GOVERNING THE SOCIAL IN ASEAN’S DIGITAL FUTURE: VIETNAM AND DEFA

As the ASEAN Digital Masterplan 2025 gives way to the ASEAN Digital Masterplan 2030 (ADM 2030), regional governance is moving toward a ‘people–centred’ paradigm in which social goals increasingly mediate AI and data integration. Three sites of state–society mediation are examined in this paper. It first examines the effects on privacy and public trust by contrasting Vietnam's stringent localisation under Decree 53/2022 with ASEAN's voluntary data clauses. Second, it examines Resolution 05/2025/NQ–CP and the 2025 Law on Digital Technology Industry, seeing them as hybrid agreements to legalise the ‘gray economy’ through centralised oversight. Lastly, it uses UNESCO's 2025 readiness assessment and the Expanded ASEAN Guide on AI Governance to evaluate the human capital gap. The paper argues that Vietnam is selectively reconfiguring regional rules to prioritise national security alongside social inclusion. Ultimately, Digital Economy Framework Agreement—DEFA’s success depends on whether digital governance is perceived as socially legitimate by the masses.