The ASEAN law on free labour mobility and the practice of implementing Vietnam’s commitments

Abstract

In the ASEAN Economic Community, free skilled labour mobility is a core factor of the ASEAN single market and production base. Since the time of becoming a member of the ASEAN in 1995, Vietnam has been always active in implementing economic collaboration commitments in general and those of free labour mobility in particular within the ASEAN framework. To implement the free labour mobility commitments, Vietnam pays attention to developing and improving its law by domesticating the related regulations. The paper analyses to clarify the practical and legal bases of the free labour mobility within the ASEAN and the free labour mobility commitments of Vietnam within the 1994 ASEAN framework Agreement on Services and the 2012 ASEAN Argreement on Movement of Natural Persons. It then assesses Vietnam’s implementation of those commitments and offers some recomendations for enhancing the implementation effectiveness in this regard.