Lawmakers enacted a sweeping package of legislation during the 15th National Assembly (NA) term, aimed at building a relatively comprehensive legal framework for the development of digital technology, including the revised Law on Electronic Transactions, the revised Law on Telecommunications, the Law on Data, the Law on Personal Data Protection, the Law on E-commerce, the revised Law on Advertising, the Law on Science, Technology and Innovation, and the Law on Digital Technology Industry Development, along with a range of related legal instruments. Most recently, the NA passed the Law on AI.
Mr. Nguyen Minh Hong, President of the Vietnam Digital Communications Association (VDCA), described this as one of the most intensive waves of policy reform since Vietnam entered the digital transformation era.
Building a legal architecture
At a recent workshop entitled “Enhancing policies and legal frameworks for digital technology development in Vietnam,” Mr. Nguyen Quang Dong, Director of the Institute for Policy Studies and Media Development (IPS), said a comprehensive review shows that Vietnam’s legislative trajectory clearly reflects efforts to keep pace with emerging issues in the digital era through dedicated laws.
He highlighted five particularly new and rapidly-evolving areas: cybersecurity, data, digital assets, AI, and e-commerce. According to Mr. Dong, these are issues that either did not previously exist or were not adequately addressed under the traditional legal system. Vietnam has chosen to draft standalone laws to directly regulate each of these areas.
In cybersecurity, the Law on Cybersecurity was enacted in 2018. At its most recent session, the NA adopted a comprehensively-revised version - the Law on Cybersecurity No. 116/2025/QH15 - which will take effect on July 1, 2026, to meet new requirements arising from the digital environment.
In the data sphere, Vietnam now has two key independent laws. The Law on Personal Data Protection 2025, developed on the basis of the Decree on Personal Data Protection 2023, and the Law on Data 2024, were recently passed by the NA. The latter provides comprehensive regulation of data collection, processing, sharing, and exchange, and sets out provisions for models such as data exchanges. As a result, Vietnam has established a clearly-differentiated legal framework separating personal data protection from broader data governance and development.
For e-commerce, the legislature passed the Law on E-commerce No. 122/2025/QH15 on December 10, 2025, effective from July 1, 2026. The Law is designed to address new issues arising from the rapid growth of e-commerce platforms and online trading. This underscores a clear policy direction: enacting specialized legislation for entirely new segments of the digital economy.
At the same time, several sector-specific laws have been amended to address challenges in the digital environment. Notably, the NA adopted the Law Amending and Supplementing a Number of Articles of the Law on Advertising No. 75/2025/QH15, effective January 1, 2026. The revised Law introduces new provisions governing advertising on digital platforms, clarifies the responsibilities of intermediary platform providers, and, in particular, sets out obligations for celebrities and influencers engaged in advertising on social media.
Entirely new issues such as digital assets and policy experimentation mechanisms have also been formally codified. The Law on Digital Technology Industry Development 2025 explicitly recognizes digital property rights, regulates digital asset transactions, and establishes a legal sandbox framework for emerging technologies.
Balancing risk and growth
On AI, Vietnam is among the early movers in enacting a standalone law on the technology. Mr. Ho Duc Thang, Director of the National Institute of Digital Technology and Digital Transformation at the Ministry of Science and Technology, said the core objective of the Law on AI is to strike a balance between risk governance and development promotion, with greater emphasis placed on fostering AI growth rather than tightening risk controls.
The National Institute of Digital Technology and Digital Transformation was one of the lead agencies involved in drafting the Law on AI. According to Mr. Thang, the law primarily adopts an ex-post oversight mechanism, under which enterprises are responsible for assessing the risk level of their AI systems.
Only a very limited number of particularly dangerous AI systems will be subject to ex-ante review. For example, autonomous vehicles cannot rely solely on self-assessment by enterprises and must undergo independent appraisal by competent authorities. The list of AI systems requiring pre-market review will be issued by the Prime Minister.
“Vietnam’s risk management approach largely relies on ex-post oversight, based on trust that enterprises will comply,” M. Thang said. “However, once that trust is placed, the Law also provides sufficiently strong sanctions.”
Beyond risk governance, much of the remaining content of the Law is devoted to promoting AI development. Notably, it allows AI-related activities to enjoy the highest level of incentives available under existing legal frameworks, including the Law on High Technology, the Law on Digital Transformation, and the Law on Digital Technology Industry Development.
“In other words, wherever preferential policies for AI exist under other laws, AI will benefit at the highest level,” Mr. Thang said. “We are also strongly promoting the sandbox mechanism. As a new technology with inherent risks, AI can benefit from participating in a sandbox, which helps enterprises shorten time to market while also receiving State support and investment during the process.”
The Law also lays the groundwork for the establishment of an AI Development Fund. The fund is intended not only to support research and product development but also to help stimulate the broader AI application market.
Dual-track approach
Alongside the introduction of new laws, Vietnam has also amended and supplemented numerous existing statutes to keep pace with the rapid advancement of digital technology in traditional sectors.
Experts say the country is pursuing two parallel tracks: drafting specialized legislation for entirely new areas of digital technology, while simultaneously upgrading existing laws to adapt to deepening digitalization. Behind this wave of legislation lies an extensive process of policy debate and consultation aimed at identifying an appropriate governance model. The overarching goal is to strike a balance between promoting innovation and enabling business growth on the one hand, and ensuring safety, security, and the protection of citizens’ rights in the digital environment on the other.
The Law on AI offers a case in point. While it establishes clear regulatory parameters, it avoids imposing overly rigid barriers, leaving room for enterprises to experiment, develop, and commercialize new technologies. This reflects what may be emerging as Vietnam’s distinctive model: clear legal frameworks without excessive rigidity. Sandbox mechanisms and dedicated AI legislation have been advanced swiftly yet designed with flexibility in mind, in order to respond to the rapid evolution of digital assets and new business models.
According to Mr. Dong, three overarching factors underpin Vietnam’s digital governance philosophy. The first is sovereignty and national security. The second is human rights. And the third is the imperative to foster innovation and encourage new business models. Legal provisions, he said, must continuously seek to balance and harmonize these three pillars.
“The State has taken a comprehensive approach to refining the legal framework, with more than ten key laws covering cybersecurity, data, telecommunications, digital assets, AI, e-commerce, intellectual property, and advertising,” Mr. Dong said.
However, he also cautioned that significant gaps remain. Many newly-enacted laws still operate largely at the level of principles. In sectors such as finance, healthcare, health technology, and especially AI applications in gene technology, the absence of detailed technical standards and corresponding enforcement capacity could lead to unforeseen consequences.
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