Hanoi (VNA) – The Lawon Cyber Security’s regulations regarding data storage and establishment ofbranches and representative offices in Vietnam are in line with international practices,said an official of the Ministry of Public Security.

Major General Luong Tam Quang,Chief of the Ministry of Public Security’s Office, made the affirmation whileanswering reporters’ queries about the draft decree guiding the implementationof the law at the Government’s regular press conference in Hanoi on November 3.

He further explained that 18countries worldwide have issued documents and laws asking foreign enterprisesto store critical data within national territory. Among those are the US,Canada, Russia, China, Indonesia, Denmark, Finland and Sweden.

Quang also cited the EuropeanUnion (EU)’s personal data protection regulation that officially took effect onMay 25, 2018, allowing individuals to control their personal data when joiningsocial forums.

Furthermore, the law’s regulationsmatch capacity of businesses, Quang said, taking Google and Facebook asexamples, which have respectively established 70 and 80 representative officesin countries across the world, including Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia inSoutheast Asia.

They also suit the domestic legalsystem, covering the 2005 Commerce Law and the 2017 Foreign Trade ManagementLaw, he added.

He went on to say that suchregulations do not go against international commitments, including treatiesrelating to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the Comprehensive andProgressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

Minister-Chairman of theGovernment Office Mai Tien Dung said the issuance of the law is necessary,noting that apart from food security and social safety and security, cyber securityrelates to national sovereignty safeguarding, aiming to ensure a goodenvironment for investment attraction.

The National Assembly passed the Law on Cyber Security lastJune, with majority voting yes to the controversial bill.

Four hundred and twenty-three deputies voted to approve thebill, accounting for 86.86 percent of those present at the assembly hall, whileonly 15 voted against it. Twenty-eight deputies abstained.

The law will go into effect on January 1, 2019.

The law requires all internet-related service providers,regardless of whether they are foreign or domestic companies, to open arepresentative office and maintain a customer database in servers based inVietnam in exchange for authorisation to operate legally in the country.-VNA