Only seven months after the enactment of the new 2005 Commercial Law of Vietnam at the beginning of 2006, the Vietnamese Government has issued new regulations on foreign representative offices and branch offices in Vietnam under Government Decree No. 72/2006/ND-CP dated July 25, 2006. Compared with the regulation under the previous decree, this new decree seems to be a step backward in terms of the requirements for opening a foreign representative or branch office in Vietnam. This article describes the setbacks.