Gender equality

Hoang Van Cuong

Hoang Van Cuong, vice rector of National Economics University

This is really a ‘hot seat’, as education is a concern of the entire society, and education activities are carried out by tens of millions of students, teachers and officers – the largest group for management among ministries.

Meanwhile, the education sector is now undergoing reform.

At the general education level, Vietnam is applying the new general education program with the spirit “one curriculum, many sets of textbooks”.

At the tertiary education level, Vietnam has begun implementing the amended Law on Higher Education, which gives self-determination rights to schools.

Son therefore will need to have completely new action plans to fit the new regime.

The education management apparatus needs to change its management mechanism, from ask-and-grant to post-licensing inspections.

Cao To Nga, headmaster of Ngo Quyen High School

One of the biggest challenges for the newly appointed Minister is the overlap in management, administration and personnel. For example, the Ministry of Education and Training makes decisions in curricula and textbooks for the new general education program, but the decisions on financing and investment are made by local authorities.

I hope that the new Minister will pay more attention to the issue of a ‘happy school’, and students in different areas will have equal opportunities to learn.

Tran Trung Hieu, Phan Boi Chau High School for the Gifted

I hope the new Minister will do three things.

First, being attentive and listening to constructive opinions from people and teachers. Any new policies that face opposition from teachers need to be reconsidered.

Second, it is necessary amend some unreasonable policies, especially during the implementation of the new general education program.

Third, being cautious when promulgating legal documents.

Ho Tan Nguyen Minh, Luong Van Chanh High School for the Gifted

I hope that the new Minister will build up a long-term sustainable education development strategy which doesn’t change all the time.

Also, human resources need to be put at the center of education. It is necessary to draw up plans to improve the quality of teachers and managerial officers.

To Van Phuong, Nha Trang University

The amended Law on Higher Education gives autonomy to schools, but there are still problems in tuition and public-asset use policies. I hope the problems will be settled.

I also hope that schools will be supported in IT application and digital transformation. I think it is also necessary to build up a database on human resources, because this will better help schools organize their training to satisfy demands of society.

Thanh Hung – Le Huyen

This was the message in a speech given by Mr. Hung at a youth event of the Viettel Group, when he was still Viettel’s General Director. VietNamNet would like to introduce the speech:

Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung.

Today, we are immersed in the atmosphere of Viettel youth, which is an atmosphere of creativity, daring to commit, being unafraid of difficulties, and full of aspirations.

Each of us has only one life to live on and each life has only one passage called youth. Youth is also the time when people have the most opportunities to try their best. Youth in general and Viettel’s young people in particular have in hand the most valuable asset which is time. And many young people in Viettel do not let time pass by meaninglessly. They are brave to engage in things that even they do not think they can do.

Today’s world has changed a lot. The power and the way people use their powers have also been changing day by day and hour by hour. Artificial intelligence, Internet of things, social networks … can make us stronger but can also engulf us at any moment. In the age of Internet, we can easily connect with millions of people but we are losing connection with ourselves, living without purpose, living under popular trends, not knowing what is valuable to us, not knowing what is our true strength. Today’s young generation has a lot of strength but also faces many challenges. That means your generation has a lot of things to do.

Our generation gave birth to Viettel, but the day when we leave Viettel will come. The responsibility today is all with you, with the younger generation Viettel. The wisdom of your generation is the wisdom of Viettel. No one else but you are the future of Viettel, a new Viettel born by you. The future of Viettel depends largely on the younger generation of Viettel today. So I want to talk a little bit about your responsibility.

That responsibility begins with always thinking differently, being more creative, out of old patterns, not dwelling in the experiences that have created today’s success. It is often said that youth is impotent, because youth is the age when one is not shy at all, always doubts everything – except his own ability. But immaturity is a special kind of energy unique to young people. Experienced people are actually living in a box with 6 panels. The bottom panel is all the data they have, the top panel is their belief, the front is what they’ve ever seen, the experience creates the behind panel, the left is all they suppose, and the right panel is all of their knowledge.

