On September 28, the Central Interdisciplinary Team for Anti-Illegal Printing under the Ministry of Information and Communications held a national anti-piracy training conference in 2023 in Ho Chi Minh City.

The conference was attended by Mr. Nguyen Thanh Lam - Deputy Minister of Information and Communications; Mr. Nguyen Nguyen - Director of the Department of Publishing, Printing and Distribution; Colonel Nguyen Anh Tuan - Deputy Director of the Department of Internal Political Security (A03); and delegates from agencies and units related to printing activities, anti-piracy units nationwide.

At the conference, Mr. Pham Tuan Vu - Deputy Head of the Information Interdisciplinary Delegation - presented a summary report on the activities of the Interdisciplinary Delegation in 2022, deploying key tasks in the coming period.

Accordingly, in 2022, the Interdisciplinary Delegation and Interdisciplinary Teams, and the Inspectorate of the local Department of Information and Communications conducted 1,833 inspections and checks of printing establishments, distribution establishments, and photocopy establishments (an increase of 154% compared to 2021).

The Interdisciplinary Delegation and Interdisciplinary Teams nationwide also issued 76 administrative penalty decisions with fines totaling over VND 1.2 billion (an increase of 53% compared to 2021), and recalled and destroyed over 130,000 publications of unknown origin.

Speaking at the conference, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Lam - Deputy Minister of Information and Communications - commented that many Vietnamese printing enterprises have made efforts to overcome challenges and achieved some encouraging results.

The Deputy Minister of Information and Communications also requested the Central Interdisciplinary Team to prevent and combat piracy to review and perfect its operating institutions in the direction of combining many agencies and units, promoting overall strength, and increasing resources and material resources for the Interdisciplinary Teams at the local level, meeting the requirements of the current fight against piracy.

"The coordination mechanism needs to be discussed further and specific solutions must be proposed. One of the first things to do well in coordination is to share information and experience through hotlines, information portals, and exchange groups. In particular, the Central Interdisciplinary Delegation needs to play a leading role.

Inspection and monitoring plans also need to follow the general trend, reducing fixed monitoring plans and increasing online monitoring for signs of violations that first appear in cyberspace," said Mr. Lam.

In the coming period, the Central Anti-Illegal Printing Interdisciplinary Team and local Anti-Illegal Printing Interdisciplinary Teams will have to carry out many tasks to promote the achieved results, overcome shortcomings and limitations, and ensure the work of preventing and combating piracy is highly effective.

In particular, the Interdisciplinary Delegation, relevant agencies, Working Group 304 (General Department of Market Management), Vietnam Printing Association... need to proactively develop and soon complete coordination regulations.

In addition, the Central Anti-Illegal Printing Interdisciplinary Team and the local Anti-Illegal Printing Interdisciplinary Teams also need to focus on coordinating with many forces (Inspectors of the Department of Information and Communications, the local Market Management Department, relevant agencies...) to step up local reconnaissance work, grasp the situation and developments of printing establishments.

From there, strengthen the organization of surprise inspections and checks, receive information and feedback from people and units in the industry about organizations and individuals showing signs of illegal printing, counterfeit printing, illegal publishing business, copyright infringement, and resolutely handle violations in printing activities, especially cases showing signs of violating criminal law.