Determination of state secrets and their confidentiality levels of the Vietnam Trade Union Organization

Determination of state secrets and their confidentiality levels of the Vietnam Trade Union Organization (Image from the internet)

On October 1, 2024, the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor issued Decision 1818/QD-TLD regarding the Regulation on the Protection of State Secrets for the Vietnam Trade Union Organization.

Determination of state secrets and their confidentiality levels of the Vietnam Trade Union Organization

According to Article 5 of the Regulation issued with Decision 1818/QD-TLD in 2024, the determination of state secrets and the level of confidentiality in Vietnam is stipulated as follows:

(1) The head of the agency or unit issuing, disseminating documents, or creating items containing state secrets is responsible for determining the state secrets and the level of confidentiality of state secrets.

The delegation of the determination of state secrets and the level of their confidentiality must be reflected in the internal regulations on the protection of state secrets, working regulations, or the annual work assignment document of the agency or unit, specifying the scope, content, and term of authorization.

- Confederation Level

The President of the General Confederation authorizes the Vice President in charge of sectors as assigned by the Standing Secretariat of the Presidium.

Department Level: The Head authorizes the Deputy Head (if the department does not have a Head, authorization is given to one Deputy Head).

- Provincial, City level, Central Sector Trade Unions and equivalent, Trade Unions of General Companies under the General Confederation

The President of the provincial, city Labor Federation, Central Sector Trade Unions, and equivalent, Trade Unions of General Companies under the General Confederation can authorize the Vice President of the provincial, city Labor Federation, sector Trade Unions.

The authorized deputy is responsible before the head, before the law, and cannot further delegate the authority to another person.

(2) The determination of state secrets and the level of confidentiality must be based on the List of State Secrets of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor (Decision 2288/QD-TTg dated December 31, 2020, of the Prime Minister of Vietnam) and must rely on the 35 sectors and field-specific secret lists issued by the Prime Minister of Vietnam.

(3) Procedure for determining state secrets and their confidentiality levels

- The drafter or the creator of the information belonging to the state secret list must propose to the competent authority as stipulated in clause (1) regarding the content, level of confidentiality, recipients, quantity of issued copies, permit or prohibition of copying, photographing documents, items containing state secrets in the Presentation Note, Approval Submission, sign the documents or determine confidentiality level for objects, locations, speeches, actions, or other forms containing state secrets and is responsible for protecting the content of the state secrets during the drafting, creation process.

State secret documents must indicate the recipient, quantity of issued copies, name of the drafter, and whether copying is permitted or prohibited in the recipient section of the document. In the case of electronic documents, the drafter must create a confidentiality signature on the document after obtaining the competent authority's determination of content and confidentiality level of the document; when printed for issuance, the electronic document must be stamped with a confidentiality signature as per regulations.

- For documents of a repetitive nature such as thematic reports, periodic reports with the same confidentiality level, the competent authority as per clause (1) determines the confidentiality level once for that document type.

- When using state secrets of other agencies or organizations, an equivalent confidentiality level must be determined.

- If information within the same document, item containing state secrets belongs to different confidentiality levels within the state secret list, it should be determined at the highest confidentiality level.

- If receiving information belonging to the state secret list, but the issuing unit has not determined the confidentiality level, the recipient reports to the head of the agency, organization to determine or transfers it to a unit with processing functions to determine confidentiality as per authority. The information received must be protected during the reception and processing process.

(4) Draft documents containing confidential content must be managed, protected like officially issued documents from the time of drafting and immediately destroyed after completion of compilation if storage is deemed unnecessary.

Draft documents containing confidential content not yet decided on or signed for issuance by the competent authority should not bear a confidentiality mark on the draft. When sending drafts, a written request must be sent to ensure the recipient is responsible for protecting the draft content, ensuring no loss or leakage of confidential content occurs.

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