Speeding Up National Digital Transformation

Digital transformation is a global megatrend, significant to the Fourth Industrial Revolution or Industry 4.0, and has become imperative amid the resurgence of the Covid-19 pandemic. Emphasizing the strategic importance of digital transformation, in his keynote speech delivered at the opening session of the 13th National Party Congress, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong underscored the importance of stronger national digital transformation.

In fact, digitization can be seen in all activities from images to sounds, processes, procedures to products and services. Moreover, it can be endlessly scaled up and conveyed instantly to anywhere with near-zero cost and time.

Furthermore, digitization makes data collection and processing automated and easy. Data analysis enables quicker and better decision-making. Data is becoming the most important resource for every business and every country.

Digital transformation creates new impetus for economic growth, and at the same time provides opportunities for Vietnamese businesses to build new strategies.

Active and rapid participation of agencies and businesses

Immediately after the Prime Minister enacted the National Digital Transformation Program, many sectors accelerated digital transformation and achieved results that reportedly had significant impact on public governance and people’s livelihoods. For example, the number of services provided on the National Public Service Gateway operated by the Government Office on the platform built and developed by VNPT Group amounted to 2,700 integrated public services, as compared to nearly 6,700 administrative procedures delivered at four levels of government as of December 30, 2020.

The online declaration through the National Service Portal has helped people quickly and easily declare, apply for house construction permits, register license plates and pay registration tax when buying imported cars. According to estimates of the Government Office, digitization has "saved more than VND6,700 billion a year in social costs when doing public services online". But more importantly, the operation through the National Service Portal has made an important contribution to administrative modernization and become one important solution for e-government development in Vietnam.

Ready to become on par with the national digital transformation roadmap, Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) has accelerated its digital government ecosystem solutions. In addition to consulting on project development and providing information technology solutions on e-government, digital government and smart city construction for central and local agencies, VNPT has also completed specific platforms for digital transformation such as Intelligent Operations Center (IOC) solution, National Population Database and National Land Database.

The Ministry of Health has quickly responded to digital transformation and applied information technology to medical examination and treatment. Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said, “Up to now, 1,500 telehealth points are connected, powering lower medical facilities to conduct emergency cranial surgeries. Without telehealth, the referral takes six hours to reach a higher hospital and patients may die in the process.

Mr. Vo Tri Thanh, Director of the Institute of Brand and Competitiveness Strategy (BCSI), said, at a business survey conducted in 2020 by the General Statistics Office (GSO) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment, that up to 30% of respondents invested in technology and machinery to change the way they operate, manufacture and do business, which proves that digital transformation is not only a requirement for the Government but also an obvious demand for the Vietnamese business community.

Prof. Ho Tu Bao from the Vietnam Institute for Advanced Studies in Mathematics (VIASM) affirmed that Industry 4.0 is opening opportunities for countries with no industrial traditions and opening opportunities for small to large businesses. If Vietnam cannot digitally transform and apply technology to move forward, it will lag behind further.

Accelerating national digital transformation

The National Digital Transformation Program is a major comprehensive program. With the Party policy on stronger national digital transformation, the power of the Party, the people and the entire political system will be mobilized to successfully realize the program for national digital transformation to bring the country to a new phase of substantive development.

After the starting period of national digital transformation, the year 2021 as well as the whole five-year period of 2021-2025 is defined as the time to speed up specific actions and solutions for each ministry, sector and locality.

Although the Covid-19 pandemic has caused a serious impact on the global economy, disrupted commodity supply chains, hurt imports and blanked sellers’ stores in 2020, e-commerce still expanded 18%. Personal and corporate accounts in the e-commerce market are also on the rise.

Experts predict that digital transformation and e-commerce will continue to thrive in 2021, bringing new opportunities to create momentum for economic growth.

To successfully speed up digital transformation, according to BCSI Director Vo Tri Thanh, if an enterprise wants to be digitally transformed, it must think big, work in details and act drastically from every small work that is innovative, disseminative; and align digital transformation with the business development strategy where the leadership must be on the forefront.

Mr. Pham Nam Long, CEO of Abivin Company, said digital transformation helps businesses optimize resources, starting by digitizing documents, information and task assignment, enabling them to use digital data to improve operations. To be absolutely successful, they need to review their capabilities and needs, find suitable solutions, base on actual development, carry out step by step and maintain operations.

According to Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung, local and central bodies need to choose the right way to implement digital transformation immediately and comprehensively, not gradually or partially. “The digital platform is a quick way to do it. One digital platform can be shared by a hundred million people,” he said.

“As regards digital government, it is not necessary to complete e-government before we build a digital government, but we can immediately deploy a digital government from 2021,” he emphasized at an online cabinet conference. “Vietnamese technology enterprises can completely provide infrastructure, solutions and applications for national digital transformation,” Minister Hung concluded.

By Giang Tu, Vietnam Business Forum