A conference was held in HCM City on April 12 to gather opinions on proposed amendments to the Law on Archive. — VNA/VNS Photo

HCM CITY — Amendments proposed to the Law on Archive should enable electronic archiving and allow archiving by private entities, HCM City officials have said.

They were speaking at a conference held by the city’s National Assembly members to seek opinions on the amendments on April 12.

The amendments seek to eliminate certain shortcomings in the law to ensure people's right to access information, they said.

But archiving is still done with paper documents, and e-archiving requires a great deal of investment, and so ensuring sufficient resources is important, they said.

Ensuring information security for electronically stored documents is crucial, they said, adding that the amendment drafting committee should clarify what "being lost" means for digital documents, since it is difficult to confirm how digital documents could be lost, and whose responsibility it would be. 

Assoc Prof Dr Trần Hoàng Ngân said many private organisations are archiving for humane purposes such as documents related to the COVID-19 pandemic for guidance in future.

Such private archiving needs to be facilitated by the law, he said.

Mai Thanh Hùng, deputy head of the city Department of Home Affairs’ records and archives office, said that agencies, individuals and families who have submitted their records to the archive should be able to access them for professional work for free.

Trần Thanh Xuân from the Department of Justice said the amendments do not clearly spell out the criteria for archival value.

The amendments will be tabled at the National Assembly in May. — VNS