Accelerating Comprehensive Digital Transformation

Tien Giang has been one of the Top 10 provinces in the country in terms of ICT Index in recent years. The province is speeding up e-government construction and moving towards a digital government, a digital economy and a digital society according to a flexible roadmap towards comprehensive digital transformation.

Mr. Phan Tam, Deputy Minister of Information and Communications visited and worked at Mekong Software Park

Telecom infrastructure development

Tien Giang province has achieved disruptive progress in information technology - telecommunications infrastructure, enabling it to provide a wide range of better services for local people and businesses, as well as getting ready for the construction of digital government as well as digital transformation in the province.

The household adoption rates of smartphones and broadband fiber optic cables are 87.4% and 68.3%, respectively. Mobile coverage has reached 100% of communes, wards and townships and internet coverage is available for all State agencies.

Tien Giang province had 16 postal service providers with 283 service points as of June 2022, averaging 6,343 people per service point and a radius of 1.672 km per service point.

The base transceiver station (BTS) infrastructure has been strongly developed. The province has 4,977 BTS stations, including 1,290 2G stations, 1,814 3G stations and 1,873 4G stations). All communes, wards and townships have access to fiber optic connections and broadband internet.

The information system is built synchronously and widely across the province, district and commune, including education and health sectors. Specially, the Electronic Office System, the Electronic Single-window and Public Service System, the Electronic Health System, and the School Management System have been deployed to cover and serve local people.

Speeding up comprehensive digital transformation

Tien Giang province issued Plan 370 on digital transformation in 2021 - 2025 and Digital Transformation Support Plan for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in 2022 - 2025. The province also established a steering committee for digital transformation and a working group for this committee; issued regulations on specific actions to strengthen leadership and direction of digital transformation in governmental agencies and accelerate digital transformation in businesses and people. VNPT Tien Giang sided with the Provincial People’s Committee in digital transformation since December 2021 to launch digital government platforms with task-specific systems (mobile application for citizens, government, antimalware system, smart camera, etc.)

To expedite communications and raise awareness of digital transformation, Tien Giang province has also bolstered information in many ways such as building digital transformation websites (http://chuyendoiso.tiengiang.gov.vn - a dedicated website for digital transformation; https://tiengiang.gov.vn/chuyen-doi-so - a special column on the provincial government website; and http://www.baoapbac.vn/khoa-hoc-doi-song/chinh-quyen-dien-tu - a page on the province’s electronic newspaper.)

As a result, many important contents and tasks have been completed in the past time, thus enabling speedier digital transformation. The electronic single-window system integrated with the online public service portal has been deployed simultaneously, interconnectedly and smoothly in all governmental agencies to effectively reform administrative procedures. A mobile two-way online video conferencing system (soft solution) has been rolled out effectively.

In addition, the Intelligent Operations Center (IOC) is the foundation for integrating the province's information systems and databases into a shared system to better serve the direction and administration of the Provincial People's Committee. There is an increasing percentage of people using TienGiangS platform applications on mobile devices (nearly 300,000 downloads).

According to the Report on Digital Transformation Index (DTI) in 2020, Tien Giang province ranked 6th in the country in terms of digital transformation. It was also one of 23 provinces and cities with 100% of public services qualified for Level 4.

Mr. Tran Van Dung, Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said that the department will further reinforce information technology application and connection sharing to better enable digital transformation in various fields such as health, education, tourism, environmental resources and agriculture.

Moreover, the department will speed up the province’s data interconnectivity and sharing with national information and database systems; promote digital business, e-commerce and digital economy development.

In particular, the province will introduce and invite secondary investors into the 7-ha Mekong ITP Software Park (in My Tho City); launch a digital transformation project for Tien Giang University in order to build a digital university, train and supply digital human resources; and continue to develop and implement the My Tho smart city project.

Hoai Nam (Vietnam Business Forum)