In the High-level Session of the Annual Vietnam Business Forum (“VBF”) held on 21 February 2022, the Vietnamese Government and business community engaged in a policy dialogue on the theme of “Restoring the economy & Developing supply chain in the new normal”.
Among other talking points, the issue of digital transformation was placed in the discussion. Specifically, representatives of the business community (including EuroCham, AmCham, and VBF’s Digital Economy Working Group) expressed their recommendations concerning the necessary removal of the data localization requirement as such.
In response to these recommendations, the Ministry of Public Security has issued Official Letter No. 470/BCA-ANKT (“Official Letter 470”) with encouraging feedbacks saying, in Point 3, that enterprises should have the freedom to engage in the cross-border transfer of data without being imposed the data localizing obligation, provided that they apply data security measures that meet international standards and Vietnam’s regulations; and only when enterprises fail to cooperate with the Vietnamese authority in providing information serving the investigation and handling of crimes will they be obliged to store data and set up a representative office/branch in Vietnam.
Although it is still necessary to wait till the draft decree implementing the Cybersecurity Law and draft Personal Data Protection Decree are officially promulgated to confirm with certainty if the above requirement has been amended, the response above clearly shows a positive sign of how the Vietnamese state authority has been consulting and taking recommendations of the business community into consideration while drafting the country’s legislative documents, and that all of the advocacy work is worth the time and effort spent.
Although it is still necessary to wait till the draft decree implementing the Cybersecurity Law and draft Personal Data Protection Decree are officially promulgated to confirm with certainty if the above requirement has been amended, the response above clearly shows a positive sign of how the Vietnamese state authority has been consulting and taking recommendations of the business community into consideration while drafting the country’s legislative documents, and that all of the advocacy work is worth the time and effort spent.
