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Decree 353/2025/NĐ-CP is structured across five chapters:
Chapter I — General Provisions: Scope, definitions, and the principle that State support mechanisms apply to the full digital-technology-industry value chain — products, services, infrastructure, and innovative startups.
Chapter II — State Support and Incentive Framework (Article 3 + implementing provisions): Establishes the preferential-policy architecture for qualifying enterprises: tax incentives (corporate income tax reduction, land-use-fee exemptions), public-procurement preference for domestic digital-technology products, R&D subsidies, and access to the Investment Support Fund already operationalised by Decree 182/2024/ND-CP. Semiconductor-industry-specific support builds on Decision 1018/QĐ-TTg (Vietnam Semiconductor Strategy 2030) and provides per-firm implementing rules. Dual-use civilian-military technology pathways are included for companies operating in defence-adjacent domains.
Chapter III — High-Quality Human Resources Development: Training-fund mandates (qualifying enterprises must contribute to a national skills-development pool), government-funded scholarship schemes (overseas postgraduate and research programmes in AI, semiconductor design, embedded systems), and a foreign-expert fast-track visa framework for senior digital-technology talent recruited by qualifying firms. This chapter mirrors the workforce-development provisions in the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act and the EU Chips Act and positions Vietnam for the skills bottleneck that has constrained its semiconductor OSAT build-out.
Chapter IV — Controlled Testing Mechanism (Sandbox): Vietnam's first standalone statutory innovation sandbox. Organisations and enterprises may deploy new digital products, services, and business models — including where no existing regulatory framework covers the activity — under time-limited (typically 12–24 months) and scope-limited approvals. Risk-management requirements and exit protocols are mandatory. The design parallels the Singapore MAS FinTech Sandbox, the UK FCA Regulatory Sandbox, and the EU AI Act sandbox provisions. Sectors explicitly named as sandbox candidates include AI inference services, digital-asset issuance, and AI-chip pilot programmes — directly relevant to supply-chain-monitoring.
Chapter V — Implementation: Ministry assignments, inter-agency coordination procedures, reporting obligations for enterprises operating under sandbox licences, and annual policy review triggers.
Structurally peer to 2024-12-31-vietnam-decree-182-investment-support-fund (also filed as a standalone implementing-decree alongside its parent statute Decision 1018/QĐ-TTg). Decree 353/2025/NĐ-CP introduces new substantive legal architecture — the sandbox regime, the per-firm preferential-incentive mechanism, the HR development framework — rather than just administrative implementation. Without this decree the parent Law 71/2025/QH15 cannot function operationally.
hubs all benefit from the Chapter II incentive framework; the fast-track foreign-expert visa removes friction for staffing up AI/chip-design operations.
chip-design ecosystem (VHT, FPT Semiconductor) can apply per-firm for preferential corporate income tax rates and R&D co-funding once Ministry of Science and Technology issues qualifying lists under Chapter II.
legal corridor for first-mover deployments — reduces regulatory-risk premium for cross-border technology transfer.
disclosure — watch for Ministry announcements of first-cohort sandbox participants (expected H2 2026) as a leading indicator of which cross-border digital-economy flows Vietnam is deliberately accelerating.
rates (annual cycle vs. rolling applications)
to the existing Tech-Expert Visa Decree or a new circular
initial approvals