Vietnam is pushing for cross‑border digital trust as artificial intelligence reshapes online transactions. Understanding this effort helps you see how secure digital services will affect your studies, work and daily life.

Trust services—digital signatures, timestamping and data message authentication—are essential to the digital economy because they verify identities and guarantee the authenticity and integrity of electronic transactions. Deputy Minister Pham Duc Long warned that as AI becomes more involved in digital transactions, the origin and integrity of digital content must be verified proactively, and clear rules on authority and responsibility are needed.

Pham Quoc Hoan, Deputy Director of the National E‑Authentication Centre, explained that Vietnam has gradually perfected its legal framework and national e‑authentication infrastructure, supported by the 2023 Law on E‑Transactions and regulations governing trust services. The NEAC also developed the eSign system to link digital‑signature certification providers and streamline service delivery. However, Hoan noted that cross‑border recognition remains challenging because foreign digital signatures still require manual procedures and countries use different certification policies, technical standards and regulations.

Vietnam aims to create a data‑message authentication ecosystem that verifies a transaction’s origin, integrity and time, and supports automated, secure cross‑border exchanges. It will help automate secure international trade.

International cooperation underlines the need for interoperability. Asia PKI Consortium Secretary‑General Vijayakumar Manjunatha said a 2026 survey of 36 countries showed most have legal frameworks for digital signatures, but mutual‑recognition agreements are limited. Nazril Bin Mohd Ghani of Malaysia’s Pos Digicert highlighted the potential to connect ASEAN trust infrastructures while keeping individual certification systems through common legal, technical and authentication requirements.

Building a cross‑border digital trust infrastructure is therefore crucial for Vietnam’s AI‑driven digital economy. It will enable secure, verifiable online transactions and help Vietnamese businesses and citizens participate confidently in the global digital market.