Việt Nam's last imperial capital rewards the traveller who refuses to rush — a citadel built around an absence, tombs that read like autobiographies, the best bowl of noodles in the country, and rain that locals will tell you is the whole point.
Continue reading “Huế: Rain, Emperors, and the Art of Taking Your Time” →
Luật số 24/2026/QH16 replaces Phụ lục IV of the Investment Law wholesale, shrinking the list of conditional business lines from 198 to 137. Accountancy, liquor, mineral trading and public game arcades drop off. Data intermediation, data exchanges, crypto-asset services and personal-data processing all stay — and one of them gets broader. In force 1 March 2027.
Continue reading “Việt Nam Cuts 62 Licensed Business Lines — and Keeps Every Data One” →
StepFun released Step 5 Preview on 20 September — a 600B-parameter sparse MoE with 27B active per token, a 1M-token context window, multimodal input, and open weights promised for 15 October. It lands just below the frontier on benchmarks, at a fraction of frontier prices.
Thông tư 48/2026/TT-BKHCN and Thông tư 49/2026/TT-BKHCN, both signed and effective on 1 August 2026, set out how the state commissions and pays for strategic-technology research — up to 100 per cent funding for high-risk work, lump sums released against evaluation milestones, competing research tracks that can be cut mid-project, monthly pay ceilings by job position up to 300 million đồng, and no clawback when an accepted risk simply does not pay off.
Thông tư 56/2026/TT-BKHCN, signed and effective on 5 September 2026, restates the age and performance tests for importing used machinery and production lines almost word for word — and changes who writes them. The regime leaves a Thủ tướng Quyết định for a ministerial circular, adds strategic-technology firms to the fast lane, halves a consultation clock, and promises a national database of inspection certificates.
Quyết định 43/2026/QĐ-TTg, signed on 16 September 2026, replaces an ad-hoc 2018 arrangement with a full 23-article operating regulation for the Trục liên thông văn bản quốc gia (VDXP) — mandatory unique document IDs, digitally signed documents with the legal force of paper originals, level-3 cybersecurity for everyone who connects, and a first-ever open door for private organisations.
Thông tư 51/2026/TT-BKHCN, signed and effective on 19 August 2026, stops treating a village as connected just because a signal reaches it. A thôn now qualifies for subsidised service if measured i-Speed results fall below what the operator itself advertises, and public-funded 4G, 5G, fibre and satellite connections must each clear a hard Mbit/s floor verified by five timestamped, geo-tagged samples.
Nghị định 328/2026/NĐ-CP, issued on 19 August 2026, gives Việt Nam its first end-to-end legal process for handling false information online — classification by harm, state verification, a literal "TIN GIẢ, TIN SAI SỰ THẬT" label applied within 24 hours, and a 24/7 contact point that every telecom, ISP, social network and cross-border platform serving Vietnamese users must staff.
Continue reading “Labelled "TIN GIẢ": Việt Nam's Fake-News Decree Takes Effect on 5 October” →
On 16 September 2026 the Prime Minister issued Quyết định 1790/QĐ-TTg, the plan for bringing Luật Phổ biến, giáo dục pháp luật số 12/2026/QH16 into force on 1 March 2027. The law makes digital platforms, social networks and AI applications statutory channels for legal dissemination — and attaches conditions: official identified and authenticated accounts, verification before publication, warning labels, and named responsibility for whoever operates the AI.
From 15 September 2026, Việt Nam inspects radio-frequency users over email and digital signature rather than at their premises. Thông tư 44/2026/TT-BKHCN replaces a ten-year-old circular from the former Bộ Thông tin và Truyền thông, adds a remote inspection method, caps periodic inspections at one per entity per year, and — for the first time in this field — writes an exemption for compliant businesses into the rulebook.
Continue reading “Spectrum Inspections Go Remote: Thông tư 44/2026/TT-BKHCN Takes Effect Today” →
Signed and in force on 2 September 2026, Thông tư 126/2026/TT-BQP is the Ministry of National Defence list of civil cryptography products classified as high risk under the new product-quality regime. Three product groups — IPsec/TLS VPNs, encrypted storage, and banking cryptography — now require conformity certification by a designated body, with HS codes attached and a 24-month deadline for products already on the market.
