The two sides expressed the wish during a meeting in Hanoi on January 17 between Minister of Information and Communications Truong Minh Tuan and Google’s Director of Public Policy and Government Affairs in Asia-Pacific Ann Lavin.

Minister Tuan said following the establishment of a bilateral mechanism to prevent and stamp out toxic and illegal information on YouTube, by the end of 2017, Google blocked and delete 6,423 clips with bad contents on YouTube and removed six games from Google Play due to their violation of Vietnamese law.

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Minister of Information and Communication Truong Minh Tuan (R) and Google’s Director of Public Policy and Government Affairs in Asia-Pacific Ann Lavin

The minister called for Google’s closer collaboration with Vietnam by placing its representative office in Vietnam or establishing an exclusive cooperative channel with the Southeast Asian nation. He pledged support for Google while asking the company to study Vietnamese laws and work closely with Vietnamese agencies to address violations on YouTube.

Discussing Vietnam’s potential for a digital economy, Tuan said the country has set a target to build 4-5 smart cities by 2020, which will be a good opportunity for his ministry and Google to join hands in training and protection of cyberspace security.

Ann Lavin, for her part, affirmed that Google always adhere to the law of host countries where it does business, including in Vietnam. She said that Google has sent one expert to give consultancy on information security and share information with the Vietnamese Government.

She noted that her visit to Vietnam aims to study Vietnamese laws for better understanding and collaboration with the country.

Google will back Vietnam in developing the digital economy, she added.

Source: VNA