All the good people, the experienced people, the older people live in those 6 partitions. The better they are, the harder the partitions can become. The more years there are, the more difficult to break the partitions. But young people don’t have those partitions, they don’t live in that six-sided box. Without a box, without any barriers to hinder you, you will see the universe. When a young person makes an effort towards a goal, it is the strongest, most beautiful posture. In the world, nothing more beautiful can be found than the arduous struggle of youth. Because of that, smart people always wish they could be younger.

That responsibility is also to always have a sense of learning. It is not only about learning specialized knowledge, and not stopping at cultivating foreign language skills in order to be able to integrate into the world. It also doesn’t stop at the fact that we have to forge the habit of reading to absorb new human knowledge. It also means that you have to constantly try, be determined and patient to overcome difficulties.

You will not avoid difficult things or hesitate to try things you have never done, and you will constantly commit to discovering yourself. Today we can work in the engineering industry, tomorrow we can try business. Today we can work at home, tomorrow we go out to foreign markets. Today we have experiences in the field of telecommunications, tomorrow we will immerse ourselves in the field of manufacturing research. New experience is never redundant. Discover new passions, learn new skills, use precious adolescence to prepare yourself and hone the skills needed to pursue a career that you aspire to. And that is why, when we are young, we need to try a lot and rise a lot to explore our very different abilities. Today’s world is a world that offers opportunities for those who are multidisciplinary, multi-knowledgeable and multi-skilled.

That responsibility also means that you stay engaged, take risks and not be afraid of hard work. Do not be disappointed if you are not immediately good at something. For all of us, no one can be good at everything right away. Take each failure as a necessary lesson for success. Only by making commitment and be brave can you do great things in your life.

The menu or the diners? It is the name of a book about the history of Singapore. Deciding to be a dish for the world’s powers to determine your own destiny or to become an equal with them, discussing important issues with them. They have the right to choose. And they chose themselves as diners, and after only 25 years separated from Malaysia, Singapore, from an island nation, became a prosperous country. This question should also be posed by young people. Do we decide whether we will become victims or the cause of all of our problems? Because if we are the victim, we will just cry, but if we understand that we are the cause, we will find a solution to fix it. Do we decide to be employees or do we become an employer? As employees, we will work under the direction of others. As an employer, we know what we want and what we need to do.

Yesterday, I had a talk with Truong Thanh Thuy – who is known as Vietnam’s startup queen – who has stage 4 lung cancer. One year ago, Thuy was full of energy with many plans and ambitions. Thuy and Viettel have coordinated to bring the Hour of code program to Vietnam, so that Vietnamese people can understand that programming is not difficult, that programming language will make our life smarter and more convenient. At the same time, cancer fell on Thuy’s life. Yesterday, I met Thuy. She was thinner, bluer, and her facial skin was ravaged by drugs aimed at controlling painful tumors that are metastasizing to her bones. But her energy is still intact. Thuy said that since the day she has been living with cancer, her life has been more meaningful.

Thuy founded a non-profit organization to help cancer patients in Vietnam. Thuy is striving to create a cancer faculty at an university. Thuy is building software to support the lives of cancer patients. Thuy did not let adversity knock her down. Thuy did not turn herself into a victim of cancer. On the contrary, Thuy considers cancer a second chance of life. And Thuy has found the meaning of her life and the value that she can bring. What could be happier than living your life and seeing yourself worthwhile? And that just needs a little change in your mind, so don’t turn yourself in to a victim to anyone, of anything but yourself. Always be the employer in all your work. Take control of your own life. Don’t entrust it to anyone, but yourself.

To tell this story, I want to tell Viettel young people that adversity is a wonderful thing this life gives us. And as the General Director of the Group, I am working hard to create challenges for Viettel’s youth. Challenges, great goals, and divine aspirations are also adversities for us to explore our abilities.

We can completely see these things from the OCS project, the project to research and manufacture telecommunications network infrastructure, the project to protect customers in cyberspace. We, the young people of Viettel, did it. To reach success, many times you have to face failure and deadlock. But it is the strength of Viettel youth that I mentioned above, that is creativity, daring to venture, not being afraid of difficulties and always being full of aspirations that make impossible projects, at least for Vietnamese people, become a reality.

