“Digital Government development needs appropriate mechanisms and policies,” commented Mr Le Manh Ha, Vice Chairman of the Government Office at the national conference on digital government in 2016 that took place recently in Hanoi. The event was chaired by the Hanoi’s People Committee and the Department of Information and Communications in collaboration with the Vietnam International Data Group (IDG Vietnam).
According to Mr Le Manh Ha, the application of information technology (IT) in the operation of the state apparatus is an urgent task for the development of digital government in the context of greater international integration.However, Digital Government in Vietnam has not been built due to lack of inter-connection.
One of the shortcomings pointed out by Mr Ha is that at present, the databases regarding business registration, investment registration, and civil status of local agencies have not linked with those of ministries and localities.The Government Officewill coordinate with the ministries to overcome this problem.
On the current state of digital government, Nguyen Phu Tien, Deputy Director of Computerization (Ministry of Information and Communications) says that 90 per cent of civil servants in the state agencies are equipped with computers;100 per cent state agency connected with intranet;60 per cent of ministries and 40 per cent of provinces and cities with pilot applications of digital signature. Phase 2 of the special-purpose data networks of the Party and the State has been completed and there are stronger connections among the departments and districts.
In addition, all of the ministries and ministerial-level agencies, the government agencies, provinces and centrally- run cities have electronic portals.Most online DVC has been run at level 2. Many specialized system prove their remarkable effectiveness, especially in the field of electronic tax (90 per cent of businesses participating electronic tax payment), e-customs (100 per cent customs authorities of provinces and cities performing the clearance system via VNACCS / VCIS).
However, according to Mr Tien, the implementation of digital government has still many limitations; for example, many places have not met thetechnical infrastructure requirements. The application of information technology within the government agencies primarily is still in small-scale, without connection and sharing information on a large scale.The operation of multiple tasks over the network has not been performed yet. The online public services at level 3 and 4 have not provided much to people and businesses.
The Deputy Director of the Computerization Department also confirmed that the issues regarding structures, funding, and resources of the digital government projects always raise concerns.A project with goals and guidelines but lacking mechanisms and budget cannot be performed well in practice.To accelerate the development of digital government, Mr Tien proposes that the Government and the ministries and agencies seek partners and mobilise social resources.
Sharing on this opinion, Mr Pham Minh Tuan, General Director of FPT Information System Company, said the services need a socialisation mechanism.Public services should not be provided by a unit but multiple units to create competition and continuous improvement to attract users.Some other ideas at the conference focus on the areas such as transportation, health, and food safety that have high demand and interest from the people.
In addition, information security is also a vital matter in the application of IT roadmap to develop the Digital Government in Vietnam.The experts expect to speed up the deployment of the Digital Government in Vietnam, especially after the Prime Minister’s issuing of Resolution 36a/ Q-CP dated October 14, 2015 on digital government, in the expectation of improving the operational efficiency of the government to better serve the people and the businesses and to enhance the competitiveness in the context of economic integration.
Ms Vo Thi Trung Trinh- Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Information and Communications
To deploy IT applicationsas well as digital government, the heads of the state agency should be more intensive and focused on implementation methods.
It is necessary to apply multiple IT applications for the leaders in practice.Once the leaders see the practical benefits of the application of information technology in solving daily work, they will accelerate the application of information technology in their agencies.
Mr Thieu Phuong Nam, CEO of Qualcomm at Indochina
Previously, digital government was accessible on the computer.However, recently, there are more and more people who are accessing via mobile devices. Therefore, the authorities should focus on enabling mobile services to be more accessible to people.
Besides, in the complicated context of the network security, information security and registration of public services from mobile devices must also be guaranteed for absolute safety.The service providers, governments, and users should pay attention to this issue.
Ha Vu
Vietnamese
