Vietnam Issues Regulations for National Document Interconnection System

The Vietnamese government has announced the issuance of Prime Minister's Decision No. 43/2026/QD-TTg, signed by Deputy Prime Minister Ho Quoc Dung, promulgating regulations on the management, operation, utilization, and use of the national document interconnection system (hereinafter referred to as the interconnection system). This regulation specifies the principles, powers, responsibilities, and methods for managing, operating, utilizing, and using the interconnection system to connect and interlink the sending and receiving of electronic documents and data messages, serving the leadership, direction, operation, coordination, and cooperation of the Government and the Prime Minister. This regulation does not apply to the sending and receiving of electronic documents, documents, dossiers, and data messages containing content that falls under the category of state secrets as stipulated by the law on the protection of state secrets and the law on cryptology. The subjects to which this regulation applies include ministries, ministerial-level agencies, People's Committees at all levels and their attached agencies (ministries, sectors, localities); agencies and organizations using state budget funds not falling into the above categories, if they have the need and meet the conditions to connect to the national document interconnection system as prescribed in this Decision. Other agencies and organizations not belonging to the above two categories that have the need to use the national document interconnection system. Data connection, interconnection, and sharing on the interconnection system must comply with the provisions of the law on electronic transactions, cybersecurity, data security, and document management and archival work. The establishment of connections for sending and receiving electronic documents between state administrative agencies and organizations and enterprises must ensure voluntariness, equality, safety, and compliance with national data format standards. Data exchanged on the interconnection system must ensure confidentiality, integrity, and legal validity during transmission and reception; all transactions must be authenticated, traced, and have anti-repudiation value in accordance with the law. The interconnection system ensures the capability to expand connections and interconnections with other shared digital platforms to receive and circulate electronic documents and data messages, directly serving the direction and operation of the Government and the Prime Minister. Agencies and organizations wishing to connect to the interconnection system must send a connection request to the Government Office, clearly stating the purpose and scope of connection and confirming that they fully meet the conditions for participation in connection as prescribed. The Government Office shall notify the results of the connection request processing to the agency or organization within no more than five working days from the date of receiving the connection request document; in case of not approving the connection request, the reasons must be clearly stated. Agencies and organizations participating in the connection are responsible for maintaining and publicly disclosing the list of connected agencies and organizations and the list of active electronic identifier codes on the interconnection system, ensuring that the information is accurate, complete, updated in a timely manner, and accurately reflects the current operational status of the agencies and organizations. Electronic documents that are digitally signed in accordance with the law on electronic transactions shall have the same legal value as the original paper documents and shall be circulated through the interconnection system, replacing the sending and receiving of paper documents (unless otherwise stipulated by specialized laws). Agencies and organizations that send and receive electronic documents through the interconnection system are responsible for archiving electronic documents and ensuring the legal validity of the documents throughout the archiving process in accordance with the law on archives.