Notable new policies of Vietnam to be effective as of the start of April 2025

Cases of promulgating legislative documents under simplified procedures in Vietnam

The Law on Promulgation of Legislative Documents 2025, effective as of April 1, 2025, stipulates that a legislative document shall be formulated and promulgated according to simplified sequence and procedures in the following cases:

- State of emergency according to regulations of law on state of emergency; upon sudden or urgent request for reasons of national defense, security, national interests, natural disaster management, disease prevention and control, fire and explosion prevention and fighting;

- Urgent situations for solving practical issues;

- Suspension of effect of the legislative document in part or in full for the purposes of promptly protecting the State’s interests, legitimate rights and interests of organizations and individuals;

- Immediate revisions to conform to a new legislative document; necessity of immediately promulgating a legislative document to implement a related treaty to which the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a signatory;

- Necessary adjustments to the period of application of the whole or part of the legislative document for a certain period of time to solve urgent practical issues;

- Promulgation of a document elaborating the legislative document promulgated according to simplified sequence and procedures and in special cases

Requirements for digital signing software and digital signature verification software in Vietnam

Decree No. 23/2025/ND-CP on e-signatures and trust services, effective as of April 10, 2025, stipulates requirements for digital signing software and digital signature verification software as follows: 

- Digital signing software and digital signature verification software must comply with technical standards for digital signatures on data messages; do not use technical or technological barriers to limit the verification of digital signature validity.

- Digital signing software must have the following functions:

+ Authenticating the signatory and digital signing;

+ Verifying of the validity of digital signature certificates where the information in such certificates is identified in accordance with law on e-identification and e-authentication; connecting to the Public digital signature authentication service portal;

+ Storing and canceling information attached to digitally signed data messages;

+ Changing (adding, removing) digital signature certificates of agencies and organizations that generate, issue, and publish digital signature certificates;

+ Notifying (in words/symbols) the signer whether the digital signing on the data message is successful or unsuccessful.

- Digital signature verification software must have the following functions:

+ Verifying the validity of digital signatures on data messages;

+ Storing and canceling information attached to digitally signed data messages;

+ Changing (adding, removing) digital signature certificates of agencies and organizations that generate, issue, and publish digital signature certificates;

+ Notifying (in words/symbols) whether the digital signatures are valid or invalid.

- The Minister of Information and Communications of Vietnam shall provide for technical requirements for the functions of digital signature software and digital signature verification software.

Fees for online certificate status protocol maintenance in Vietnam 

Circular No. 13/2025/TT-BTC on fees for online certificate status protocol maintenance , collection, payment, management, and use thereof promulgated by the Minister of Finance of Vietnam, effective as of April 10, 2025, stipulates the fees for online certificate status protocol maintenance as follows: 

- For public digital signature certification services: 3.000 VND/month/01 public digital signature certificate issued by a public digital signature certification service provider to a subscriber that is an organization or enterprise.

The fee shall be charged from the period beginning from the month in which the public digital certificate issued to the subscriber is valid to the month preceding the month in which the public digital certificate expires or to the month in which the public digital certificate is suspended or revoked. If the public digital certificate is valid and expired or suspended or revoked in the same month, a full month's fees shall be charged.

- For timestamping services and data message authentication services: 4.200.000 VND/month/01 digital signature certificate for timestamping services and data message authentication services issued by the national electronic authentication service provider to a trust service provider.

The fee shall be charged from the period beginning from the month in which the digital signature certificate for timestamping services or data message authentication services is issued by the national electronic authentication service provider to the trust service provider to the month preceding the month in which this digital signature certificate expires or to the month in which this digital signature certificate is suspended or revoked. This period shall be rounded to the nearest full month.

Bank guarantee fees in Vietnam

Circular No. 61/2024/TT-NHNN on bank guarantee promulgated by the Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam, effective as of April 1, 2025, stipulates bank guarantee fees as follows: 

- The credit institution or foreign bank branch shall agree on the guarantee fee level with the customer and other relevant parties (if any) and must publicly disclose the guarantee fee schedule.

- In the case of co-guarantees, the parties involved in the co-guarantee shall agree on the guarantee fee for each guarantor.

-  In the case where the credit institution or foreign bank branch guarantees a joint obligation, the credit institution or foreign bank branch shall agree with each customer on the payable guarantee fee based on the respective joint obligation of each customer, unless otherwise agreed by the parties.

- If the guarantee currency is a foreign currency, the parties may agree to collect the guarantee fee in that foreign currency or convert it into Vietnamese dong based on the selling exchange rate of the guarantor at the time of fee collection or at the time of fee notification.

- The parties may agree to adjust the guarantee fee level.

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