In the digital age, with three main areas of digital government, digital economy , and digital society, citizens must have a "digital signature - CA" to electronically authenticate digital transactions.
Free of charge
In the context of the comprehensive national digital transformation, Vietnam has also determined that each adult citizen, in addition to a personal identification number, will also have a personal digital certificate (CA).
This is a personal Certificate Authority (CA), distinct from those of organizations, and has the same value as a personal handwritten signature. CAs are used to verify personal identity in various situations, such as signing electronic documents like contracts and invoices, as well as in online transactions like personal transaction declarations, mobile banking transactions, securities trading, and electronic social insurance declarations.
Vietnam's national strategy for developing the digital economy and digital society aims for 50% of the adult population to own a Certificate of Authenticity (CA) by 2025. Over the past period, the National Electronic Authentication Center (NEAC) under the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) has collaborated with the Vietnam CA and Electronic Transaction Club (VCDC) and public CA service providers to implement various solutions to encourage citizens to own and use CAs. Notable among these are campaigns to promote and provide free personal CAs to citizens. Furthermore, public CA services have implemented various policies offering free or discounted services, such as free remote CA access for citizens when using online public services; and discounted rates for doctors and teachers, around 50,000 VND per year. CA services also offer flexible payment options for remote CA services, such as prepaid packages, per-transaction signing, and short-term packages starting from just 300 VND per signing when conducting other online transactions. In Hanoi, a booth providing free CA services to citizens opened in mid-April 2023 in the Ho Guom pedestrian area and will run until the end of 2023. Ms. To Thi Thu Huong, Director of NEAC, said: "The widespread implementation of CA will increase the trust of citizens, businesses, and organizations when conducting transactions in the electronic environment, improving the efficiency and effectiveness of public services provided by the Government to citizens and businesses."
VNPT Group is committed to providing all Certificate Authority (CA) services free of charge to citizens when conducting digital signature transactions for administrative procedures on all national/ministry/provincial/city public service portals.
VNPT SmartCA helps users digitally sign documents on their personal mobile devices securely, conveniently, and legally. (Image: VNPT)
Creating a legal framework for scaling up
However, the biggest barrier for people is the cost of personal CA (Certificate of Origin and Use), even though it is initially issued free and even free for a period of time. After that, people still have to renew their CA at a considerable cost.
For reference, the cheapest options are VNPT-CA individual packages, starting at 715,000 VND/year and 550,000 VND for renewal. Other services charge over 1 million VND for a year of individual CA use. A second limitation is that the number of services that utilize CA is still very limited. According to NEAC, several main reasons contribute to the low number of individual CA users, such as people and businesses not fully understanding the benefits and usage of CA; and regulations on CA application not being widely applied to all types of electronic transactions. Mr. Nguyen Kho Din, General Director of the Enterprise Digital Transformation Platform Company under Bkav - Vice Chairman and General Secretary of the Vietnam CA and Electronic Transaction Club, believes that currently, applications and services that accept CA are still limited. Therefore, after people are granted CA, they don't know what to use it for.
In light of this situation, the 2023 Law on Electronic Transactions (Law No. 20/2023/QH15), enacted by the 15th National Assembly and effective from July 1, 2024, dedicated an entire Chapter III to electronic signatures and trusted services. This is a crucial legal framework to promote the strong development of trusted services using digital signatures. In Ho Chi Minh City, the People's Committee has directed that in the 2023 development plan, 100% of eligible administrative procedures must be provided online. Online public services will become more substantive when using personal CAs to legalize citizens' digital records and the processing results of state agencies.
Many remote CA authentication solutions via mobile devices have been developed by CA service providers. Currently, VNPT Group has developed the VNPT SmartCA solution, which allows for easy digital authentication and certification using a mobile application. Individuals/citizens using VNPT SmartCA can completely replace handwritten signatures to quickly resolve administrative procedures such as birth registration, temporary residence registration, marriage registration, health insurance and unemployment insurance applications, education applications, or school enrollment for children… on public service portals… VNPT SmartCA has been used by more than 200,000 teachers and doctors in their professional work: lesson plans, electronic student records…, prescriptions, electronic medical records… saving 85% of time and costs compared to using traditional paper records, especially in activities such as creating, sending, storing, and searching for records previously.
Nearly 3 million active CAs
To date, 100% of businesses in Vietnam have used Certificate Authorities (CAs), primarily in services such as tax declarations, customs, and social insurance. According to statistics, as of the end of August 2023, the country had over 2.8 million active CAs, including nearly 1 million individual CAs. Specifically, campaigns to issue free individual CAs – by the end of 2023 – had issued over 260,000 individual CAs.
Source: https://nld.com.vn/pho-cap-chu-ky-so-ca-nhan-196240109215541779.htm
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