Vietnam looks to center VNeID ‘super-platform’ for digital economy push

Vietnam wants a digital future and it wants it soon. The Southeast Asian country is pushing hard for digital transformation, seeing digital identity and governance as central to its plans. Now, it’s training its sights on a unified digital economy and the copious amounts of data digital systems produce.

With all this comes opportunity. HID Global is sharpening its attention on Vietnam’s fast-growing market, with the company believing the country holds strategic significance in HID’s regional expansion. Vietnam wants all citizens served on digital platforms next year, setting a furious pace for adoption as 2026 marks an official target.

Biometrics are becoming woven into everyday life with major implementations across public transport, banking and aviation. Vendors are profiting. Next Biometrics received a big order for its fingerprint sensors from a system integrator. Domestic companies are also in the biometrics game with Cake becoming Vietnam’s first digital bank to pass the iBeta Level 2 PAD test.

At the recent Third National Forum on Digital Economy and Digital Society Development, a keynote speech focused on the transition “from national population to digital economy development” made by Major General Nguyen Ngoc Cuong, reports Vietnam Net.

Vietnam wants inclusive development and it’s targeting double-digit GDP growth from 2026 to 2030. While such ambitious aims are usually the preserve of tech visionaries, here it’s senior officials who are setting out national strategy. The forum was chaired by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.

There are moves to position the national digital ID app VNeID as a central gateway to a data-driven economy. Major General Nguyen Ngoc Cuong, Director of the National Data Center, emphasized that data has become the primary production input of the digital age, powering AI and shaping national competitiveness and geopolitical dynamics.

He described data as a special economic asset. It is commercialized, valued and traded. But Vietnam is still only at the foundational stage of building a true data economy, he argued. While the National Population Database remains the country’s most advanced data asset, Cuong said a fully realized national general database built on four pillars of people, items, places, and activities would unlock far greater value.

Despite rapid progress under Project 06, Cuong identified several bottlenecks. Vietnam holds large volumes of data but lacks dynamic, real‑time datasets that can support intelligent digital services. VNeID, despite having 67 million verified accounts and dozens of integrated utilities, has not yet evolved into a seamless super‑platform. Citizens still rely on multiple apps for different services. The country has yet to define a clear national data economy model to guide governance, monetization and cross‑sector data sharing.

VNeID — from verification tool to super platform

To address these challenges, the Ministry of Public Security has proposed transforming VNeID from a digital ID and verification tool into a national digital super‑platform. In this vision, VNeID would become a single access point for interactions between citizen, business and state.

It would serve as the central hub of Vietnam’s digital ecosystem and a foundational layer of national digital public infrastructure. Cuong also announced that the Ministry is drafting Vietnam’s first comprehensive legal document on digital citizenship. The strategy aims to define the rights and responsibilities of digital citizens, establish incentive mechanisms to expand the digital workforce, and address human‑resource bottlenecks in the digital society.

Vietnam will accelerate implementation of a national data architecture framework, requiring ministries and provinces to build their own architectures aligned with national standards. A new government decree will also define the operational model of the National Data Center.

Closing the forum, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh called for digital transformation across all sectors and highlighted plans to develop large‑scale “Digital Industrial Complexes” to drive economic spillover and innovation. He emphasized the need to strengthen digital infrastructure, expand digital human resources and complete national and sectoral databases.

The prime minister wants to see the development of low‑cost and accessible AI application platforms and ensure cybersecurity and personal data protection. He also urged the expansion of digital skills education under a “lifelong learning” ethos.

VNeID could evolve from a functional ID app into a backbone of a nationwide digital ecosystem. If successful, it could transform how citizens authenticate, transact, and interact across both public and private sectors.

With great opportunity comes great risks

It is worth noting that with all this comes expanded government oversight too, with the country’s National Assembly approving a new Cybersecurity Law that significantly expands central control over digital identity, data and online content. The legislation, which takes effect on July 1 2026, grants the Ministry of Public Security broad new powers in online governance.

Under the law, the Ministry will oversee stricter digital ID verification based on IP address and digital account registration information, and issue warnings about cybersecurity threats.

Telecom, internet and online service providers will be required to remove illegal content when ordered. And the legislation sanctions a wide range of online activities.

Meanwhile, the UK’s not-for-profit Alan Turing Institute has warned about the huge cybersecurity risk national digital public systems face as they significantly increase their attack surfaces. Huge volumes of data become targets for hackers. Scams and fraud have surged.

To this end, the Institute’s Cyber Threat Observatory for National Identity Systems released a “Digital ID Safety Pack” — a comprehensive framework designed to safeguard identity systems against escalating cyber risks. It hosted an in-depth webinar with insights from a range of experts and case studies drawn from Sri Lanka and Ethiopia, which Biometric Update reported on laying out the biometric, security and digital ID insights from the expansive event.

By Lu-Hai Liang – Biometricupdate.com – December 22, 2025