Vietnam has, over the years, been on the rise in terms of number, scale and degree of sophistication. It may thus be beneficial to understand the extent to which various relevant psychological factors interact to influence the tax compliance of Vietnamese taxpayers. This chapter attempts to quantify the effects of taxpayer's emotion, trust and perception on their tax compliance in Vietnam. It adopts a positivist research framework, a quantitative research method and primary data collection. First, a simple, theoretical model in which emotion and trust affect tax compliance both directly and indirectly through perception as a mediating variable, is constructed. The Baron−Kenny method is then applied to the data collected from an e-survey to test various hypotheses derived from the devised theoretical model. The results show that taxpayer's perception positively and significantly influences tax compliance whereas emotion and trust exert significant and positive effects on tax compliance both directly and indirectly (via perception). The findings suggest that voluntary tax compliance in Vietnam can be improved through better tax administration services, more fiscal policy accountability and pro-active tax socialization.

This paper aims to examine the management status quo of archaeological heritage in Vietnam seen in the case of Vuon Chuoi, a complex of Bronze Age sites located in Central Hanoi, which has been believed to be Hanoi’s first human settlement. Like other archaeological sites located in urban areas, this site has been under threat of destruction caused by land encroachment pressure. Although researchers have long waged a campaign for preservation, the dissensus among key stakeholders and the dispute over responsibility have left this site at the heart of an interminable polemic over legislation.

This research utilises a qualitative approach, and the primary data were collected throughout multiple field trips in 2019 and 2020. Several open-ended interviews were conducted with various state and nonstate actors involved in the Vuon Chuoi Complex’s management process. The discussion was also supported by analysing related legal documents retrieved from national archives and official online directories.

This paper dissects the current legislative and administrative framework applied in governing heritage in general and archaeological sites in Vietnam, in particular. The results indicate that existing flaws in Vietnam’s legal system are detectable, and the unsystematic organisation has led to deferment of the decision-making processes. Also, there is an apparent difference found in the attitude of the bodies in charge toward the treatment of listed and unlisted sites.

This research outlines that in the wake of urbanisation and industrialisation in Vietnam, a consensus among key stakeholders and an inclusive legal system are required to help preserve archaeological sites in urgent need of attention. Although several Vietnamese laws and regulations have been put into practice, they have shown critical barriers and gaps in conserving Vietnamese cultural heritage.

This study aims to identify the key factors driving consumer adoption attention toward FinTech services in a bank-based financial system to lay a firm ground for further policy recommendations to promote the dual development of FinTech and the banking industry in Vietnam as well as other emerging economies similar banking system.

A technology acceptance model with a data set of 387 observations collected from a thorough research design is used and proceeded with probit regression.

The paper finds that existing bank users are holding a high intention to approach FinTech services regardless of involved costs and time, suggesting a traditional banking system to open up the collaboration channel with FinTech firms in prospective business areas. The findings also reveal an interestingly important position of consumers’ latent needs in inclining consumers to use FinTech services in Vietnam.

In this study, the variable measurement is not comprehensive as the authors use a single question for each variable. Second, most of the respondents reside in two big cities of the country, which are currently witnessing the rising presence of FinTech companies. So, if the future penetration of FinTech firms reaches out of these big cities, a better research sample with a diversified geographic trait should be considered.

This study’s findings draw out valuable recommendations to bankers and especially policymakers to stimulate the future penetration of FinTech firms along with assuring and strengthening the important position of the banking sector in the economy.

This paper’s novelty lies in several aspects. First, this study provides a broad view of the market potentials for FinTech firms from the demand side on a wide range of FinTech services rather than focusing only on payment services as presented in previous studies. Besides, the paper also discovers a new factor attributing to the adoption intention of the FinTech end-users, the users’ latent needs. Third, these empirical results carry a considerable contribution to the limited literature on this topic in Vietnam. And, most importantly, this study’s findings significantly prove the noticeable contribution of consumers’ preference to the indisputable development of FinTech. This afterwards helps to shape viable governmental regulations to facilitate effective market penetration strategies of FinTech in accordance with nurturing the future strategic development of a bank-based financial system under the emergence of FinTech. Of which, the authors call for clear and official moves of the governmental bodies in facilitating the collaboration between FinTech and the banking system coupled with enhancing measures of customer protection in the financial field in Vietnam. The findings and the regulatory implications for our country could be a vital source and replicated for other emerging economies’ cases with similar traits of the financial system.

Across societies, gendered climate response decisions remain top-down and have limited progress because the influenced risk dynamics and their interrelations are not adequately understood. This study aims to address this gap by proposing an interdisciplinary innovative method, called women climate vulnerability (WCV) index, for measuring and comparing a diverse range of risks that threaten to undermine the adaptive capacity and resilience of rural women.

