Hanoi (VNA) – Global IT platforms such as Google and Facebookshould be required to establish legal entities in Vietnam in charge ofconforming to the country’s laws, a representative of VTC Mobile has proposed.

Nguyen Ngoc Bao, Director of VTC Mobile, a Vietnamese mobile game publishingcompany, was quoted by ictnews.vn as saying this would help ensurefair competition between local and foreign companies.

Bao said that borderless service platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Googleand Netflix are providing content services for Vietnamese users, such as onlineadvertising, games and films, with users making payments via credit cards orintermediary payment apps.

This makes it difficult to manage borderless service platforms without legalentities in Vietnam.

Under Decree 72/2013/NĐ-CP, about the management, provision, use of internetservices and information content online, both domestic and foreign firms arerequired to follow the country’s regulations.

Bao said that it was essential to require global IT firms to establish legalentities in Vietnam to better manage their operations in the country amidstrapid technology development which enables borderless services provision.Payments should also be integrated into Vietnamese payment channels, he said.

From the beginning of this year, Google and Apple stopped accepting paymentsthrough local channels, such as mobile cards, for purchasing digital content onthe Google Play Store and Apple Store.

Instead, only payments through their own payment gateways were accepted andproviders would receive payment only when customers’ transactions werecompleted and the payment had been processed.

According to Luu Vu Hai, Chairman of VTC, the payment policies of Google andApple create difficulties for local digital content companies, including gamepublishing companies.

Previously, Hai proposed the Ministry of Information and Communications raisepolicies to tackle this problem early to ensure healthy competition.-VNA