On August 5, the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Vietnam Blockchain Association (VBA) held a seminar on “International Experiences and Suggestions on the Development of Blockchain Technology in Vietnam” at the National Assembly Building in Hanoi. Representatives of embassies from the United States, Switzerland, Japan, Singapore, Cambodia, as well as representatives of ministries, institutions, experts and researchers of blockchain technology at home and abroad participated in the seminar.
The experience of other countries
During the seminar, Ms. Nicole Wyrsch, Chargé d’affaires of the Swiss Embassy, said that although Switzerland is very open to blockchain, it still faces risks associated with cryptocurrencies. Authorities seek to reduce risk by adapting and amending national laws as needed and actively participating in the setting of international standards. For example, Switzerland has developed federal legislation on DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology) that complies with the International Financial Task Force (FATF) standards and provides accountability for anti-money laundering and terrorism stakeholders.
Switzerland has entities such as the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) and the Financial Stability Board (FSB) to oversee the cryptocurrency market. FINMA is responsible for licensing blockchain-related financial service providers. In 2021, FINMA approved Switzerland’s first crypto fund. In addition, the two agencies regularly organize many information publishing forums, publishing guidelines and documents to help individuals and businesses wishing to participate in the market to understand basic information.
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Mr. Michael Digregorio – Representative of Asia Foundation in Vietnam |
Importance of Pilot Mechanisms
While discussing policy and mechanism issues, Asia Foundation’s representative in Vietnam, Mr. Michael Digregorio, said that the Asia Foundation is piloting the use of blockchain to update information between maids and clients. jupviec.vn. The system can not only help employees to be autonomous when looking for a job, but also help customers understand employees’ personal information and professional credentials.
But in reality, the legitimacy of blockchain is not guaranteed, so companies involved in the project will take a lot of risk. Therefore, Mr. Michael Digregorio hopes that the Ministry of Information and Communications will allow pilots in areas such as blockchain that do not have a clear legal framework.
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Mr. Pham Chin Dung, Deputy Governor of the State Bank, talks about the legal provisions on virtual assets in Vietnam |
Also in the discussion session, Mr. Pham Tien Dung, Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam, hopes to spread knowledge about blockchain more effectively so that everyone can distinguish between cryptocurrencies, virtual currencies, virtual assets and CBDC.
On the other hand, anti-money laundering regulations are also a concern for him. The Deputy Governor of Bank Negara commented: “To prevent money laundering, we need a source code to register and manage virtual assets.” According to him, to effectively control virtual assets, Vietnam should follow the advice FATF authorizes the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Finance to formulate regulations for the registration and management of virtual asset transactions.
The blockchain market is a “big playground”, and Vietnam urgently needs to be guided and guided in a timely manner so as not to lag and lag behind the technological development of many other countries.