Vietnam promotes cross-border digital trust in AI era

Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Pham Duc Long made the statement at an international workshop entitled "Trusted Services Beyond Borders: Establishing Digital Trust Infrastructure for an AI-Driven World" on October 29.

The event was held in Quang Ninh city as part of Vietnam International Digital Week 2026. It brought together officials, experts and technology businesses engaging in electronic authentication, digital signatures and trust services from Vietnam and abroad.

Long stressed that as AI becomes increasingly involved in digital transactions, digital content's origin and integrity must be verified proactively, rather than merely detecting false information after it emerges. Clear rules on authority and responsibility are also needed when AI is involved in automated transactions to ensure a safe, transparent and trustworthy AI ecosystem.

Pham Quoc Hoan, Deputy Director of the National E-Authentication Centre (NEAC), presented Vietnam's progress in developing digital trust infrastructure. The country has gradually perfected its legal framework and national e-authentication infrastructure, supported by the 2023 Law on E-Transactions and regulations governing trust services.

Vietnam's trust service ecosystem covers digital signature authentication, timestamping and data message authentication. NEAC has also developed the eSign system to connect digital signature certification service providers and facilitate service delivery.

However, Hoan noted cross-border recognition remains challenging as verifying foreign digital signatures still requires manual procedures, while countries apply different certification policies, technical standards and regulations.

To foster interoperability, it is necessary to gradually establish mechanisms for connecting and exchanging trust lists, assess equivalent assurance levels and clarify the responsibilities of participating parties.

Vietnam aims to develop a comprehensive data message authentication ecosystem that enables transactions to be verified in terms of origin, integrity and creation time. Its infrastructure must also support automated interactions between systems, facilitating secure and verifiable cross-border transactions, the official added.

Practical lessons from abroad

Representatives of the Asia PKI Consortium (APKIC) and experts from the UK, the US, Russia and other countries shared their experience in developing digital trust infrastructure and promoting interoperability and mutual recognition of digital signatures.

APKIC Secretary-General Vijayakumar Manjunatha said regional cooperation should proceed in phases. A preliminary APKIC survey conducted in 2026 covering 36 countries and territories found that most have legal frameworks for digital signatures or trust services, but mutual recognition agreements remain limited.

The consortium proposed verifying partners' trust systems, comparing technical standards and assurance levels, and then advancing towards mutual recognition under appropriate legal arrangements. Countries could initially pilot interoperability in sectors with high transaction demand before expanding cooperation.

Nazril Bin Mohd Ghani of Malaysia's Pos Digicert highlighted the potential to connect national trust infrastructure across ASEAN while retaining individual certification systems through common legal, technical and authentication requirements.

Participants also discussed digital content verification, authentication and cross-border recognition as part of efforts to build a trustworthy digital environment.

The workshop underscored priorities for Vietnam, including refining regulations on the recognition of foreign trust services, improving interoperability among electronic authentication systems and exploring technologies to verify digital content provenance.

NEAC said it will continue strengthening international cooperation and studying suitable models to connect domestic trust services with cross-border verification and recognition mechanisms, supporting digital economic integration for citizens and businesses.