VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnamese content service providers have expressed their resentment against the current laws with which they cannot play in a leveling playing field with foreigners.

The wave of anger has been raised after local newspapers reported that loopholes exist in the legal framework because of which Google and Facebook, the foreign firms which provide services in Vietnam and earn money in Vietnam, but they do not have to pay tax.

Vietnamese firms put in disadvantages on home market

In the era of the “flat world”, which witnesses the boom of new business modes through Internet, the legal regulations under the traditional viewpoints could get out of date quickly. One of the typical examples is the regulation on the digital content management.

Yahoo! established a company and has been providing services in Vietnam for the last many years. In 2010, the year of World Cup, Yahoo! opened Yahoo!The Thao (sports) page in Vietnamese language. Later, due to the bad administration, a lot of obscene and pornographic pieces of news appeared on the page, which raised a wave of anger among the Vietnamese community.

When local newspapers criticized the page administrators, a representative of Yahoo! Vietnam said that the page was run by Yahoo! South East Asia which has its headquarter and legal status in Singapore, and that Yahoo! Vietnam does not have to take responsibility for the problems of the page.

Moreover, the terms of the agreement on using services on http://vn.yahoo.com/ said that Singaporean laws and Singaporean courts will be referred when settling the disputes in Vietnam.

Le Hong Minh, General Director of VNG, has noted that the draft version of the new decree on Internet service management comprises of 30 pages imposing strict regulations on domestic enterprises. Meanwhile, there is only one page reserved to mention the management over foreign firms.

Will foreign firms be put under management?

The Vietnamese laws must be obeyed by Vietnamese companies. However, experts have pointed out that the Vietnamese laws must also be obeyed by the foreign firms which provide online services to the Vietnamese market and earn big money from the market, especially when their services can have big influences to the thoughts, taste and the spiritual life of Vietnamese people.

In fact, Vietnam fails to manage the business of the foreign firms, as it cannot collect tax even when the firms hold 60 percent of the total revenue of the online ad market in Vietnam. Meanwhile, Vietnam also fails to keep control over the content of the services. Yahoo! The thao page, for example, published the information contrary to the Vietnamese habits and customs, only got the criticism from newspapers and stayed safe.

If the problem had been caused by a Vietnamese firm, according to Minh, the firm would have been imposed a heavy fine or had the operation license revoked.

A question has been raised that if the Vietnamese state management agencies can put the big cheeses--like Google or Facebook, under the control and force them to obey the Vietnamese laws. If the answer is “yes”, another question would be raised that how Vietnam will punish them if they refuse to obey the laws.

Some people have said that they wish to see Vietnam having enough strength to punish the two big cheeses like China once did.

The policy makers still keep silent, even though this is now a hot topic on all information technology forum. Meanwhile, Vietnamese firms keep complaining about the unfair treatment on the home market, warning that the unfair treatment may lead to the defeat of Vietnamese firms and may kill the Vietnamese digital content industry.

Source: Lao dong