I love the fable about the butterfly very much. Before becoming a butterfly, a silk moth needs to be strong enough to break out of its cramped cocoon. Someone, because he wanted to help the silk moth, uses his hands to split the cocoon. As a result, he has a handicapped butterfly because its wings are so weak. It turns out that the cocoon is stiff for a reason – it creates an environment for the young butterfly to constantly move, constantly strive so that its wings are sturdy and large enough to be able to fly in the sky when it escapes from the cocoon.

At Viettel, we have determination, aspiration and we even consider it a responsibility to young people to ensure that the silk moth be born healthy. We create challenges, we set high goals, we are picky about our products so that each person can grow up faster, manifest his abilities more clearly. Because I myself and the group leaders always believe that 90% of capacity in each person is still sleeping, which needs something to wake it up. Like the silk moth, without a cocoon thick enough, its wings will not be stiff enough. If the cocoon is not a harsh environment, the silk moth will forever stay in the peaceful nest and never dare to leave. Therefore, Viettel is always proud of having created a harsh enough environment for anyone passing through this organization; when looking back, they will see that they are much more mature. Viettel is contributing to allowing people the opportunity to find their own capabilities, find the purpose of their life.

Because everyone has youth at some point. Therefore, when we have health, have time, have passion, have recklessness, do not let time pass by meaninglessly. Because anything can be regained, but youth cannot be regained. The most valuable asset of youth is time. The greatest fear of youth is wasting time without learning anything valuable. Let’s be brave, be engaged, go ahead, do what you never thought you could do. The magic of youth is not being able to do everything, but always hoping to make everything. The property and money that we have can be lost. Human reputation can also dissipate in an instant. Friends and relatives have to leave us sometimes. Only wisdom will be never lost. It will follow us all our life. It will even last forever if one day we are not in this world anymore.

If you want to change something, tighten the laces and move on. If you’re frustrated with what you have currently, take action now. Express yourself, stick to your goals. You can win sometimes, but sometimes you have to lose. But always remember that what’s worthwhile never comes easy. And failure is also a kind of experience. More than that, it is a good experience. Because it is failure that helps us to be stronger and more mature. A rich youth is a youth with many experiences.

Young people are energetic, have a lot of aspirations, are not afraid of failure, so let’s take difficult jobs, challenges, go ahead, get involved, fight evil, create startups, raise new ideas, give birth to your own baby and if you fall, you can get up. Viettel has dreams, divine aspirations, and the mission of Viettel’s youth is to give birth to a new Viettel, your Viettel, to fulfill those dreams and aspirations.

Nguyen Manh Hung

Minh Nguyen, senior associate of ACSV Legal

The entry into force of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in May 2018 was a wake-up call for companies in Vietnam which have business relationships with EU-based companies or employ EU citizens. The main reason was because the GDPR has an extraterritorial effect under which the supervisory authority of each member state of the EU is empowered to penalise non-EU companies violating the GDPR while having business transactions with EU individuals or companies.

Using a model similar to the GDPR in sanctioning the non-compliance activities, the highest level of fine might be calculated based on the annual turnover of the violator of the preceding financial year. The draft decree on personal data protection (DPDP) is therefore foreseen to have a significant impact on all businesses operating in Vietnam, especially foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) which often have cross-border data transfer activities.

The personal data protection (PDP) committee is an independent governmental body to be established under the auspices of the Ministry of Public Security (MoPS) of Vietnam. The PDP committee will function as the supervisory authority which oversees PDP activities in Vietnam.

Some of its duties include developing and running a national portal of personal data protection; approving data privacy policies of companies and organisations before they are rolled out; examining registration dossiers for the processing of sensitive personal data and transferring personal data cross border and requesting the MoPS to approve or reject the registration dossiers; requesting the MoPS to inspect suspected violations in PDP activities or to sanction the violations; issuing guidelines to implement the DPDP; and proposing inspection plans to the MoPS which might be conducted maximum twice a year, save for the case of a manifest violation.

