New cybersecurity law won’t hassle businesses: deputy PM

The Vietnamese government is working to remove any bottlenecks the new cybersecurity law may create for businesses, Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue said in Washington D.C. on Tuesday.

In a meeting with leaders of the United States Chamber of Commerce, he said that the Vietnam’s top legislative body, the National Assembly, has asked the government to implement the law in a way that will not require tech businesses and investors to acquire more official permits.

The law aims to protect Vietnam’s sovereignty on the network space, which is currently a complicated situation in many countries, Hue said.

“Vietnam learned from the U.S. in the drafting of this law,” the deputy PM added.

He said the country hopes to clear the barriers that U.S. businesses are facing when investing in Vietnam. Representatives of major U.S. businesses like Microsoft, Google, Visa and Mastercard attended the meeting.

The cybersecurity law, which was approved by a majority vote in the National Assembly on June 12, requires foreign businesses like Facebook and Google to store Vietnamese users’ data within the nation’s territory and provide it authorities upon receipt of written requests.

As the law was being drafted, lawmakers had reached out to Google and Facebook to discuss its provisions, a senior Public Security Ministry official told VnExpress earlier, adding that the two companies found the law appropriate and will modify their companies’ strategies accordingly.

The new cybersecurity law, which will take effect in 2019, bans internet users from organizing, encouraging or training other people for anti-state purposes.

They are not allowed to distort history, negate the nation’s revolutionary achievements, undermine national solidarity, offend religions and discriminate on the basis of gender and race.