Completing the legal framework to promote comprehensive digital transformation

The Standing Committee of the National Assembly recently provided opinions on the Draft Digital Transformation Law. Members of the Standing Committee agreed that the Government needs to study and reach consensus on digital infrastructure across localities and must not allow any locality to be left behind in the digital transformation process...

Consensus on digital infrastructure across localities

Presenting the Government’s submission, Permanent Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Vũ Hải Quân said that drafting the Digital Transformation Law is necessary to achieve main objectives such as: completing the national legal system on digital transformation; creating an inter-sectoral legal framework for digital transformation across ministries and sectors; regulating relationships among entities participating in the digital environment; promoting a comprehensive digital transformation process; and strengthening international cooperation and integration.

The Party and State’s policy on digital transformation has been consistently established and clearly reflected in the highest-level guiding documents, such as the Resolution of the 13th National Congress of the Party; Resolution No. 57-NQ/TW.

The Digital Transformation Law is a framework law, inheriting and developing current legal provisions on information technology that remain appropriate, connecting existing laws, while filling legal gaps on digital transformation to form a coherent, comprehensive legal corridor to regulate and promote the national digital transformation process.

It does not re-regulate content already governed by other laws, nor does it change the state management responsibilities of ministries and sectors.

It selectively references laws and practical experiences on digital transformation trends from several countries suitable to Vietnam’s practical conditions, as well as international treaties to which Vietnam is a party.

The Law is expected to consist of 8 chapters with 79 articles, generally regulating digital transformation, including infrastructure for digital transformation; digital transformation of activities of political system agencies and digital government; the digital economy, digital society, and measures ensuring digital transformation. “This Law is a framework law, inheriting and developing current provisions on information technology that remain appropriate, connecting existing laws, and filling legal gaps to form a coherent, comprehensive legal corridor to regulate and promote the national digital transformation process”, said Permanent Deputy Minister Vũ Hải Quân.

Reporting the appraisal summary of the Draft Digital Transformation Law, Deputy Chairman of the Committee for Science, Technology and Environment Nguyễn Phương Tuấn said the Committee agreed on the necessity of promulgating the Law with the Government’s proposals. The project dossier is submitted under an abbreviated procedure and meets conditions for the Standing Committee of the National Assembly to consider before presenting it to the National Assembly at the 10th Session.

However, the drafting agency needs to continue reviewing and comparing with related laws such as investment, bidding, and state budget laws, and closely coordinate with agencies leading the drafting of other bills to be submitted at the 10th Session—such as the E-commerce Law, amended High-Tech Law, amended Intellectual Property Law, Cybersecurity Law... to ensure consistency within the legal system.

In parallel, the Law’s position and role in the legal system should be clearly identified, clarifying relationships with laws directly related to digital transformation activities such as the Electronic Transactions Law, the Identity Card Law, the Data Law, Resolution No. 193/2025/QH15, the Digital Technology Industry Law, the Personal Data Protection Law, thereby defining the scope of adjustment and specific management objectives to avoid overlap and duplication.

The Deputy Chairman of the Committee for Science, Technology and Environment proposed reviewing related provisions in the Investment Law to ensure synchronization and consistency among draft laws.

Regarding the provision that online public services are designed and provided according to citizens’ life events and enterprise lifecycles, the Committee for Science, Technology and Environment believes that administrative procedures already have clear order, methods, and authorities to ensure equality of legal subjects.

Provisions as in the draft Law could lead to discretionary practice and lack of uniformity in administrative procedure implementation across different state administrative agencies, emphasized Deputy Chairman Nguyễn Phương Tuấn.

The Committee also proposed clearly delineating the scope of the “digital economy” regulated by the draft with economic sectors using digital technologies and digital platforms regulated in laws on commerce, e-commerce, consumer protection, credit, banking, and insurance; and to review overlap with the Draft E-commerce Law regarding digital platforms and the responsibilities of platform owners and users within the digital economy.

On management of investment in products and goods; contracting services; commissioning of tasks serving digital transformation, the Committee recommended studying the addition of special procurement mechanisms beyond forms under the Bidding Law such as direct commissioning or task assignment for high-tech products and services that are complex, monopolistic, subject to intellectual property, or of national strategic nature.

The Committee also proposed adding provisions allowing flexible payment methods, including partial or full payments, for types of technology service leases such as cloud infrastructure or platform software rentals, to align with market practice.

Completing the legal framework for digital transformation

At the session, Chairperson of the Committee for Deputy Affairs Nguyễn Thanh Hải highly appreciated that this is the first time such a draft Law has been issued, closely following the very new and open content of digital transformation. This issue is currently unfolding strongly across central ministries, agencies and localities.

Commenting on the draft Law, Chairperson of the Committee for Deputy Affairs Nguyễn Thanh Hải proposed reviewing it to ensure consistency with sectoral laws. The Draft Digital Transformation Law regulates infrastructure, digital government, digital society, and prohibited acts, such as prohibiting misuse of digital transformation to infringe national security...

On certain concepts such as “serious damage,” “sensitive data,”... the Chairperson of the Committee for Deputy Affairs said these should be more clearly defined to avoid legal disputes during implementation.

Simultaneously, the draft Law needs to fully cover emerging high-tech crimes, such as using AI to create fake content, exploiting blockchain vulnerabilities, or developing cyber attack tools... Therefore, it needs review and supplementation to avoid letting criminals slip through and to maintain effectiveness in combating high-tech crime.

In the discussion, the majority of Standing Committee members agreed on promulgating the Draft Digital Transformation Law in the context of a nationwide digital transformation that is occurring strongly, not only in central ministries and regulatory agencies but also at local levels.

Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly Nguyễn Thị Thanh said the draft Law reflects the spirit of inheriting reasonable contents of the Information Technology Law while adding new provisions suitable to modern technology trends such as artificial intelligence, big data, the Internet of Things, blockchain, and digital twins.

Moreover, the drafting agency has referenced digital government frameworks and international acts from the EU, Japan, South Korea…, thereby helping the draft Law approach advanced standards and create the legal foundation to promote comprehensive digital transformation with citizens and businesses at the center, towards a sustainable digital economy and digital society.

With the opinions and proposals from Standing Committee members, Minister of Science and Technology Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng said the Ministry will fully incorporate contributions while finalizing the draft Law to submit to the appraisal agency before presenting it to the National Assembly for consideration and feedback at the 10th Session.

Concluding the session, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Lê Minh Hoan stated that the Standing Committee requests the Government to direct, study, supplement, continue to thoroughly disseminate and review, and institutionalize fully the Party Central Committee, Politburo’s guidelines, resolutions and conclusions to remove bottlenecks, promote development, and create breakthroughs in digital transformation.

Carefully review related provisions on digital transformation across the system of normative legal documents; do not re-regulate or re-reference previous legal documents to avoid contradictions, overlaps, or increased compliance costs./.

Translated by Vietnam Journal of Science and Technology (VJST - MOST).

PT