Foreign businesses providing telecommunications and internet services in Vietnam would have to set up their head offices or representative offices in the country when the number of local service users reaches 10,000 or at the request of the Vietnamese Government.
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| The regulation is stated in the latest draft law on cybersecurity designed by the Ministry of Public Security__Photo: Internet |
It is stated in the latest draft law on cybersecurity designed by the Ministry of Public Security (MOPS) in an attempt to prevent acts of using transnational telecommunications and internet networks to propagandize information against the Vietnamese State or incite people to sabotage the national security.
The draft also requires foreign internet service providers to store in the country network user data and other important data collected and created from the exploitation of the national cyberspace infrastructure of Vietnam.
Addressing the National Assembly Standing Committee’s meeting early this month, Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Thanh Hung said information must be stored for a given period as a basis for investigation bodies to handle violations.
Sharing this view, major general Dinh The Cuong, Director of the Information Technology Department under the Ministry of National Defense, said that technically, inbound and outbound information of a country may be stored and recorded for use as proofs for competent agencies to carry out investigation with a view to preventing threats to the national security.
Noteworthily, this draft removes the proposal which requires foreign internet service providers to install servers in the country.
“Server management is not a matter of concern,” Minister of Public Security To Lam said. What matters is that network user data and other important data used in Vietnam must be stored in the country and managed by competent authorities as they are national assets and related to national security, he added.
The draft law is expected to be passed at the National Assembly’s session to be held in May.-
