Vietnam sets digital economy strategy, tightens crypto rules

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Vietnam will go beyond digitalizing administrative records and procedures as it eyes to become one of the world’s top countries championing data governance, with Deputy Prime Minister Ho Quoc Dung ratifying the National Digital Transformation Strategy for 2026-2030, with a vision to 2045, in early July.

Under Decision No. 1266/QD-TTg, as reported by Vietnamnet Global, the ambitious strategy will begin by overhauling the data ecosystem, with plans to develop integrated national databases, sector-specific networks, shared data platforms, and data warehouses—all adhering to the same technical standards.

Along with this, Vietnam will work on improving its cybersecurity by establishing incident warning systems and data protection measures, as well as ensuring that data ownership will be upheld through the development of online monitoring tools, which citizens can use to track how their personal data is being utilized.

To maintain data quality over time and reduce long-term costs in maintaining the data infrastructures, the government will mandate lifecycle management mechanisms for all national databases and critical data systems.

While modernizing Vietnam’s data architecture intends to make its ecosystem more secure and interoperable, it also supports the digital literacy of officials and agencies by making them data-driven. Resources will be allocated to train at least 50,000 government officials and public sector employees in data governance, data analysis, and data utilization under the National Data Governance Training Framework.

With this transformation, the government is expecting a complete data-centric leadership, governance, and administrative activities across state agencies by 2045.

This opportunity will not be limited to state-backed employees, the government said, noting that around 300,000 workers in the private sector will be provided with training in data skills, data analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI) applications to further support the digital nation vision.

The strategy will also cover the education sector to make youth future-ready, with plans for more than 50 universities to offer degree programs in data science, data governance, AI, high-performance computing (HPC), and data security.

To sustain the momentum of its digital ambition, Vietnam will cultivate a specialized workforce consisting of at least 5,000 data experts by 2030 to strengthen various sectors and secure economic growth.

With the National Digital Transformation Strategy for 2026-2030, Vietnam aims to rank among the top 50 countries in the United Nations’ e-government and digital government assessments, while becoming a critical hub in Southeast Asia for cross-border data storage, processing, connectivity, and exchange.

Regulators tighten grip on crypto traders, providers

Meanwhile, Vietnam’s crypto asset sector gets a shake-up as regulators agreed to enforce stringent penalties from September 1 against domestic investors and service providers engaging in unlicensed crypto trading.

The approved Decree 284/2026 will cover trading on unauthorized crypto platforms, the absence of identity verification, offering assets to ineligible investors, and failure to present a prospectus or providing inaccurate or untimely information related to the approved circular.

Vietnamese investors found to be trading crypto assets outside service providers licensed by the Ministry of Finance will be subject to fines between VND30 million ($1,141) and VND50 million ($1,902), while higher penalties of between VND70 million ($2,660) and VND100 million ($3,800) will be imposed on individuals trading crypto assets that are only offered to foreign investors, The Star reported.

Authorities also heightened their regulatory oversight of crypto service providers to avoid activities tied to money laundering (AML) and fraud, ensuring alignment with Vietnam’s broader digital ambitions.

Crypto service providers submitting inconsistent, incomplete, and untimely information of their offerings to relevant authorities and investors will face penalties between VND100 million ($3,800) and VND150 million ($5,700), while those offering, advertising, and issuing crypto assets to entities not in accordance with regulations are subject to fines between VND150 million ($5,700) and VND200 million ($7,600).

Crypto platforms must also ensure to conduct a Know Your Customer (KYC) process when users open accounts with them, with authorities warning them of fines between VND50 million and VND70 million if they fail to do so.

Apart from that, the Vietnamese government also emphasized in the decree the importance of securing data and threatened service providers conducting illegal collection, storage, exchange, buying, selling, gifting, or publicizing crypto asset account data and information with penalties of between VND150 million ($5,700) and VND200 million ($7,600).

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