In brief

On 31 May 2023, Vietnam’s Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) issued Circular No. 04/2023/TT-BTTTT (“Circular 04” or “New Circular“) on the list of potentially unsafe goods under the management of the MIC (hereinafter referred to as “Group-2 Goods“). The New Circular will take effect on 15 July 2023, replacing the current Circular No. 2/2022/TT-BTTTT, dated 16 May 2022.

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Key takeaways

The New Circular provides some noticeable amendments compared to Circular 2/2022/TT-BTTTT, as set out below:

1. Update on the new national technical regulations/Quy chuẩn Kỹ thuật Quốc Gia (QCVN)
2. New requirement for land mobile user equipment and 5G user equipment.

In depth

1. Update on the new national technical regulations/Quy chuẩn Kỹ thuật Quốc Gia (QCVN)

Circular 04 provides a list of: (i) Group-2 Goods subject to certification and declaration of conformity; and (ii) Group-2 Goods subject to a declaration of conformity in accordance with the QCVN. Circular 04 supplements some new QCVNs to these lists as follows:

• QCVN 18:2022/BTTTT (National technical regulation on Electromagnetic Compatibility for Radio Equipment), effective on 1 May 2023, replacing QCVN 18:2014/BTTTT
• QCVN 130:2022/BTTTT (National technical regulation on electromagnetic compatibility for cordless audio devices operating on frequencies between 25 MHz and 2000 MHz), effective on 1 July 2023
• QCVN 131:2022/BTTTT (National technical regulation on E-UTRA NB IoT User Equipment — Radio Access), effective on 1 July 2023
• QCVN 132:2022/BTTTT (National technical regulation on electrical safety requirements for telecommunication and information terminal equipment), effective on 1 January 2024

Group-2 goods subject to new QCVNs above must adhere to new standards by the effective dates of such QCVNs.¹ Particularly for QCVN 132: 2022/BTTTT, Group-2 goods subject to this QCVN are required to apply IEC 62368-1:2018 standard before 1 January 2024.

Further, the Circular removes the following QCVNs from the lists:

• QCVN 22:2010/BTTTT (National technical regulation on electrical safety of telecommunications terminal equipment)
• QCVN 65:2013/BTTTT (National technical regulation on radio access equipment operating in the 5 GHz band)
• QCVN 22:2021/BTTTT (National technical regulation on electrical safety requirements for terminal equipment to be connected to information and communication networks)

2. New requirement for land mobile user equipment and 5G user equipment

• From 1 July 2024, land mobile user equipment (excluding mobile phones)² is required to apply E-UTRA FDD (4G) technology.
• Existing certificates of conformity for land mobile user equipment (excluding mobile phones)³ that have applied W-CDMA FDD (3G) and GSM (2G and 2.5G) technology under QCVN 117:2020/BTTTT will be invalidated on 30 June 2024.
• Existing certificates of conformity for 5G user equipment⁴ under either QCVN 127:2021/BTTTT or QCVN 129:2021/BTTTT will be invalidated on 30 June 2024.

The full Vietnamese text of the New Circular can be found here.

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1 Article 4 of Circular 04

2  Land mobile user equipment (excluding mobile phones) under HS code 8517.62.59

3 Land mobile user equipment (excluding mobile phones) under HS code 8517.62.59

4 5G user equipment under HS codes 8517.13.00, 8517.14.00 and 8517.62.59