The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee recently launched an information system to handle administrative procedures. This system was developed by combining the online public service portal and the electronic single-window system. A representative from the Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) noted that the VNPT-built system is capable of handling 17 million dossiers each year.
According to Lam Dinh Thang, the Director of the municipal Department of Information and Communications, people and enterprise-centred systems are connected with the National Public Service Portal, the electronic authentication, identification systems, and information systems and databases of ministries and central agencies. This has created favourable conditions for individuals and organisations to handle administrative procedures in a swift and accurate manner.
Ho Chi Minh authorities have always considered administrative reforms as an important task, the Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee noted. The city considers people’s satisfaction and enterprises’ development as the metre of administrative reform effectiveness and civil servants’ capacity.
Around 13 million people in the city, including the local population of almost ten million and people from other localities, require administrative procedures to be processed. It will be hard for civil servants to complete handling papers on schedule if they use traditional methods. Therefore, applying an information system for handling administrative procedures is an urgent need, the Chairman explained.
In August, Ho Chi Minh City authorities announced that it will coordinate with a global financial institution to develop a data management strategy, aiming to better cultivate data for government operations. As OpenGov Asia reported, the strategy identifies a vision, specific goals, priority areas, and plans for the implementation of data and digitisation projects to improve the city’s data-driven governance.
The two organisations had earlier completed a survey and assessment of the current status of data and data usage needs of local state regulators, with a focus placed on three areas: urban planning, citizens’ information, and economic and financial development.
In its digital transformation journey, the country envisions the development of smart cities and provinces, and Ho Chi Minh is among the top cities in terms of digitisation. In the 2021 Digital Transformation Index (DTI), the city climbed two spots to rank third, after Da Nang and Thien-Hue.
The city aims for its digital economy to account for 25% of the southern hub’s gross regional domestic product (GRDP) by 2025. Accordingly, the local government will focus on raising public awareness of digital transformation, organising the implementation of digital transformation tasks, and completing the digital government. Authorities will work to integrate and effectively exploit data to aid post-COVID-19 socio-economic recovery and development and support modern-oriented governance.
Specific action programmes will be mapped out and implemented, while the application of information technology will be accelerated across fields. The local government will also work to ensure information security and safety when building the digital government, economy, and society. The government said it would strongly invest in human resources development, focusing on training and fostering cadres, civil servants, and public employees.
