LAW AND REGULATIONS UPDATE IN VIETNAM 2023

RHTVN was honored to have a chance to collaborate with Siam Commercial Bank for a Webinar on Law and Regulations Update in Vietnam 2023 on July 6, 2023, with a focus on certain key developments of Vietnam law and regulations in late 2022 and earlier 2023, including (i) VAT reduction until December 31, 2023; (ii) Global Minimum Tax leading to potential changes in regulations on corporate income tax; (iii) Certain changes in registration of foreign loans from November 15, 2022; and (iv) Personal Data Protection under newly issued Decree No. 13/2023/ND-CP ("Decree 13"), which just came into effect 1 July 2023.

We spent most of the time discussing important regulations on Personal Data Protection under Decree 13. Previously, the legal framework for data protection in Vietnam was shaped by the Civil Code and numerous laws in different sectors, such as the Law on Information Technology, the Law on Cyber Information Security, the Law on Electronic Transactions, etc. This led to an inevitable issue: the inconsistency of regulations. A comprehensive legal document governing the protection of personal data is therefore required to be promulgated.

On April 17, 2023, the Government issued Decree 13 on the protection of personal data, establishing a vital legal ground for personal data protection in Vietnam. Decree 13 not only provides for many specific rights of data subjects but also sets out the responsibilities of Personal Data Controller, Personal Data Processor, Personal Data Controller-cum Processor in relation to personal data protection. Many new concepts and issues have been introduced and dealt with for the first time, such as sensitive personal data, general personal data, and overseas transfer of personal data. RHTVN thus received many queries regarding this topic. Although some queries have not been responded due to the limit time, RHTVN hopes that the information provided and our responses to the questions raised were satisfactory to the participants.