Vietnam lawmakers urge bold cultural reforms, citing Harry Potter and gaming boom

National Assembly deputies proposed additional mechanisms to support creative ideas, protect intellectual property and attract investment during a discussion of the draft Law on Cultural Industry Development on Tuesday.

Lessons from the $25B Harry Potter franchise

Deputy Le Thi Thuy Sen from Hung Yen Province, northern Vietnam said identifying and investing in promising ideas should be included in the cultural industry value chain.

She cited the Harry Potter franchise, estimated to be worth around $25 billion, and its author's personal wealth of approximately $1.2 billion as examples of the commercial potential of creative works.

British publisher Bloomsbury acquired the publishing rights to the first Harry Potter book with an advance payment of £1,500.

The Scottish Arts Council subsequently provided £8,000 to support author J.K. Rowling in completing the second book.

The book series was later developed into films, games, theme parks and other commercial products.

Sen said early-stage investment was essential to developing commercial products and enabling creators to continue pursuing their ideas.

However, the draft law focused mainly on completed products and did not adequately cover the identification and development of promising ideas.

She proposed adding provisions on identifying and financing ideas with the potential to become cultural products, developing a market for such ideas, and establishing an exchange and investment funds to support their commercialization.

The proposals also included encouraging private-sector participation and international investment, and prohibiting the appropriation or unlawful use of promising creative ideas.

Controlled testing mechanisms should also cover the identification and investment stages of potential cultural products, which involve venture capital and financial risks, she said.

For completed products, priority should go to works that have received national or international awards or generated positive social impact. 

Such works could be developed into derivative products, including films, games, toys, fashion items and food products.

The draft law should also provide businesses and creators with better access to credit, intellectual property registration and protection, and legal assistance.

Legal support for intellectual property rights is particularly important when Vietnamese creators and businesses license their works to international partners, Sen said.

She also proposed recognizing products with development potential as candidates for key cultural product status and incorporating provisions on creative ideas capable of generating intellectual property assets into the draft law.

Regarding the appraisal council responsible for evaluating creative ideas and cultural products, the draft law should specify its membership, assessment criteria and selection procedures.

The council should include state management officials, cultural and artistic experts, intellectual property specialists, investors and business representatives.

Its assessment criteria should balance state management requirements with market considerations to improve investment and selection decisions.

Sen also proposed a mechanism allowing private investors to finance cultural facilities before transferring them to the State for public use and benefit.

Vietnam's cultural sectors lack key industry foundations

Deputy Le Hoang Anh from Gia Lai Province in the Central Highlands region said Vietnam had recorded significant achievements in several cultural sectors but lacked the mechanisms to turn creative products into economic assets.

"We have the seeds and individual strengths, but we do not yet have an industry," he said during the discussion on Tuesday.

He cited figures showing that Vietnamese games recorded 4.9 billion downloads in 2025, ranking second worldwide.

Domestic films generated nearly VND5.6 trillion ($212 million) at the box office, with Vietnamese productions leading the market.

Vietnamese music performances have also attracted audiences large enough to fill stadiums, he said.

However, 95 percent of game downloads took place overseas, while financing backed by intellectual property remained limited and online copyright infringement posed risks to commercial partners.

He identified copyright protection, financing for intellectual property products and distribution channels as key requirements for developing the cultural industries.

Assessing the draft law, Anh said its provisions covered a broad range of issues but lacked a clear focus on priority sectors.

He noted that the draft covered 10 cultural industry sectors but did not specify which should receive priority investment.

As of the evening of Monday, none of the draft law's 37 articles had identified priority sectors, despite the explanatory report's stated direction of concentrating resources on key industries.

"Prioritizing everything means prioritizing nothing," he said.

Anh also said the draft contained more than 10 assessment and recognition procedures and referred around 40 times to implementing regulations to be issued under the law.

Citing an appendix to the explanatory report, he said more than VND9 trillion ($341 million) in state budget funding was earmarked for infrastructure connecting cultural clusters and zones.

Each dong of public funding in this area was expected to attract only VND1.5 in non-state investment, the lowest leverage ratio among the figures presented in the report, he said.

Meanwhile, Article 32, the draft law's only provision on production cost support, applied to businesses serving foreign delegations.

Anh proposed selecting priority sectors and concentrating investment rather than distributing resources across all 10 industries.

He recommended that the Government select no more than three or four priority sectors for each five-year period, based on criteria stipulated in the law. 

The selected sectors should undergo regular assessments and be removed from the list if they fail to meet requirements.

He identified three sectors for initial priority investment: video games and digital content; cinema and television; and music, performing arts and the events industry.

Anh also proposed stronger measures to enforce copyright protection online, including blocking new domain names operated by repeat infringers and cutting off advertising and payment channels used by violating websites.