Efforts for More Rapid National Digital Transformation

After the kickstart period, national digital transformation will be accelerated with specific actions and solutions for each ministry, sector, field and locality in 2022 and beyond, according to experts. Our reporter has an interview with Mr. Do Cong Anh, Director of the Authority of Information Technology Application (AITA) under the Ministry of Information and Communications. Thu Ha reports.

How do you assess national digital transformation in the past time?

The worldwide outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed our digital transformation, with many goals of 10-20 years already achieved in just one year, or even faster. The country’s digital transformation has made outstanding results as follows:

The National Population Database was completed in just 500 days with the close and effective coordination between the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Information and Communications.

The online meeting platform, linking the Prime Minister with 63 provinces, 705 districts and 9,043 communes, was put into operation after just one week, serving urgent needs of pandemic prevention and control.

The telehealth platform, linked to 100% of district-level health facilities nationwide with national hospitals, was completed in just two days, helping reduce the load on higher-level hospitals while providing better treatment opportunities for patients at lower levels.

The "Internet and computers for school children" program was launched to benefit 1.5 million students across the country who could not afford to study online.

The digital transformation support program for small and medium-sized enterprises right in the first year of deployment helped more than 16,000 SMEs access Vietnam's leading digital transformation platforms and solutions, enabling them to cope with the pandemic to continue their business operations.

In addition, over time, technology platforms for pandemic prevention and control were gradually upgraded to better serve the people. Without a doubt, digital transformation is now on the right track, helping accelerate the national digital transformation.

In 2021, more outstanding Vietnamese digital products are aimed at the home market. Vietnam is almost ready for strong digital growth. What other factors do you think Vietnam needs to apply for a stronger digital business community?

Currently, Vietnam has many large tech firms such as Viettel, VNPT, FPT, CMC BKAV and MISA. Besides, many others are emerging, grown from startups and innovations such as Momo, 1Office, Base.vn and Anvui. Furthermore, many continue to research and develop technology products and platforms for national digital transformation.

To develop these businesses, and speed up national digital transformation, it is necessary to focus on the following issues.

The first is policies to promote and incentivize enterprises to make investment: Policies on technological R&D fund use in State-owned enterprises (SOEs) and incentive policies on tax and investment fund

The second is the legal corridor. As we know, technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain and robotics are regarded as Vietnam's development potential, and have attracted a lot of foreign investment funds. However, there are still questions about this: How are physical assets transferred to the digital environment managed and how are artificial intelligence technology entities applied?

In addition, the pandemic has been an extremely important catalyst for the Government to support domestic digital companies. Two years working with the Government to launch pandemic prevention technology solutions have created an unprecedented push in Vietnam’s information technology development history and a once-in-a-century opportunity for businesses to find new directions for themselves.

While the Government is making every effort to recover the post-pandemic economy, developing digital government, digital economy and digital society are considered among the key solutions. To do that, in 2022, what solutions will the Government and the Ministry of Information and Communications take?

In 2021, to further direct national digital transformation, the Prime Minister established and consolidated the National Digital Transformation Committee, chaired by him. On November 30, he presided over the first session of the committee where he directed specific tasks and solutions to implement the national digital transformation in 2022 based on all three pillars of digital government, digital economy and digital society.

Accordingly, major tasks include developing digital infrastructure to deliver digital services provided by the government and businesses so that people with smartphones can access them; ensuring 70% of households have access to a fixed broadband Internet connection; accelerating the execution of tasks and solutions on digital economic development. By 2022, the digital economy will make up 11.5% of the nation’s GDP.

Development goals of the above three pillars of digital transformation will significantly support post-pandemic economic recovery in the following aspects: Stimulating the economy with large technology infrastructure investment projects; and establishing a potential market for the digital economy. Technology will deliver the digital economy to all people and households, narrowing the digital divide in society, an important prerequisite for socio-economic development.

By Thu Ha, Vietnam Business Forum