Lawmakers debate competition and cyber security laws

The Government’s report on amending the competition law said the changes were essential to address shortcomings, including the abuse of market dominance, monopolies and unfair competition.

Participants of the Standing Committee’s session also agreed that the amendment would seek to ensure equal and non-discriminatory competition. 

They said the group drafting the amended law should review thoroughly the relationship between the competition law and related laws, like the Penal Code, the Administrative Procedure Law, the law on fees and charges, and the law on credit institutions.

Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh said the amended law already clarified how to deal with legal conflicts with other laws, such as the Advertising Law.

Nguyen Khac Dinh, Chairman of the National Assembly’s Legislative Committee, said the bill had broadened the scope of regulation and had adopted a new approach more suited to market conditions.

In the afternoon session, the Standing Committee discussed the Law on Cyber Security.

Minister of Public Security To Lam said there was an urgent need for network security in national security protection.

During the process of drafting the Law on Cyber Security, opinions varied. Some said it should focus only on national security, while others said the law should not only focus on protecting national security, but also ensure social security.

Lam said the Government believed that given the strong development of science and technology, network security was important for all areas of activity covered by cyberspace.

"The situation of network security in our country is increasingly complicated. Many information systems have been targeted by hackers. Every year, there are thousands of attacks aimed at government agencies, financial systems, banking, key information infrastructure, websites of organisations and enterprises in Vietnam,” Lam said.

He added that if the network security focused only on national security protection, it would miss other entities that also needed protection.

In 2016, Vietnam detected 135,190 cyber attacks, three times more than in 2015.