On August 29, 2022, the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) of Vietnam published a draft circular on the "National Technical Regulations on the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment" on the WTO Trade Technology website, with the regulation number QCVN 2022/BCT.

The Appendix to the Draft Circular lists several categories of electrical and electronic equipment that require RoHS certification, including:

• IT and telecommunications equipment: mainframes, small computers, printers and printing equipment, personal and notebook computers (including CPUs, mice, monitors, and keyboards), notebooks, notepad calculators, photocopiers, electrical and electronic typewriters, pocket and desktop computers, and other electronic collection, storage, processing, Equipment for presenting or communicating information, fax machines, telegraphs, mobile phones, telephones, answering systems and equipment for transmitting sound, images or other information via telecommunications,
• monitoring instruments: smoke detectors, heat regulators, thermostats, other monitoring tools used in industrial installations (e.g. those used in control panels).

The Regulation is expected to come into force on December 1, 2022, and the implementation date reflected in the Regulation is January 1, 2026 (but the WTO website shows that the recommended implementation time is January 1, 2025).

Click on the view the original draft circular.

Vietnam's Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) issued a draft circular in early 2022 on regulating products with mandatory type approval, certification, and declaration of conformity. On 16 May 2022, the MIC issued Circular 02/2022/TT-BTTTT – Lists of Products and Goods Regulations that may cause uninsecurity under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Information and Communications, which will replace the 01/2021/TT-BTTTT Circular and Circular 11/2020/TT-BTTTT and will come into force on 1 July 2022.

The circular contains a list of certified products and a summary of the regulations. Updates to the Circular include:

• The Other Equipment section has been moved to Annex 2 (Mandatory Declaration of Conformity)
• containing output power limits for LPWAN devices

Click this link to view the original text of the Circular 02/2022/TT-BTTTT.

On April 7, 2022, Vietnam's regulator, the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC), released a draft regulation QCVN 131:2022/BTTTT promulgating the "National Technical Regulations for NB-IoT Terminals" and solicited public comments on the new regulations. This draft regulation is based on ETSI EN 301 908-1 V15.1.1 (2021-09) and ETSI EN 301 908-13 V13.2.1 (2022).

The deadline for public consultation on the new regulations is June 7, 2022, and feedback can be clicked on this link. The new regulations are expected to come into effect on July 1, 2023.

Click This link looks at QCVN 131:2022/BTTTT.

On December 31, 2021, the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) of Viet Nam issued Circular No. 29/2021/TT-BTTTT promulgating the national frequency plan for the 2300 – 2400 MHz band of the IMT mobile network. The announcement announced that Vietnam plans to deploy the 2300-2400 MHz radio frequency band in accordance with the International Mobile Telecommunications Advanced (IMT-Advanced) standard and its successors.

The notification applies to organizations, enterprises and individuals who manufacture, import, trade and use radio equipment in Vietnam. 2300 – 2400 MHz will be split into 3 time division duplex spectrum resource blocks, i.e. A1, A2, A3, each with a width of 30 MHz.

The announcement is effective from February 15, 2022. It removes Article 1, Article 2.2 and the related 2300 – 2400 MHz provision in Circular No. 18/2020/TT-BTTTT dated 20 August 2020.

Click on this link to access the original announcement.

On June 7, 2019, the European Union published Directive (EU) 2019/882, also known as the European Accessibility Act (EAA). The directive complements the European Web Accessibility Directive (EU) 2016/2102 (Web Accessibility Directive). Accessibility means that products, services, or environments should be designed to allow people with disabilities to be able to use them equally (directly or indirectly (with some degree of assistance).

Applicable Products & Services:

For specific products covered by the EAA, please refer to Article 2 Scope of Chapter 1 of the EU Directive (EU) 2019/882 (hereinafter referred to as "relevant products and services"). The specific "Accessibility" requirements are detailed in Directive (EU) 2019/882 ANNEX 1. Some example products include:

• computer and operating system
• ATMs, ticket machines and check-in machines
• Smartphones
• Television equipment related to digital television services
• Telephone service and related equipment
• Access to audiovisual media services such as television broadcasting
• Air, bus, rail and water passenger transport related services
• Banking services
• E-book
• E-commerce

Implementation time and transition period:

According to Directive EU2019/882, all relevant products and services, in particular digital technologies, that enter the EU market after 28 June 2025 must be accessible to persons with disabilities and older persons. The goal is to standardize accessibility and ensure easier access to relevant services and products.

Products that have been on the market or services that have been provided before June 28, 2025 can continue to be used for the duration of the contract, but with a maximum transition period of 5 years. That is, by 28 June 2030, the EEA must fully apply to all relevant products or services offered on the EU market, including those already on the market before 28 June 2025.

Click on this link to view the original Directive (EU) 2019/882.