Effective use of data for socio-economic management and development

Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly Nguyen Thi Thanh said that the construction, operation, exploitation and use of the National Data Development Fund and the Data Exchange need to be carefully considered and researched...

View of the meeting. (Photo: Doan Tan/VNA)

On the afternoon of October 14, the 38th session of the National Assembly Standing Committee completed the entire proposed program.

In this afternoon's meeting, the National Assembly Standing Committee gave opinions on the draft Law on Data.

Creating conditions for people to benefit from digital transformation

Presenting the Government's Proposal, Minister of Public Security Luong Tam Quang said that the development of the Data Law project aims to create unity, synchronization, and effective use of data to serve state management and socio-economic development; serve the development of digital government and reform, reduce administrative procedures; socio-economic development; and develop the National Data Center.

The Draft Law consists of 7 chapters and 67 articles; regulating the construction, development, processing, and management of data; application of science and technology in data processing; National comprehensive database; National data center; data products and services; state management of data; responsibilities of agencies, organizations, and individuals related to data activities.

Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on National Defense and Security Le Tan Toi said that the Committee basically agreed on the necessity of promulgating the Data Law to fully institutionalize the Party's guidelines and policies and the State's policies to promote the application of science and technology to serve the national digital transformation, build e-Government, digital Government, digital economy, digital society; strengthen unity, synchronization, and effective use of data in serving state management and socio-economic development, creating conditions for all people to benefit from digital transformation activities.

The draft Law dossier has ensured the requirements as prescribed by the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents, and is eligible to be submitted to the National Assembly for discussion and comments.

Regarding the National Data Development Fund (Article 29), the examining agency basically agreed to stipulate that the National Data Development Fund is a non-budgetary State financial fund, established at the Central level to mobilize social resources to support the construction and development of national data.

Minister of Public Security Luong Tam Quang speaks. (Photo: Doan Tan/VNA)

There are opinions that it is necessary to clarify the legal basis and practical basis for establishing this Fund; clarify the financial sources for forming the Fund; clearly stipulate the activities that are funded from the State budget, and the activities that are funded from the Fund to ensure clarity and transparency.

There are suggestions to study and review the activities prioritized for spending from the National Data Development Fund to avoid overlapping with the activities prioritized for investment and development support to serve the digital technology industry in the draft Law on Digital Technology Industry and related legal provisions.

Careful research, thorough impact assessment

Members of the National Assembly Standing Committee highly appreciated the drafting agency for its prompt and active work in developing and perfecting the draft Law; expecting that when the draft Law is passed by the National Assembly, it will contribute to creating a centralized, unified and synchronous data system.

Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly Nguyen Thi Thanh said that according to the Government's Report, many countries in the world have regulations on data, operation, exploitation and use of data. This is not a new issue for our country, but centralized and unified regulations in a law are a new issue in Vietnam's legislative activities.

Therefore, the Vice Chairman of the National Assembly suggested that the drafting agency continue to research and provide more international experience, especially from countries with similar political and socio-economic institutions to Vietnam, as a basis for research and learning in the process of developing this draft law.

The draft law stipulates two new issues: the National Data Development Fund and the Data Exchange. The Vice Chairman of the National Assembly said that within certain scopes and fields, especially related to data created by state agencies using the state budget in areas such as resources, data should be considered an important national resource, which needs to be exploited, managed and protected according to specific mechanisms. Therefore, the construction, operation, exploitation and use of the National Data Development Fund and the Data Exchange need to be carefully considered, carefully researched and thoroughly assessed for impact in order to regulate appropriately.

Chairman of the National Assembly's Law Committee Hoang Thanh Tung agreed with the need to develop a draft Law; said that the draft Law basically meets the requirements; however, it is necessary to review related legal documents to ensure that there is no overlap or duplication in terms of scope of regulation and content.

According to Mr. Hoang Thanh Tung, at the 8th Session, the National Assembly also considered the Law on Digital Technology Industry, the Government is planning to submit the Law on Personal Data Protection... with related contents. Therefore, the Government needs to continue reviewing and clarifying related contents in the draft laws being submitted and about to be submitted in the coming time to clearly define the scope of regulation and handle related contents to avoid duplication and obstacles in the implementation process.

Assessing the content of the Law as a new, difficult, complicated, and important issue serving the digital transformation process, the Chairman of the Law Committee said that the contents that are in the process of operation and development should not be specified in detail in the draft Law but should be specified in a framework and principle, and assigned to the Government and specialized ministries for detailed regulation. This is consistent with practice, and when necessary, it can be flexibly amended while ensuring the stability of the law during implementation.

Chairman of the National Assembly's Law Committee Hoang Thanh Tung speaks. (Photo: Doan Tan/VNA)

Regarding the National Data Development Fund, there are opinions suggesting considering the establishment of this fund and stating that the fund's expenditure content overlaps with the state budget expenditure task.

Explaining this content, Minister of Public Security Luong Tam Quang affirmed that the state budget allocated for digital transformation activities in general and data development in particular is currently limited. Therefore, this National Data Development Fund is to promote data application, attract social resources for national data development.

The establishment of this Fund is necessary and in accordance with the provisions of the State Budget Law. The drafting agency will review and revise the regulations in the direction of clarifying the principles of operation of the Fund to ensure that it is not for profit; managed and used for the right purposes, in accordance with the law, promptly and effectively, ensuring publicity, transparency and support for the activities of building, deploying, exploiting, applying and managing data that the state budget has not invested in or has not met the requirements.

Minister Luong Tam Quang also affirmed that the Fund's activities do not overlap with the spending activities of the National Technology Innovation Fund, the Vietnam Public Telecommunications Service Fund and a number of other funds.

In this afternoon's meeting, the National Assembly Standing Committee considered adjusting the state budget estimates and regular expenditures (foreign aid capital) in 2024./.

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