Continue reading “The Encryption Products Việt Nam Now Calls High Risk: Thông tư 126/2026/TT-BQP” →
Passed on 23 August 2026 and announced by presidential order at the 10 September press conference, Luật số 11/2026/QH16 amends the Luật Hải quan in 32 clauses. It adds a new Điều 16a requiring customs procedures for goods traded through e-commerce platforms, makes Vietnamese buyers and sellers perform electronic identification, obliges platform operators to connect to the customs data system, names them as customs declarants, and authorises big data and AI in risk and compliance management. In force from 1 March 2027.
Passed on 24 August 2026 and announced by presidential order at the 10 September press conference, Luật số 17/2026/QH16 amends 31 articles of the Luật Xuất bản and renames its electronic-publishing chapter. It defines publishing as an economic-technology industry, writes the first statutory rule on applying artificial intelligence in publishing, extends regulation to publication-like content posted online, and requires foreign intermediary service providers serving Vietnamese users to retain data and appoint a local representative. In force from 1 March 2027.
Passed on 24 August 2026 and announced by presidential order at the 10 September press conference, Luật số 23/2026/QH16 amends three banking laws at once. Its centrepiece adds crypto-asset service providers to the list of anti-money-laundering reporting entities, writes 15 crypto-specific suspicious-transaction indicators into law, gives the Bộ Tài chính supervisory duty over the sector, and redefines "beneficial owner" — all driven by Việt Nam's effort to leave the FATF grey list. In force from 1 December 2026.
Announced by presidential order on 10 September 2026, Luật số 20/2026/QH16 amends the Luật Tần số vô tuyến điện, Luật Viễn thông, Luật Giao dịch điện tử and Luật Chuyển giao công nghệ in a single instrument. It scraps 47 business conditions and two administrative procedures, makes the network-services telecom licence the single gate for spectrum rights, removes the operating-condition regime for .vn domain registration services, and takes effect on 1 March 2027 — except for two blocks that start on 1 October 2026.
Signed on 8 September 2026 and in force from 15 September, Nghị định 347/2026/NĐ-CP amends four decrees at once. The one that matters for the technology sector rewrites khoản 5 Điều 31 of Nghị định 169/2025/NĐ-CP: providers of data analysis and synthesis products — including generative AI assistants and automated content analysers — must now notify the Trung tâm dữ liệu quốc gia before they begin operating, with a 20-working-day grace period for services already running.
Nghị định 332/2026/NĐ-CP, signed and in force on 19 August 2026, replaces the decade-old Nghị định 108/2016/NĐ-CP regime for cybersecurity vendors — Bộ Công an now issues a 10-year licence within 28 working days, assessment and consulting firms need at least five qualified staff and monitoring providers twelve, IP-masking services and vulnerability-reporting platforms join the licensed list, and covert-collection, jamming and forensics tools are reserved for Bộ Công an and Bộ Quốc phòng.
Nghị định 342/2026/NĐ-CP, signed 3 September 2026 and in force from 18 October, replaces the 2018 decree on goods trading by foreign investors — provincial People's Committees take over licensing, Bộ Công an and Bộ Quốc phòng must clear foreign-controlled large e-commerce platforms, and the economic needs test for retail outlets shrinks to investors whose countries have no FTA commitment to scrap it.
Nghị định 331/2026/NĐ-CP, in force since 19 August 2026, rewrites Việt Nam's five-level classification of information systems under the new Luật An ninh mạng — a 100,000-data-subject line between Level 2 and Level 3, Bộ Công an taking over assessment of Levels 4 and 5, 24-hour incident notices, and a 1 January 2027 deadline to get existing systems classified.
Nghị định 287/2026/NĐ-CP, effective 1 September 2026, replaces decade-old royalty decrees for film, arts, journalism and publishing — introducing a 20% minimum royalty for re-using press articles, profit-sharing on state-owned copyrights, and rules built for digital exploitation.
