There are three big corporations dominating the Vietnamese telecommunication markets: VNPT, Viettel, and Mobifone. All these three corporations are owned or partially owned by the government and dominate more than 96% of the market.

It is reported that there is no requirement for functional or accounting separation required for operators with significant market power.

Arts. 19-21 of Decree No. 25/2011/ND-CP outline the requirements for enterprises applying for a license in the telecom sector in Vietnam. These requirements vary across types of service and geographical coverage. They include minimum capital requirements from VND 5 Billion (approx. 218,000 USD) to VND 500 Billion (approx. 21.8 million USD) and investment plans from VND 15 billion (approx. 700,00 USD) to 7,500 VND Billion (approx. 322.5 million USD) among other requirements.

Vietnam has appended the World Trade Organization (WTO) Telecom Reference Paper to its schedule of commitments.

Vietnam does not have an independent telecom authority. The Authority of Telecommunications is a ministerial unit which performs the advisory and regulatory functions over the telecommunications sectors nationwide.

In February 2020, the Vietnamese government issued Decree No. 15/2020/ND-CP to regulate administrative violations on postal services, telecommunications, radio frequencies, IT and electronic transactions. Art. 44.1(d) of the Decree regulates penalties for not storing information at the server system with an IP address in Vietnam for electronic newspapers, general websites or web portals and social networks subject to the license. Art. 95.3 regulates penalties for advertising email and internet message services using servers not located in Vietnam.

Patent applications by non-Vietnamese residents must be filed via recognised Vietnamese patent agents. According to Art. 89 of Law No. 50/2005/QH11 on Intellectual Property Rights, and Art. 4 of Circular 23/2023/Vietnam on Industrial property, non-Vietnamese residents, organisations or companies without business entities in Vietnam must apply for industrial property rights via legal representatives in Vietnam. Legal representatives must meet the criteria as regulated in Article 154 of the Law. The Parliament of Vietnam amended certain parts of Law No. 50/2005/QH11 with Law No. 36/2009/QH12, and such regulation remains.

Art. 26.3 of the Cybersecurity Law stipulates a mandatory requirement for the local storage of data on servers within Vietnam. This obligation is further elaborated in Chapter V of Decree 53. Under Art. 26 of Decree 53, all Vietnamese companies and certain foreign enterprises are required to store regulated data within Vietnam. This mandate extends to foreign enterprises if they engage in business activities within Vietnam in specific fields, including: telecommunication services; data sharing and storage; provision of national or international domains for Vietnamese users; e-commerce; social networking and social marketing; online gaming; and the provision, management, or operation of other internet-based information in forms such as messaging, telephone calls, video calls, email, or online gaming.
Art. 26 delineates the categories of regulated data as follows:
- Personal data of users based in Vietnam;
- Data generated by Vietnam-based users, including account name, time of usage, credit card details, email address, IP address, most recent log-out time, and registered phone number;
- Data pertaining to the relationships of Vietnam-based users, such as connections with friends or other individuals with whom users interact.

The local preference directive for government procurement (Directive No. 494/CT-TTg) limits foreign firms from bidding on government-issued procurement tenders to instances where domestic bidders cannot meet the required services or supplies. Consequently, foreign suppliers or contractors are selected only when domestic companies are unable to provide the necessary goods or services or when financing agreements between the Vietnamese government and donors mandate international bidding. However, it should be noted that this directive is not a binding measure or regulation. Instead, it is an instruction from the Prime Minister aimed at achieving specific strategic targets in economic development.

According to Art. 11 of Law No. 22/2023/QH15 on Bidding, international bidding may be organised under specific conditions. These include
(i) instances where international bidding is mandated by a donor funding the project or package under an international convention or loan agreement;
(ii) where domestic bidders fail to meet the requirements of consulting, non-consulting, or construction service packages, or where prequalification or competitive bidding procedures yield no satisfactory results.
(iii) for consulting service packages when deemed necessary by the competent authority to enhance quality, provided the authority assumes responsibility for the decision.
However, international bidding is not applicable for projects involving business lines prohibited to foreign investors, projects requiring domestic bidding for reasons of national defence, security, or public order, projects located in areas restricted to foreign entities under the Law on Land, or projects with a total investment below VND 800 billion (approximately USD 33.33 million). In cases where international expressions of interest are invited but fail to receive responses from foreign bidders, such projects are also excluded from international bidding.

Law No. 64/2020/QH14 on Public Private Partnership was issued in June 2020 and has been effective since January 2021. Art. 58.5 of the Law states that Public Private Partnership projects only use foreign labourers if domestic labourers do not meet the demand.

Vietnam’s Law No. 22/2023/QH15 on Bidding, which came into effect in June 2023, Law No. 43/2013/QH13 on Bidding. While the Law generally maintains similar provisions for scenarios where international bidding is permitted, it continues to require international bidders to collaborate with domestic contractors. This collaboration can take the form of a consortium or subcontracting arrangement, except in cases where no domestic contractors are qualified to execute any portion of the procurement package (Art. 5.1).

According to Art. 10 of Law No. 22/2023/QH15 on Bidding, incentives are integrated into the contractor and investor selection processes to prioritise eligible entities. For contractor selection, these incentives include suppliers of goods originating in Vietnam, domestic bidders producing Vietnam-origin goods, domestic bidders participating independently or in consortiums in international bidding, microenterprises, small enterprises, and startups. Incentives for contractors involve higher rankings for eligible bidders in cases of equal evaluation, extra points under fixed-price, technical-based, or combined technical and price evaluation methods, adjustments to bid prices for ineligible bidders under lowest-price methods, and prioritisation of capacity, experience, and other criteria during evaluations. Additionally, employers may require the inclusion of domestic goods in bids if at least three domestic manufacturers meet the specified standards. For investor selection, incentives apply to those implementing technological solutions to reduce environmental pollution in high-risk projects. Eligible investors receive higher rankings in cases of equal evaluation and extra points during bid evaluations.

Circular No. 40 seeks to enhance the legal framework governing the prioritisation of domestically produced information technology (IT) products and services in investment, hiring, and procurement, as mandated by Art. 4 of Decree No. 73/2019/ND-CP. The Circular provides guidance to state agencies on consulting and accessing information regarding prioritised IT products and services for these purposes. Enterprises whose IT products and services meet the priority criteria outlined in the Circular (Arts. 5-9) are eligible to receive preferential consideration from state agencies in investment, leasing, and procurement processes.

Vietnam is not a party to the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA). However, the country has been an observer of the WTO GPA since 2012.