Vietnam’s digital economy was valued at $3 billion in 2015 and the figure rose to $9 billion in 2018; it is expected to reach $30 billion by 2025.
Another study by Data 61 (Australia) indicated that Vietnam’s GDP could increase by $162 billion within 20 years if it succeeds in digital transformation.
However, these estimates and projections depend on the ease of doing business and the effectiveness of the government in supporting the growth of the digital economy.
In the context of the 4.0 era, the Government of Vietnam had decided that the building an e-government, striving for digital government, digital society and digital economy, are among its top priorities for the 2016-2020 period.
Together with e-Cabinet, Vietnam has made progress in the last two years with its efforts to build a vibrant e-government.
According to a UN report, in the e-government development index, Vietnam was 88 out of 193 countries and territories and ranked sixth in ASEAN in 2018.
The PM has for the first time issued its digital signature on legal documents and released documents directly. Moving away from the past, where new legal documents were available weeks after they were released, many documents now can be released within half a day.
The Government Office has put an e-Cabinet system into operation in an effort to better use official’s time; the government hopes that 30 percent of the time for meetings will be cut.
Additionally, it is expected that 100 percent of the consults with members of the government will be implemented online, except for issues related to state secrets.
To be sure that information technology systems can ‘talk’ to each other, a decree sharing digital data among state agencies will soon be released.
An integrated platform is in planning. It will allow the sharing of national data between ministries, branches and localities with the central government providing a number of public services.
Further, the national public service portal and the national reporting system are going to be integrated.
The Minister of Finance has approved the financial national database architecture in April 2019 in order to build the national database. It is anticipated that the database will be in use in 2020.
The Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment is also working on creating a national land database. The plan is to be submitted to the Prime Minister by the end of 2019.
The three most commonly used online services have been payments, income tax and new business registration. The availability of overall services through email, feed updates, mobile apps and SMS has significantly increased, especially in health and education.
The government of Vietnam is dedicated to its goal of creating firm foundations for a comprehensive digital transformation in the 2021-2030 period.