Nghị định 341/2026/NĐ-CP, issued and effective on 1 September 2026, is the first civil-cryptography decree under the new Luật An ninh mạng — 10-year business licences decided in 12 days instead of 30, 3-year import/export permits, mandatory conformity certification, and a declaration duty for anyone using encryption products bought outside the licensed channel.
Nghị định 320/2026/NĐ-CP, effective 28 September 2026, rewrites Việt Nam's electronic identification rules — banning agencies from re-requesting documents already on VNeID, adding a social welfare account for pensions, and requiring accounts in 11 sectors to link with VNeID by the end of 2026.
Luật Tiếp cận thông tin số 01/2026/QH16 — the first law passed by the new 16th National Assembly — took effect on 1 September 2026, replacing the 2016 law with digital-first disclosure, duties for public hospitals and schools, and a 12-day deadline for answering information requests.
From 1 September 2026, land parcels, buildings, and 71 categories of physical objects receive a permanent 12-digit location ID in a new national database run under the Bộ Công an — visible on VNeID, and designed to outlive the next round of address changes.
Continue reading “Every Place in Việt Nam Gets a Number: Nghị định 326/2026/NĐ-CP Takes Effect” →
Quyết định 33/2026/QĐ-TTg, in force since 15 August 2026, lists the 46 AI systems Việt Nam treats as high-risk — from surgical robots to autonomous credit approval — and starts the compliance countdown under the new Luật Trí tuệ nhân tạo.
Continue reading “Việt Nam Names Its High-Risk AI: 46 Systems Now Under the Strictest Rules” →
From 1 September 2026, the new sanctions decree for the crypto-asset pilot market takes effect — fines up to 200 million đồng for unlicensed exchanges, and 30–50 million đồng for investors who keep trading on unauthorised platforms.
Continue reading “Việt Nam's Crypto Market Gets Its Rulebook of Fines: Nghị định 284/2026/NĐ-CP” →
From 25 September 2026, data exchanges become a regulated industry — a National Data Exchange run by the Ministry of Public Security's data center, VNeID-verified trading accounts, and a hard ban on selling personal data.
Continue reading “Việt Nam Opens a Legal Marketplace for Data: Nghị định 314/2026/NĐ-CP” →
The Government's new sanctions decree, effective 19 August 2026, sets concrete fines for cybersecurity and personal data violations — up to 3 billion đồng, 5% of annual revenue for illegal cross-border transfers, and 10× the proceeds of data trading.
Continue reading “Việt Nam Puts a Price on Privacy Violations: Nghị định 330/2026/NĐ-CP” →
Claude is more useful than most people realise — if you know where to run it and how to talk to it. A hands-on guide from daily use: apps, Claude Code, and the prompting habits that actually matter.
Continue reading “How to Use Claude: A Practical Guide for Getting Real Work Done” →
Two implementing decrees under the new Luật An ninh mạng took effect on 19 August 2026 — bringing Vietnamese phone-number authentication for accounts, 24-hour takedown clocks, and 12-month log retention for platforms.
Continue reading “Việt Nam's New Cybersecurity Decrees: Nghị định 333 and 327 Take Effect” →
Why every official Vietnamese document looks the same — and what the rules behind the Quốc hiệu, the numbering, and the Times New Roman actually say.
Continue reading “Nghị định 30/2020/NĐ-CP: The Anatomy of a Vietnamese Administrative Document” →
A year of working with agentic coding tools: what they are actually good at, where they still fail, and the habits that make the difference.
Continue reading “How I Use AI Coding Agents in My Daily Workflow” →
Why cramming vocabulary fails, what the forgetting curve actually looks like, and how to set up a spaced repetition habit that survives contact with real life.
Continue reading “Spaced Repetition: The Engine Behind Long-Term Vocabulary” →
The Vietnamese capital has carried more than a dozen names across a thousand years. Each one is a small history lesson in itself.
Continue reading “Thăng Long to Hà Nội: One City, Many Names” →
Bánh chưng, the Kitchen Gods, first-footing, and lucky money — a field guide to the traditions that make Vietnamese Lunar New Year what it is.
Limestone karsts, river caves, and the ruins of a 10th-century capital — two unhurried days in the landscape they call "Hạ Long Bay on land."
