The latest report by the United Nations Public Administration Network (UNPAN) states Vietnam is 105th among 191 countries in terms of e-government.
According to the World Bank’s (WB) definition, e-government is a systematic use of information and communication technology (ICT) by the Government to perform public administrative services with people, enterprises and social organisations. The benefits include an increase of productivity and quality, as well as reduce of corruption and a promotion of openness.
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Hanoi Department of Posts and Telematics and IDG Vietnam co-organized annual 4th Vietnam E-government Symposium in International Convention Center( ICC). The event which is endorsed by Hanoi people's Committee and Ministry of Posts and Telematics will include the conference and exhibition.
“E-Government -The Bridge for Government, Business and Citizens” is the theme of this Symposium aimed at giving assessment on practical issues of e-Government (e-Gov) in Vietnam, creating better public service; bringing benefit for businesses and citizens by strengthening e-government model to improve government management capacity.
Running concurrent with the Symposium is an Exhibition display and introduce latest products, solutions to e-Government application inside and outside the country such as: SAP, APC, Lenovo and FPT Telecom among others. |
According to UNPAN, an organisation each year releases reports on ratings of e-government of each country, e-government index is a measure for capacity and readiness of each country in the building of e-government based on ICT. Accordingly, the capacity is evaluated via financial investment, infrastructure, human resources, policies and management. The readiness is evaluated via the capability of providing information and knowledge for people and enterprises. The index is based on three basic factors, the presence of a website built by the Government, ICT infrastructure, and education and training. The latest report by the United Nations Public Administration Network (UNPAN) states Vietnam is 105th among 191 countries in terms of e-government.
E-government implementation in Vietnam
Having been aware of great meanings and the development tendency of e-government, Vietnam has started the process by promoting the ICT application to activities of governmental agencies. The Government has worked out and implemented many activities and programmes, including a project on the computerisation of State administrative management in the 2001-2005 period and a project on the computerisation of activities in Party agencies. So far, 70 per cent of ministries and 80 per cent of provinces and cities have electronic portals and websites, let alone hundreds of websites developed by agencies and universities.
ICT infrastructure in Vietnam has seen a rapid development, which will serve as a foundation to promote the development of e-government. By December 2006, the number of telephones among every 100 people is 29 units. The rate of Internet users is 16 per cent. All communes have had telephones. The comprehensive efforts have helped Vietnam be present in the world market. Hoang Quoc Lap, director of the Department of Information Technology Application, the Ministry of Post and Telematics, said a rapid change in ICT of Vietnam over the past five years has put Vietnam into a list of countries for evaluation and rating by organisations in terms of the readiness for the development of e-government.
Evaluating websites and portals of provinces and cities nationwide, a report about websites of State administrative agencies in 2005 by the Ho Chi Minh City National Administrative Academy states, websites of localities were well-developed with useful information, partly meeting the requirements for introduction of localities’ potential, prospect, and development orientations. The websites prove an advancing step in providing information for people and the community.
Ngo Minh Chau, director of the Information Technology Centre, the National Assembly Office, said that the National Assembly had begun to provide some services via websites. Initially, legal documents have been provided for people and enterprises’ reference. At the same time, people and enterprises can contribute their comments and input via the websites.
2010 strategy
Within a strategy on promoting e-government throughout 2010, Tran Minh Tien, director of the Institute for Post, Telematics and Information Technology Strategy, the Ministry of Post and Telematics, said “a target of the building e-government in Vietnam throughout 2010 is to provide enough necessary information and gradually provide online public services for people and enterprises at any time and any place. Concretely, in 2010, 100 per cent of governmental agencies will have had websites, over 50 per cent of enterprises in such major cities as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City will get access to online public services, and over 25 per cent of people in urban areas, first class, will be able to get access to modern financial, banking and customs services.
Pham Kim Son, director of the Da Nang Department of Post and Telematics, the application of ICT in State administrative management should go with socio-economic development strategies of each locality. Son affirmed the computerisation of administrative management was not a jewellery item for authorised agencies. Instead, it is a instrument for the building of a more effective and transparent administrative apparatus for the socio-economic development.
According to evaluation made by some international organisations on ICT indexes, many indexes of Vietnam fell except for e-government. The report by UNPAN in December /2005 states Vietnam’s e-government index in 2005 was 0.364 points, just higher than that of 0.338 in 2004. Vietnam is ranked 105th out of 191 countries, or a seven rank increase. This is a progress in comparison with a fall by 15 ranks in the previous years. Vietnam is 11th among 20 countries in Asia-Pacific with a high index.
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