Sensitive personal data

The definition of sensitive personal data is introduced for the first time in Vietnam by the MoPS to distinguish between that and the definition of basic personal data. Sensitive personal data includes genetic and biometric data, data concerning health, gender, sexual orientation, financial status and income, criminal records, location, and social relations of an individual.

According to the draft DPDP, the list of sensitive personal data is not an exhaustive one as any signature data of a person which requires a high level of confidentiality and special protection of the laws will be considered as sensitive personal data. Due to this special characteristic of the sensitive personal data, any processor wishing to process such data must register the data with the PDP committee in advance, save for certain exceptional circumstances.

The registration process would take maximum 20 working days from the date the PDP committee receives a sufficient registration dossier. Violation of the registration requirement might expose the processor to a fine of up to $4,300. Fintech companies, banks, hospitals, fitness centres and healthcare clinics would be the first ones that would get hit by this regulation when the DPDP takes effect.

According to the draft DPDP, cross-border transfer of personal data of Vietnamese citizens is restricted to a large extent. Specifically, cross-border transfer is conditional upon the satisfaction of four elements: the data subject consented to the transfer; the original data is stored in Vietnam; the country or the state where the data recipient is based offers the same or a higher level of data protection in comparison with Vietnam; and the PDP committee approves the transfer.

Although the draft DPDP sets out an exception where the cross-border transfer would be permissible without satisfying the four aforesaid elements, the prerequisites for this exceptional case need to be clarified in the subsequent drafts of the DPDP as they are still very obscure in this draft.

It is worth noting that in respect to the fourth element as set forth above, it would take a maximum of 20 working days to obtain an approval from the PDP committee after a sufficient registration dossier is lodged. Again, violation of the aforesaid requirement regarding cross-border transfer might expose the data transferor to a fine of up to $4,300.

As FIEs, as well as branches and representative offices of foreign investors in Vietnam, are often involved in multiple cross-border transfer activities, the draft DPDP proposes to apply a very severe fine, being 5 per cent of the total revenue in Vietnam, to violators of the regulation.

Data protection officers will soon be in high demand across Vietnamese organisations. Photo: Le Toan

Additional requirements

Similar to the concept of data controller in the GDPR, the draft DPDP requires a company or organisation which conducts data processing to set up or designate an internal department to function as a personal data protection department; and appoint a data protection office.

The main responsibilities of the PDP department and the data protection officer are to supervise activities within the organisation and to be the contact point for liaison with the PDP committee. The contact details of such department and officer must be notified to the committee.

The draft DPDP also requires a company or organisation which conducts data processing to issue a policy on PDP and applicable templates in implementation of the DPDP; and internal regulations governing the process of handling complaints and whistle-blowing reports with regard to personal data protection.

Last but not least, the draft DPDP requires a company or organisation which conducts cross-border transfer of personal data to store the records containing the timing of the transfer, recipient identity and contact details, and nature and volume of the data transferred within three years from the date of the transfer.

The draft DPDP sets out different types of administrative sanctions against violations of PDP, for example monetary penalty, suspension of personal data processing, or revocation of the rights for processing sensitive personal data and cross-border transfer of personal data. Some of these have been mentioned before.

Of note, similar to GDPR, the draft DPDP proposes to apply a very severe fine, being 5 per cent of the total revenue in Vietnam, to violators of the DPDP.

Although the draft is still in the process of being completed, given the fact that it is proposed to take effect in December, both local and foreign-invested enterprises should develop action plans as soon as possible to address new requirements imposed by the DPDP, for instance an internal policy regarding data protection, and setting up a department and appointing a data protection officer to oversee and censor data processing activities within the company.

This might require the involvement and collaboration of different departments in a company such as legal, HR, IT, and finance. Companies and organisations operating in Vietnam should keep the developments of the draft DPDP on the radar in the coming months.

By Minh Nguyen, senior associate of ACSV Legal