Vietnam’s e-government implemented a smart urban operation centre and reporting and data analysis system on a trial basis, which has brought initial results.
According to a United Nations report on e-government development for August 2017 to July 2019, Vietnam ranked 86th among 193 surveyed countries, a two-grade increase compared with the previous ranking. Currently, the country ranks 24th out of 47 Asian countries in the e-government development level.
In Southeast Asia, Vietnam ranks 6th among 11 countries. Vietnam’s general index is 0.6667, higher than the average index of the world and the region. Vietnam is among the countries with a high e-government development level.
Regarding component indicators, Vietnam has seen great improvement in the telecommunication infrastructure index with a 31-grade promotion and improvement in human capital index with a 3-grade promotion. However, it has fallen by 22 grades in the online service index. Vietnam was praised for its e-participation index (70th out of 193 countries) with efforts from taxation agencies in implementing tax e-declaration, e-payment, and e-customs.
With the 97th ranking in local online services and open data index, Vietnam is among the average countries. According to the Authority of Information Technology Application, the report does not fully reflect Vietnam’s efforts in the period from August 2019 to now. MIC wants Vietnam to jump ten grades in the e-government ranking for the next period.
Five ministries are leading in the overall IT application index, including the ministries of finance, industry and trade, information and communications, health, and the State Bank of Vietnam. The five leading provinces in the IT application index include Thua Thien–Hue, Da Nang, Binh Duong, Quang Ninh, and Ho Chi Minh City.
As of July, 21 ministries, ministry-level agencies, and government agencies, and 55 central cities/provinces, or 82.61%, had local government service platforms (LGSPs). From early 2019 to the end of July 2020, 4.4 million transactions were carried out through the national government service platform (NGSP), which means 7,600 transactions a day.
MIC estimates that the operation of NGSP helps save VN 30.5 trillion (US$ 1.3 billion) on administrative procedures. For birth certificate services and health insurance for children below six, NGSP helps save VN 48.8 billion (about US$ 2.1 million).
At present, the rate of e-document exchange between state agencies nationwide is 88.53%. The average fourth-level online public service rate in the country is 15.91%. Nine ministries and agencies under the government, and 11 provinces and cities, have fourth-level online public services at over 30 percent. The rate is 100% for MIC and the ministry of health.
Regarding network safety and security, by July 2020, 44 percent of ministries, branches, and localities have deployed 4-layer protection. The national cyber security center (NCSC) has connected 38 security operations centres (SOCs).
Earlier, MIC launched the Viettel AI Open Platform, an AI platform, developed by the military-run telecoms group Viettel. As OpenGov Asia reported, the platform provides platform technologies using AI to help automate, optimise, and efficiently operate organisations and businesses using the world’s most advanced techniques. The platform is currently focusing on areas such as Vietnamese speech processing technology, Vietnamese natural language processing technology, and computer vision technology.
