 (Photo: mic.gov.vn) |
The 13th National Party Congress defined digitalization as the driving force of Vietnam’s economic development. In May last year the Government endorsed its first development strategy towards digital government in the 2021-2025 period, with a vision to 2030. The National Committee on Digital Transformation came to life shortly after. Recently, the Ministry of Information and Communications submitted a draft Strategy of Digital Economic Development with a focus on eight pillar sectors. These moves are tremendously instrumental to Vietnam’s digitalization, particularly in raising public awareness.
Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Huy Dung said, “We have recorded significant initial results in digitalization in 2021. Apparently, all state agencies, businesses, and all of us are fully aware of the fact that digitalization is irreversible. Technology are present in every economic sector and Governmental operation.”
Notably, the COVID-19 pandemic has turned out to be a kind of "catalyst" for the adoption and increasing use of digitalization, especially in healthcare, education, e-commerce, and state management.
Nguyen Van Khoa, Chairman of the Vietnam Software and IT Services Association (VINASA), told VOV, “We are evolving unprecedentedly in every aspect of life because of digitalization. For example, digitalization allows Da Nang citizens to register online with only a few simple steps to buy electricity. In Lang Son province, village chiefs are mentoring local people how to run online businesses, thus increasing their sales of farm produce by 174 folds. In Quang Ninh province, Chairman of the People’s Committee, who works on-site, is able to log in an administrative system to track how procedures at grassroots levels are processed.”
According to an online forum on digitalization in December, experts said there are numerous hurdles to Vietnam’s transformation. It’s just at the warm-up stage of digitalization, in which tech companies bear a heavy responsibility.
Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung shared the same view at a recent forum.
“Tech companies are tasked with developing platforms for Vietnam’s digital transformation. This is a national mission. Those platforms make up the infrastructure for a digital economy and the data base of all Vietnamese people. They will drive our economy steadily and sustainably forward to become a digital country and a high-income developed country by 2045.”
Minister Hung said digitalization will be extensive and intensive in 2022 toward a goal that Vietnam will have a digital government by 2030 when digital economy will contribute 30% of the country’s GDP. By 2030, Vietnam aims to land in the top 50 globally and top 3 of ASEAN when it comes to digitalization.