Vietnam's draft digital transformation law proposes 'far-reaching' paradigm for digital platforms

Summer has come and gone, but the waves of digital laws in Vietnam remain. The Ministry of Science and Technology recently introduced the draft Law on Digital Transformation to materialize the Political Bureau's 2024 Resolution 57, aiming to remove administrative barriers and unlock the nation's potential for technological breakthroughs.

The draft introduces a framework for local political and state agencies to embrace artificial intelligence technology advancements in daily operations and introduces incentivizing policies to boost the economy.

Through the draft law, the MST, now headed by the former minister of information and communications, intends to regulate digital activities in a broad way, spanning all activities in the digital economy and society and covering all digital platforms.

New regime for digital platforms

Vietnam's digital platform regulations are scattered in various laws, notably the Law on Digital Technology Industry, the Personal Data Protection Law, the Law on Data, the Law on Electronic Transactions, the Law on Protection of Consumers' Rights, and the Cybersecurity Law, each of which is overseen by a different regulator. Several are recently enacted, either as a completely new law or updated one, while others are expected to be amended soon.

Despite this, the draft Law on Digital Transformation proposes a far-reaching paradigm for digital platforms, covering specialized digital platforms, intermediary digital platforms, dominant platforms, shared digital platforms in political system agencies, and others.