A Vietnamese lawmaker has warned that proposed incentives for cultural industries could be exploited by property developers unless stricter safeguards are introduced, calling for targeted investment and measurable outcomes.
During a National Assembly plenary discussion on the draft Law on Cultural Industry Development on November 10, lawmakers called for more focused policies to support Vietnam's creative economy while preventing the misuse of public resources and investment incentives.
Three priority industries to drive cultural growth
Le Hoang Anh, a National Assembly deputy representing Gia Lai Province, questioned whether culture had truly become an industry in Vietnam.
"We have the foundations and areas of strength, but we do not yet have a fully developed industry," he said.
National Assembly deputy Le Hoang Anh of Gia Lai Province speaks during the discussion on the draft Law on Cultural Industry Development.
He cited several achievements in 2025, including 4.9 billion downloads of Vietnamese games, placing the country second globally, box-office revenue approaching VND5.6 trillion, led by domestic films, and Vietnamese music performances filling stadiums.
However, he noted that 95% of game downloads came from overseas markets, lending against intellectual property assets remained virtually frozen, and online copyright infringement had become a commercial risk in dealings with international partners.
"In other words, we have creators and audiences, but we lack the essential mechanisms that turn creativity into assets: copyright protection, financing for intellectual products and distribution channels," he explained.
Hoang Anh questioned whether the draft law adequately addressed these fundamental weaknesses.
Although the legislation covers a wide range of issues, he argued that it remains too broad in scope, overly complicated in administrative procedures and insufficiently focused on the industry's core challenges.
The draft distributes policy support across 10 industry groups. Although the explanatory report states that resources will be directed toward priority sectors, none of the draft's 37 articles explicitly identifies those sectors.
"Prioritizing everything means prioritizing nothing," he argued.
He also highlighted the administrative burden, pointing to more than 10 assessment and recognition procedures and approximately 40 provisions requiring further regulations in subordinate legal documents.
Meanwhile, the largest proposed budget allocation, exceeding VND9 trillion, would support infrastructure connecting cultural industry clusters and zones.
According to Hoang Anh, every dong of public investment in this category would attract only VND1.5 in non-budget capital, the lowest leverage ratio among those cited. He also noted that it was the only expenditure category providing production-cost support.
The lawmaker stressed that Vietnam possesses advantages few countries can match, including game developers reaching billions of users, a young domestic market of more than 100 million people, a thriving local film industry, cultural heritage representing 54 ethnic groups and millions of overseas Vietnamese who could become the first international consumers of Vietnamese cultural products.
The legislation, he said, should connect these strengths into a coherent value chain in which Vietnamese technology tells Vietnamese stories, creates Vietnamese products and brings them to international markets.
Hoang Anh proposed that the government select no more than three or four priority sectors for each five-year period, subject to performance assessments and removal from the priority list if targets are not met.
Initially, he recommended concentrating on three major areas: video games and digital content; cinema and television production; and music, performing arts and the events industry.
These three sectors, he argued, could serve as locomotives driving the broader cultural industry.
He also called for stronger mechanisms complementing the Intellectual Property Law, including measures to rapidly block new domains established by repeat copyright offenders and cut off advertising revenue and payment channels supporting infringing websites.
Public resources should be redirected from infrastructure development toward financing Vietnamese intellectual products, with support based on actual expenditure and disbursed after measurable results are achieved.
Warning over property projects exploiting cultural incentives
Hoang Anh emphasized that investment incentives must be properly targeted and their effectiveness measurable.
He cited Conclusion No. 18 of the Party Central Committee, which calls for tax policies to maintain neutrality and limit the incorporation of social policy objectives.
However, the draft law places products deemed to possess Vietnamese cultural value and identity in the highest tier of corporate income tax incentives, alongside semiconductor chips.
At the same time, responsibility for assessing and recognizing eligible cultural products would be delegated to provincial-level People's Committees.
This would effectively allow each province to determine which enterprises qualify for the most favorable corporate income tax rates.
"Without safeguards, real estate projects disguised as cultural ventures could easily emerge," Hoang Anh warned.
Broader support needed for local cultural communities
Also addressing funding mechanisms, Duong Khac Mai, a National Assembly deputy representing Lam Dong Province, highlighted inconsistencies in the draft legislation.
He noted that the bill expands eligibility for capacity-building assistance to include communities, individual business operators and household businesses.
However, another provision governing the use of financial resources mentions only enterprises, cooperatives and cooperative unions.
This inconsistency, he said, could create difficulties when allocating funding.
Drawing on experience in Lam Dong, Mai pointed to Lang Biang - Da Lat Ward, which has 11 gong performance clubs involving more than 200 artisans.
Meanwhile, Dam Pao brocade-weaving village has 140 participating households.
Despite their important role in preserving traditional crafts and ethnic cultural heritage, these groups face unstable markets, weak commercial connections and limited access to capital.
They are directly responsible for preserving traditional skills, maintaining the cultural identity of ethnic communities and producing cultural goods, he said.
Mai therefore proposed revising the draft law to ensure capacity-building support covers all relevant participants.
He also recommended authorizing the government to establish appropriate funding procedures and management mechanisms for communities, individual entrepreneurs and household businesses.
Cultural industries face challenges in the attention economy
National Assembly deputy Le Trung Quan of Dong Thap Province discusses intellectual property protection and the challenges of developing cultural industries in the attention economy.
Le Trung Quan, a National Assembly deputy representing Dong Thap Province, raised concerns about the challenges of developing cultural industries in an increasingly competitive attention economy.
He noted that legal barriers are among the greatest obstacles to scientific and technological innovation, often requiring controlled regulatory sandbox mechanisms.
In the cultural sector, however, obstacles can be harder to identify because they are closely associated with social customs, consumer habits and public attitudes toward cultural development.
These challenges become more complex in an economy where businesses compete to attract and retain public attention.
Quan cited the example of a popular animated film that gains widespread attention upon release.
Within days, bookstores and shopping centers may begin selling toys, souvenirs and other merchandise based on its characters and associated intellectual property.
Such products demonstrate how creative content can generate commercial value beyond its original format.
The lawmaker called for additional mechanisms to establish and protect intellectual property rights associated with characters, creative concepts, settings and other assets throughout the cultural production process.
These protections, he argued, should cover the earliest stages of developing ideas, characters and fictional worlds.
Strengthening the legal framework would encourage businesses, creators and communities to participate more actively in cultural innovation and help transform creative ideas into commercially valuable products.
Vietnamnet.vn
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