Vietnam: Validity of electronic documents

According to Decree No. 165/2018/ND-CP of Vietnam’s Government, validity of electronic documents is prescribed as follows:

1. Electronic documents must satisfy all requirements for state management and conform to regulations of specialized law. Format, generation, sending and receipt of electronic documents and validity thereof shall comply with the Law on E-Transactions.

2. An electronic document shall be considered an original if one of the following methods is adopted:

- The electronic document is digitally signed by an electronic document originator and relevant responsible organization or individual.

- The information system provides a method of ensuring integrity of the electronic document in the sending, receiving and storage process; records that an organization or individual has generated an electronic document and relevant responsible organization or individual has engaged in processing the electronic document, and adopts one of the following methods to authenticate whether the organization or individual generates the electronic document and relevant responsible organization or individual engages in processing the electronic document: digital certificate-based authentication, biometric authentication, authentication using two factors or more, including one-time authentication code or random authentication code.

- Other methods agreed upon by parties, ensuring the integrity of data, authenticity and non-repudiation.

Relevant provisions can be found in Decree No. 165/2018/ND-CP of Vietnam’s Government, which takes effect from February 10, 2019.

- Thanh Lam -

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