Vietnam is considering an electronic identity requirement for domestic people and organizations that buy or sell goods with foreign partners through e-commerce platforms, placing verified identity at the front of cross-border online trade.
The requirement appears in proposed amendments to the country’s Customs Law presented by Finance Minister Ngo Van Tuan at the first extraordinary sitting of Vietnam’s 16th National Assembly. The measure remains a draft and may change before adoption.
Under the proposal, Vietnamese traders using e-commerce platforms for cross-border transactions would need to complete electronic identity verification. The list of parties able to make customs declarations would also expand to include e-commerce platform operators, postal and express-delivery businesses, and other organizations involved in moving goods through the border process.
A National Assembly review committee has backed the identity requirement while recommending that verification happen once for each account. That approach would allow the verified status to carry across later transactions instead of asking the same person or business to repeat the identity check for every purchase or sale.
The account-level model makes the proposal particularly relevant to mobile commerce. A seller or buyer could establish a verified identity when opening or updating a platform account, then use that account for subsequent cross-border customs activity.
The draft does not specify that the check must use a particular app. Vietnam’s wider mobile identity system is centered on VNeID, the national platform already used for public services, banking and travel. A dedicated lane at Da Nang International Airport recently began letting eligible passengers complete a domestic airport journey with VNeID-linked facial verification.
Lawmakers are also considering how the customs provisions should fit with Vietnam’s separate Law on E-Commerce. The review committee asked the government to avoid overlapping obligations and to define clearly which organizations are responsible for declarations and verification.
If enacted, the change would extend electronic identity into a new everyday activity for Vietnamese merchants and shoppers. Its practical effect will depend on the final law and the verification method chosen for commerce accounts, including how platforms connect account identity to customs filings.
