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| Operating a modern machine learning system at Da Nang Hi-Tech Park__Photo: VNA |
Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) account for nearly 98 percent of enterprises in Vietnam and play a critical role in the development of the digital economy. Digital transformation is no longer a choice but has become an inevitable requirement for businesses to survive and develop sustainably.
Digital transformation brings about numerous benefits for businesses, especially SMEs. By applying digital technologies, an enterprise can facilitate interconnection across its units through a unified technology platform. Thanks to this, the enterprise may promptly address emerging issues, such as decline in product output or change in customer needs.
However, limited financial and governance capacity makes it hard for SMEs to keep pace with new legal requirements as well as challenges and opportunities in the digital era.
According to the Department of Law Dissemination and Education and Legal Aid under the Ministry of Justice, some of the biggest legal challenges facing SMEs include regulations on personal data protection and information confidentiality, as SMEs’ routine activities are to collect, store and process personal data of customers, employees and partners.
E-contracts and digital signatures also constitute legal challenges for SMEs. When disputes occur, the gathering of evidence from e-transactions and verification of the validity of e-contracts seem to be more complicated than paper contracts.
To tackle the challenges, SMEs need to establish a law compliance management process and regularly monitor for detecting violations on digital platforms to promptly handle them. They should also invest in confidentiality solutions and compliance management software.
For their part, state management agencies should proceed with simplifying administrative procedures through issuing detailed, simple and easy-to-understand guidelines on digital legal regulations, particularly for SMEs. Authorities should implement free or low-cost legal support programs and hold training courses concerning digital legislation and information security for SMEs. Furthermore, inspection should be intensified for detecting and handling violations in the cyberspace in order to create a safe and healthy business environment for enterprises.- (VLLF)
