Vietnam’s Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) has issued a technical framework for e-government cloud services that, while voluntary on paper, effectively restricts market access for foreign providers, US think tank, the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, has said in a statement.
Under Official Letter No. 1145/BTTTT-CATTT, compliance is expected for any firm seeking to serve the Vietnamese public sector, with certification heavily favouring local companies.
Key details:
- Technical compliance: Only providers meeting MIC’s criteria are prioritised for e-government contracts.
- Certified providers: 5 Vietnamese cloud firms have been certified; foreign providers face added hurdles.
- Decree 53 impact: Cloud firms—both local and foreign—are subject to expanded data retention and localisation rules.
- Market share: Domestic providers hold only 20 percent of the market, yet gain preferential procurement status.
- Fragmented cloud operations: U.S. firms must tailor infrastructure to Vietnam-specific standards, eroding global efficiency.
- Lost innovation capacity: Compliance diverts resources from product innovation to localised engineering.
- Security constraints: Data localisation undermines best practices like “sharding,” weakening cybersecurity.
- Competitive disadvantage: U.S. cloud leaders are effectively excluded from Vietnam’s public sector market.
Vietnam’s evolving cloud regulations create structural barriers that limit foreign competition and tilt procurement in favour of domestic firms.
For US providers, the rules not only restrict access to a growing digital market, but also contribute to a broader global trend of regulatory fragmentation.
See also: Technology in Vietnam 2025: Ecosystem, Startups, Key Players