Establishment of a data exchange: Is Vietnam building a data market or a data management mechanism with market elements?

Over the years, it has shown that databases, no matter how large, are difficult to promote their full value if they are stored scattered, lack of connection or without a legal exploitation mechanism.

In Vietnam, this situation exists in many fields. National databases, specialized databases and data held by enterprises are formed more and more, but most of them still operate relatively independently. Meanwhile, technology enterprises, research organizations and artificial intelligence developers have the need to access big data sources to build new products and services but lack a transparent and legal transaction mechanism.

 

On the surface, many people can imagine a data floor similar to an e-commerce platform where sellers put data on the list and buyers pay to mine it. 

 

In this context, the Data Law 2024 and the Draft Decree on the operation of data exchanges are expected to open up a new approach: organizing data as an asset class capable of being traded, exploited and created economic value. However, it is worth noting that the model that Vietnam is building does not appear to be entirely a data market in the traditional sense, but rather a controlled data market, in which the State plays a central role in establishing infrastructure, validating transactions, and monitoring risks.

1. Data floors are not just "data marketplaces"

According to the Data Law 2024, a data floor is a platform that provides data resources, data-related products and services, as well as an environment for transactions and exchanges of data and data products and services.

On the surface, many people can imagine a data floor similar to an e-commerce platform where sellers put data on the list and buyers pay to mine it. However, Vietnam's approach is considerably broader.

According to the Draft Decree regulating data floors of the Ministry of Public Security[1] (Draft), data floors not only perform the function of connecting supply and demand but also participate in checking the origin of data, confirming the right to exploit, supervise transactions, store information and connect to the state management system. In other words, it is an intermediate infrastructure that is both commercial and managerial.

It is worth noting that the Draft Decree designs a two-tier model including a national data floor and other data floors operated by enterprises or organizations. In particular, the national data floor plays the role of a center for connecting, coordinating and monitoring the entire ecosystem.

This design shows that Vietnam's goal is not only to facilitate data transactions, but also to build a unified data market governance mechanism on a national scale.

2. Four policy objectives behind the data floor model

Firstly, create a legal basis for data exploitation for digital economy development

The first and most obvious goal is to create a legal mechanism for businesses to access and exploit data.

In the digital economy, data is an important input for fields such as artificial intelligence, customer behavior analysis, logistics, e-commerce, digital finance, and digital healthcare. However, despite the growing demand for data, businesses often struggle to identify legal data sources and permitted scopes of use.

The data exchange is expected to address this gap by creating a transparent trading environment that helps buyers determine the source of the data, the conditions of use, and the permitted mining rights.

From a policy perspective, this is an important shift from the mindset of data management as an administrative resource to the mindset of data mining as a resource for economic development.

Second, exploit the economic value of public data

One of the most notable contents of the Draft Decree is the permission to exploit data from national databases, specialized databases and databases managed by State agencies through the data floor. In essence, this is a mechanism aimed at the controlled commercialization of public data.

Over the years, the State has invested huge resources to build national databases on population, land, insurance, business registration and many other fields. However, the economic value of these data has not been adequately exploited.

Allowing organizations and individuals to pay fees to access and exploit data can create additional revenue for the budget, and at the same time contribute to offsetting the cost of operating and upgrading the national data system.

However, this is also an area that requires a careful balance. If the fees are too high or the access procedures are too complicated, the goal of promoting innovation may be limited. Conversely, if the exploitation of public data is too easy, the risk of misuse or misuse will also increase.

Third, establish a unified data market management infrastructure

The third goal is not data transactions, but data governance.

The draft Decree requires data to undergo a process of origin, legality and certain technical conditions before being listed. At the same time, transactions are recorded through the authentication mechanism and issuance of data exploitation rights certificates.

These regulations show that Vietnam is moving towards forming a data market capable of tracing, authentication and monitoring.

If successful, this model could help reduce disputes over data provenance, increase business confidence, and facilitate the development of large-scale data transactions in the future.

Fourth, personal data protection and data security assurance

Unlike many other types of assets, data is often associated with privacy, business secrets, and national security. Therefore, the Draft Decree requires data originating from personal data to be de-identified before participating in transactions.

This is an approach that is in line with international trends. However, in practice, de-identification does not always completely eliminate the risk. Many studies around the world show that data that has been anonymized can still be re-identified if combined with other data sets.

Therefore, the challenge lies not only in de-identification but also in building a mechanism for monitoring, inspecting and handling accountability when data is misused.

 

 The difference of Vietnam is the huge role of the State in the operating model.

 

3. What trend is Vietnam following in the world?

Looking at the world, many countries have begun to build mechanisms to promote data transactions.

The European Union has enacted the "Data Act" in[2] 2024 to promote data sharing and exploitation among actors in the economy. Singapore develops trusted data sharing frameworks to facilitate the secure exchange of data. China has built data trading centers in Shanghai, Shenzhen and other localities to promote the formation of data markets.

However, the difference of Vietnam is the huge role of the State in the operating model. While many countries focus on establishing principles and standards for the market to operate autonomously, Vietnam chooses the model of having a national data floor that plays the role of a central connection and monitoring.

This approach can help better control risk in the early stages, but it also imposes a requirement to ensure fair competition between national exchanges and other data exchanges.

4. Challenges that need to continue to be solved

Despite setting many expectations, the data floor model still faces many challenges.

The first challenge is the risk of conflict of interest when an entity both performs the management function and participates in providing services in the market.

The second challenge is the issue of data pricing. Unlike tangible goods, the value of data depends on accuracy, up-to-dateness, rarity, composability, and use value in each specific case. Without relatively uniform pricing standards, the market may struggle to form prices that properly reflect the value of the data.

The third challenge is liability for inaccurate data. When businesses make investment or business decisions based on data purchased from the exchange, the question is who will be responsible if the data is skewed or no longer usable.

The fourth challenge is to ensure fair competition. If public data becomes the most valuable data source in the market, the mechanism of access and distribution of data will have a direct impact on the development of the entire digital economy ecosystem.

The draft Decree on the operation of data exchanges shows that Vietnam is gradually building the legal foundation for a full-fledged data market. However, it is worth noting that the State's goal does not seem to stop at creating a place for data transactions, but also towards the formation of a market-driven data management mechanism in which data is mined to create economic value but is still subject to strict scrutiny of security and privacy.

The success of this model will not be measured by the amount of data posted on the exchange or the number of transactions that arise. A more important measure is the ability to build trust for market participants, ensure fair competition, maintain data quality, and balance the development of the digital economy with the requirement to protect personal data. These are the factors that determine whether data will truly become a value-creating asset for Vietnam's economy in the coming period.