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The Government has recently issued a decree encouraging production and business organizations and individuals to apply article number codes and barcodes in quality management and traceability of products and goods.
Effective as of January 23, Decree 37 promotes the use of various technologies concerning article number codes and barcodes, categorized into one-dimensional (or linear) codes and two-dimensional codes, such as QR codes and DataMatrix codes, radio-frequency identification (RFID), near-field communication (NFC), and other appropriate technologies.
The decree emphasizes that these technologies should be integrated with artificial intelligence, big data, and the Internet of Things (IoT) to facilitate the collection, storage and sharing of data on product and goods quality throughout the entire supply chain.
Goods producers and service providers may themselves decide on the application of article number codes and barcodes on technological platforms that are suitable to their actual needs, provided that they fully comply with this Decree.
Besides, traceability systems used by goods producers and service providers must enable traceability in conformity with national, international, regional, foreign or in-house standards as specified in the law on standards and technical regulations. In case a national technical regulation on traceability systems is available, the goods producers and service providers are required to carry out procedures for regulation conformity declaration in accordance with law.
As stated in the decree, traceability data must include basic information like product name, product image, name and address of the manufacturer/trader, origin, brand or trademark, and batch or serial number and expiry date (if any).
The decree also introduces provisions on digital product passports and electronic labels for goods. A digital product passport will be established in the form of electronic data linked to a unique identification code and may be used as a substitute for an electronic label if it has sufficient mandatory labeling components as prescribed.
In light of this, the Ministry of Science and Technology, as the focal-point unit in charge of product and goods traceability, is assigned to submit to the Prime Minister for approval a roadmap for the application of digital product passports to specific product groups.
- (VLLF)
