Vietnam PM urges all airports to use biometric authentication

The Prime Minister of Vietnam Pham Minh Chinh has requested all airports and border gates to use biometric authentication for entry and exit procedures this year.

To enable the use of VNeID for exit and entry procedures, the National Data Center must start operating this year, the prime minister said. All ministries, sectors and localities must complete their databases, open digital data exchanges and facilitate data transmission through satellite systems and high-speed broadband optical cables, he added.

Chairing a Government Steering Committee for the development of science, technology, innovation and digital transformation, the prime minister said such developments must be centered around people and serving the public.

The Vietnamese government has completed the issuance of chip-based citizen ID cards with over 61 million electronic identification accounts activated. Forty digital utilities have been integrated into the VNeID application, according to Vietnam News. All 63 of Vietnam’s provinces and cities have issued resolutions to exempt or reduce fees and charges for citizens and businesses in administrative procedures.

Despite progress, Chinh also highlighted shortcomings. These include incomplete legal framework, mechanisms, and policies for promoting science, technology, innovation and digital transformation. He called for the establishment of a digital data exchange platform. He pointed out that digital transformation had not become a key driver of economic growth.

An upcoming Personal Data Protection Law will ban social media platforms in Vietnam from requiring users to verify accounts with ID photos. The draft law proposal will include strict regulations on data collection and privacy as many organizations and businesses are deemed as collecting personal data in excess and lacking the legal grounds for doing so.

Social media platforms and over-the-top (OTT) messaging services will no longer be allowed to request national ID card photos for account verification in the draft law. In the past few months, Vietnam decreed that social network users’ accounts must be authenticated via users’ Vietnamese mobile phone numbers or ID numbers if they do not have Vietnamese mobile phone numbers to post or share content.

The Vietnamese government is ramping up efforts to tackle data breaches and unauthorized surveillance, and the draft law is part of a broader strategy to align Vietnam’s data protection policies with global standards. For example, the draft law will allow users to opt out of tracking mechanisms such as cookies and online activity monitoring.

KPMG has a summary on how the Vietnamese government is making draft decrees on its National Data Development Fund, Core and Critical Data Classification, with the draft open for consultation until mid-March.

Article Topics

airports  |  biometric authentication  |  biometrics  |  border security  |  digital ID  |  facial recognition  |  Vietnam  |  VNeID