Digital signatures develop at a record pace, aiming to reach 100% of the population

Ms. To Thi Thu Huong, Director of the National Center for Electronic Authentication, shared notable information about

The growth rate of digital signatures in Vietnam reached a record level in 2025. The number of 22 million digital signature certificates issued in just the first 8 months of the year far exceeded the total number of 11 million certificates issued up to the end of 2024. Ms. To Thi Thu Huong, Director of the National Electronic Authentication Center (NEAC), announced this information at the workshop "The role of digital signatures and trusted services with electronic notarization" held on September 19 in Hanoi .

"With the current growth rate, we expect that in about 10-15 years, 100% of Vietnamese people will have digital signature certificates," Ms. To Thi Thu Huong shared.

She compared it to the development of mobile telecommunications in Vietnam. Mobile technology has been available since 1993 and it took 15-17 years to reach 100% of the population. Currently, Vietnam has 140 million subscribers out of 100 million people, reaching a popularization rate exceeding 100%. Meanwhile, mobile digital signature technology and remote digital signature have only been put into use since 2021. After 4 years of implementation, the growth rate has shown great potential.

Digital signatures and trusted services are considered the foundation for ensuring trust in electronic transactions. The deployment of digital infrastructure is identified as one of the focuses of the Ministry of Science and Technology .

"Digital infrastructure must go one step ahead," Ms. Huong shared her opinion.

The representative of NEAC said that currently 100% of organizations have digital signature certificates for financial and accounting work. However, the field of personal digital signatures is still limited and needs to be developed more strongly. The application of electronic notarization is expected to bring significant economic benefits. With about 8 million notarized records processed each year, the conversion to electronic can save hundreds of billions of VND in costs for storing and processing documents.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Tho, Executive Vice President of the Vietnam Notary Association, positively assessed this potential. "The Association will accompany NEAC in promoting, training and guiding notaries to access new technology," Ms. Tho pledged.

The 2024 Notarization Law has created a legal framework for electronic notarization. Electronic notarized documents are effective from the time they are signed with the digital signature of the notary and the notary practice organization.

Decree 23/2025/ND-CP on electronic signatures and trusted services has established a comprehensive legal framework. The trusted services include timestamping, data message authentication, and secure data sending and receiving services.

A representative of NEAC said that more than a year ago, when a conference on the role of digital signatures in electronic transactions in the banking sector was held, banks raised many objections, especially regarding the statement that digital signatures have the same legal value as handwritten signatures in traditional transactions.

After that, the unit has answered questions about technology and integrated solutions. Up to now, the number of digital signature certificates has grown, mostly in transactions integrated with banking solutions.

Delegates at the workshop agreed that the implementation of electronic notarization has a basic legal framework. In the coming period, it is necessary to accelerate the implementation to match the country's digital transformation policy.

Source: https://znews.vn/chu-ky-so-phat-trien-ky-luc-huong-toi-pho-cap-100-dan-so-post1586654.html