Big steps forwards taken in national digital transformation: Deputy Minister
2023 has been a successful year for Vietnam in digital transformation with many steps forward, according to Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Huy Dung.
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Delivering a report on the 7th meeting of the National Committee for Digital Transformation on December 28, Dung said that this year, the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) has placed Vietnam in the 46th position out of the 132 countries and territories in terms of Global Innovation Index (GII), two places higher than the 2022 rankings, enabling the country to secure its position among the 50 leading countries in the field since 2018.
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| Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Huy Dung addresses the meeting. (Photo: VNA) |
Meanwhile, an e-Connomy SEA report released recently by Google, Temasek, and Bain & Company showed that Vietnam remains the fastest-growing digital economy in Southeast Asia for a second year in a row and is expected to hold this position until 2025, the official noted. Particularly, digital payments expanded by 19 per cent, making Vietnam the fastest-growing country in Southeast Asia in the field.
He highlighted the country’s fruitful outcomes in administrative reform and online public service provision, including the cutting and simplification of nearly 2,500 business regulations in 201 legal documents, and the erasing and simplification of 528 out of the 1,086 administrative procedures.
Deputy Minister Dung said that in the year, State agencies have put seven national databases into operation. In the 2021-2023 period, the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) directed telecommunications businesses to provide mobile coverage in 2,433 out of the 2,853 service-lacking areas.
Currently, Vietnam has 13 data center service providers and 45 data centers with nearly 28,000 racks, he said, adding that the country has 1.5 million workers in the field of information technology and digital technology.
The MIC has issued a program to encourage the use of national digital platforms, he said, noting that to date, eight have been announced, drawing 150 million regular users each month.
Meanwhile, the safety level of 2,074 out of the 3,192 systems, or 65 per cent, has been approved. The MIC has launched a management support platform to assist agencies and organizations in ensuring the safety of their information systems.
At the same time, the ministry has checked and labeled 4,770 websites as trustful networks, including 3,823 websites of state agencies. Authorities have blocked 9,073 websites that violate the law, including 2,603 fraudulent websites, protecting more than 10.1 million people from accessing infringing and fraudulent websites in cyberspace.
The ministry also requests ministries, sectors, and localities to deploy network trust labeling for 100 per cent of websites under their management no later than the second quarter of 2024.
According to the MIC, by the end of 2023, 81 per cent of administrative procedures have been provided online, while the rate of administrative procedures processed online has reached 38.3 per cent, saving 37 million working hours for the people, equivalent to 1.27 trillion VND (52.31 million USD)
Vietnam's digital economy has continued to grow rapidly at a rate of about 20 per cent, three times faster than GDP growth. However, this growth rate is forecast to slow down in the next few years.
The ministry has identified the digital economy as a new and potential space for sectors, raising the digital economy’s rate in the national economy to 20 per cent by 2025 and 30 per cent by 2030. Five promising sectors in the field are agriculture, tourism, garment and textiles, logistics, and processing manufacturing.
Deputy Minister Dung said that in 2024, Vietnam must focus on finding new space and new development motivations to boost economic growth and labor productivity.
In the year, the MIC will concentrate on universalizing digital infrastructure and creating digital applications to develop the digital economy, he stated, clarifying nine major tasks in digital infrastructure and five in universalizing the foundational elements for the digital economy.
It will order telecommunications enterprises and digital technology firms to solve six major problems in creating digital applications, the official added.
(Source: VNA)
