PM chairs meeting of national committee for digital transformation

VIETNAM, April 24 - HÀ NỘI — Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính requested more efforts to step up institutional improvement, create a comprehensive legal corridor to promote national digital transformation and develop the digital economy while chairing the eighth meeting of the National Committee for Digital Transformation on Wednesday.

Currently, 21 ministries, sectors and 62 localities have issued their digital transformation plans for 2024.

The National Population Database has also established connections to 18 ministries, sectors, all 63 cities and provinces, cities and four enterprises, and successfully synchronised 268 million pieces of citizen data.

Online public services for citizens and businesses have been improved, with 80.44 per cent of administrative procedures available on the Internet.

Up to 80.2 per cent of households have access to broadband internet cable while all communes across the country have fibre optic Internet connections. The 4G mobile broadband also covers 99.8 per cent of the country's population.

Notably, the digital economy's share of GDP reached 11.91 per cent in 2021 and 14.26 per cent in 2022.

This figure is estimated at 16.5 per cent in 2023 with a growth rate of 20 per cent, three times the GDP growth rate.

In Q1-2024, the revenue of the IT industry reached nearly US$36.3 billion, an increase of 17.7 per cent compared to the same period last year. Exports of IT products also reached $31 billion, up 17 per cent.

PM Chính, who is also chairman of the committee, underlined the need to promote economic growth and restructuring the economy, efficiently tapping traditional growth drivers and fostering new ones, including developing the green, circular and digital economy; speeding up the national digital transformation; and developing digital government, digital economy, digital society and digital citizenship.

Attention must be paid to implementing three strategic breakthroughs, including building and improving institutions, including those related to digital transformation; training human resources, particularly high-quality personnel serving digital transformation; and developing infrastructure, including digital infrastructure, he said.

PM Chính underlined that digital transformation is a key task and a breakthrough step in achieving socio-economic development goals, and contributing to reducing burdens for citizens and businesses, combating corruption and misconduct.

The Government leader requested more efforts to step up institutional improvement, create a full legal corridor to promote national digital transformation and develop the digital economy.

He said the action plan for 2024 issued by the National Committee for Digital Transformation has identified the four pillars of the national digital transformation work, including the information technology industry, digitalisation of economic sectors, digital governance, and digital data, which are important drivers for rapid and sustainable socio-economic development.

The PM demanded members of the committee, as well as leaders of ministries, sectors and localities, to report and evaluate national digital transformation efforts at the meeting, with specific evidence and statistics of what has been done, along with outstanding limitations, barriers, bottlenecks and their causes.

He also asked all relevant authorities concertedly and effectively carry out measures so that the country can move up at least five places in the United Nations e-Government Development Index, and be listed among the top 30 countries in the Global Cybersecurity Index.

PM Chính also pointed out the imperative need of ensuring cyber security and information security to protect the national cyberspace sovereignty early and from afar.

Work plan issued

In his role as chairman of the National Committee for Digital Transformation, PM Chính has signed a decision to issue the committee’s work plan in 2024, aiming to speed up national digital transformation in an effective and practical manner.

He believes this can create breakthroughs in the country's socio-economic development and contribute to completing all socio-economic targets for 2024 and the 2021-25 period.

The work plan’s objectives include strengthening the responsibility of organisations and individuals, especially leaders of state agencies at all levels in digital transformation, while synchronously and effectively implementing goals and tasks in the National Digital Transformation Programme to 2025 with vision to 2030, e-government development strategies towards digital government and the strategy for developing digital economy and digital society.

Specific targets include developing 48,000 digital technology enterprises operating in localities, and 60 per cent of businesses in industrial parks and export processing zones applying digital platforms in management and production to change production and business processes, increase productivity, operational efficiency and reduce emissions.

A total of 40 per cent of adults are expected to use online public services, with the government this year completing the supply of 53 online public services.

At the same time, 100 per cent of the information systems serving the processing of administrative procedures of ministries, sectors and localities will be connected to the system monitoring and measuring the level of service provision (EMC system).

Under the work plan, 100 per cent of the reporting information systems of ministries, sectors and localities are expected to be connected to the government reporting information system, the centre for information and direction of the Government and the Prime Minister, while 100 per cent of villages and hamlets accessing the national power grid are hoped to have mobile broadband coverage.

All ministries, ministerial-level agencies, governmental agencies and People's Committees of provinces and centrally-run cities are scheduled to use the management support platform to ensure information security by level.

To achieve these targets, the National Committee for Digital Transformation gave a number of solutions, including strengthening inspections of the implementation of digital transformation tasks in ministries, sectors and localities, building a semiconductor IC industry development strategy to 2030 with a vision to 2035, promoting, connecting and providing favourable conditions for digital technology firms to engage in the digital transformation process in industrial parks and export processing zones, prioritising the use of digital technology solutions developed by Vietnamese businesses, speeding up the development of local digital technology businesses and deploying electronic invoice solutions initiated from cash registers to prevent tax and budget losses. — VNS