This paper builds on the literature to identify 12 risk categories across physical, economic and political sectors that affect rural women. These categories and attendant 51 risk indicators form the WCV index. A case study in Ben Tre Province (Vietnam) was used to demonstrate the application of the WCV methodology to rural contexts. The authors combined empirical, survey and secondary data from different sources to form data on the indicators. Structured expert judgment was used to address data gaps. Empirical and expert data were combined using a few weighting steps and a comprehensive coding system was developed to ensure objective evaluation.

The WCV assessment results reveal a reasonably worrisome picture of women’s vulnerability in Ben Tre as top highest-likelihood and deepest-impact risks predominate in physical and economic risk sectors. Stability, human security and governance categories have lowest scores, demonstrating a fairly politically favourable condition in the province. The medium risk scores captured in land and infrastructure categories reveal promising determinants of the adaptation of women in this rural province. The results demonstrate the usefulness of the WCV index in collecting bottom-up data, evaluating a wide variety of risks that rural women face and pinpointing priority areas that need to be addressed.

The WCV is systematic, customisable and localised. It combines field research and empirical data through structured expert judgment, thus enables researchers to fill data gaps and to do evidence-based assessment about diverse risk vulnerabilities. By doing so, the WCV index gives critical insights into the challenges that rural women face. This enables local governments to better understand cross-sectoral risks, pinpoint priority areas of action and timely channel funding and policy resources to support women where they need it most.

This paper aims to propose a comprehensive framework for prioritizing complexity criteria. The framework was validated by applying in infrastructure international development (ID) project as a case study.

A literature review highlighted the limitations of existing complexity prioritization methods. Then, a combination of the fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) and fuzzy analytic network process (ANP) was employed as a foundation to develop a three-stage complexity prioritization framework. Focus group discussion and questionnaire surveys were used to practically test the framework in the infrastructure ID projects.

The three-stage complexity prioritization framework was validated to be reliable and feasible. The findings showed ability of consultants, scope uncertainties, site compensation and clearance, communication between stakeholders, administrative procedure and project duration were the most significant complexity criteria of ID projects in the Vietnamese context.

The framework is a robust tool that enables the researchers to grasp the interaction of complexity criteria for complexity prioritization. Later studies can apply the proposed framework, with some minor revisions, to assess the interaction of criteria in other research topics in, and beyond, project complexity. Results of the case study suggest project stakeholders focusing on complex interactions among criteria to reduce project complexity.

This study contributes to the body of knowledge by providing a comprehensive complexity prioritization framework that grasps the interrelationship of complexity criteria. For stakeholders of ID projects, the findings provide insightful perspectives to understand complexity, which can help to enhance project performance.

In both developed and developing countries, the COVID-19 pandemic has created a new generation of first-time online shoppers. More significantly, academics and practitioners believe that the shift to online shopping will continue in the years to come. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the role of digital marketing tools as a moderator variable between the independent variables (i.e. consumption patterns, lifestyle, level of income, and payment methods) and dependent variable (i.e. the consumer's attitude towards online shopping) during the COVID-19 pandemic time in Arab countries.

A structured and self-administered online survey has targeted online shopping users in six different Arab countries based on a snowball and convenience sample. In total, 577 useable questionnaires were analyzed.

The findings show a significant positive relationship between the independent variables (i.e. consumption patterns, lifestyle, level of income, and payment methods) and the dependent variable (i.e. consumer attitude towards online shopping). Furthermore, the results reveal that the positive relationship between the independent and dependent variables is strengthened by the existence of the moderator variable, the digital marketing tools.

This study was based on cross-sectional data collection, rather than a longitudinal study and collected data from six Arab countries. It is suggested that future research should expand the survey in more similar countries to broaden the database for further generalizations and use a longitudinal approach to better assess changes in attitudes over time. In addition, this study focused on the issue from a consumer's viewpoint, so it is recommended that future research could be conducted, but from the viewpoint of marketing managers.

This study represents a further deeper insight into consumer behaviour; it advocates giving more emphasis on organizations' awareness of their customers' consumption pattern, lifestyle, level of income, and payment method. The findings of this study can help managers and marketers to design a promotional mix to improve consumer's behaviour towards online shopping. The results suggest paying more attention to the high relevant effect of the consumption pattern, lifestyle, level of income, and payment method on the consumer attitude towards online shopping.

This paper is one of the few attempts that investigated consumer attitudes toward online shopping in the Arab world. Importantly, it identified the drivers of online shoppers' attitudes in the Arab world. This may be used to develop and implement e-marketing strategies. Furthermore, this paper examines the role of digital marketing as a moderator variable to provide empirical evidence to the body of knowledge of these drivers during the COVID-19 pandemic time in the Arab countries.