Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2663 actions· ✨ 89 recent

On 10 December 2025 the National Assembly of Vietnam adopted Law No. 134/2025/QH15 on Artificial Intelligence (8 chapters, 35 articles), Vietnam's first dedicated AI statutory framework and one of the first comprehensive horizontal AI laws in Southeast Asia. The law establishes a three-tier risk-based regulatory architecture (high / medium / low) for the research, development, provision, deployment, and use of AI systems; defines the rights and obligations of providers, deployers, importers, distributors, and users; and mandates state oversight via the Ministry of Information & Communications and Ministry of Science & Technology. Prohibited acts include systematic deception, manipulation of human perception, generation of fake content endangering national security, exploitation of vulnerable populations, and obstruction of human-supervision mechanisms. The law applies to Vietnamese agencies, organizations, and individuals as well as foreign organizations and individuals involved in AI-related activities in Vietnam, taking effect 1 March 2026 with 12-18 month transition windows for existing systems depending on sector.

China's State Council promulgated Order No. 818 on 28 September 2025 (effective 1 May 2026), establishing a comprehensive dual-track regulatory framework for biomedical new technologies — defined as techniques operating at the cellular or molecular level not yet clinically applied in China, covering cell therapy, gene editing, CAR-T, stem-cell, xenotransplantation, brain-computer interfaces, and nucleic-acid therapies. The regulation creates two parallel pathways: a traditional NMPA drug/device registration route and a new NHC-supervised clinical-research-to-commercialization track applicable to highly personalised or rare-disease therapies meeting staged safety and efficacy thresholds. Commercialisation under the NHC track is initially restricted to accredited Grade-3A medical institutions without full NMPA marketing approval, potentially accelerating patient access for qualifying technologies by 5–8 years relative to the standard registration pathway.

Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 on a Single Market For Digital Services (Digital Services Act, DSA) was adopted by the European Parliament and Council on 19 October 2022, published in OJ L 277 on 27 October 2022, entered into force on 16 November 2022, and applied in full from 17 February 2024 (with VLOP/VLOSE obligations applying from 25 August 2023 following the Commission's initial designation letters of February 2023). The DSA establishes a graduated intermediary-liability and platform-safety framework covering all online intermediaries serving EU users, with the heaviest obligations falling on designated Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs, ≥45m monthly active EU users) and Very Large Online Search Engines (VLOSEs): systemic-risk assessments, annual independent audits, vetted-researcher data access, recommender-system transparency, online-advertising transparency, and crisis-response cooperation mechanisms under Commission coordination. The European Commission holds exclusive enforcement authority over VLOPs and VLOSEs, with fines up to 6% of global turnover. The DSA is the structural twin-pillar to the Digital Markets Act (Reg (EU) 2022/1925): the DMA governs ex-ante competition obligations on designated gatekeepers; the DSA governs ex-post intermediary-liability, content-moderation, and platform-safety obligations across all online intermediaries.

Regulation (EU) 2022/1925 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 September 2022 on contestable and fair markets in the digital sector (Digital Markets Act, DMA) was published in OJ L 265 on 12 October 2022, entered into force on 1 November 2022, and applied for the most part from 2 May 2023. The DMA establishes an ex-ante competition framework imposing binding obligations and prohibitions on designated "gatekeepers" operating Core Platform Services (CPS) in the EU — covering search engines, social-networking services, video-sharing platforms, number-independent interpersonal communications, operating systems, web browsers, virtual assistants, cloud computing, online intermediation services, and online advertising. The European Commission designated six gatekeepers on 6 September 2023 (Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, Microsoft); full compliance with all obligations was required by 7 March 2024. Subsequent designations added Booking.com (May 2024) and Apple iPadOS (April 2024). The DMA functions as the EU's structural anchor for ex-ante digital competition regulation, closing the enforcement gap left by ex-post competition law (Articles 101–102 TFEU) where market-tipping dynamics make remedies ineffective after the fact.

Loi n° 2014-138, adopted by the Assemblée nationale and promulgated by President Alassane Ouattara on 24 March 2014, is the foundational mining-rights statute governing all mineral prospecting, research, and exploitation in Côte d'Ivoire. Its 197 articles across 16 titles repeal the prior Loi n° 95-553 (1995 Code Minier) and establish the modern permit regime, a 10% state free-carry in all industrial mining projects via SODEMI, and the royalty + ad valorem fiscal architecture that underpins every subsequent mining-convention and fiscal-law amendment. As West Africa's second-largest gold producer (approx. 45 t/yr) with growing bauxite and manganese exploration, CI's mining-code architecture is a material determinant of supply-chain access for Western and Chinese industrial consumers of these commodities.