The national population database was put into use in June 2021. (Photo: VNA)

Project VNM10P04, which is also meant to help with the monitoring of the realisation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the country, was launched by the General Statistics Office (GSO) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
Implemented from now to 2026 at a total cost of 1.9 million USD, it will assist Vietnamese agencies in applying new technologies and communication platforms to the collection, analysis, dissemination, and use of quality population data in order to ensure evidence-based policies, strategies, and programmes for the SGD achievement by 2030.

GSO General Director Nguyen Thi Huong said during the almost 45 years of Vietnam - UNFPA cooperation, the GSO’s capacity of building and managing data and statistics has improved considerably.
The new project also matches the roadmap for implementing Vietnam’s statistical development strategy for 2021 - 2023 with a vision to 2045, she added.
UNFPA Representative in Vietnam Naomi Kitahara said amid the COVID-19 pandemic’s serious impacts on the country’s socio-economic development, especially population changes related to births, deaths, and migration, quality and trustworthy statistics are critical to building, implementing, monitoring, and assessing the realisation of socio-economic targets and the SDGs.

At the launch, UNFP also revealed the key findings in its recently released “State of World Population 2022” report, titled "Understanding the Unseen: Taking Action to End the Neglected Problem of Unintended Pregnancy".

Vietnam is making efforts to implement the Socio-Economic Development Plan for the 2021-2025 period, the Socio-Economic Development Strategy for the 2021-2030 period, the National Action Plan for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the E-Government Development Strategy with a vision to 2030. The goal is to place Vietnam among the top 30 countries in the world in e-government and digital government rankings according to the United Nations. There are many challenges to face and overcome, but there are also favorable conditions and opportunities in the journey to realize these objectives.

Sharing his perspective at the recent international workshop on data ecosystem management, governance, and stewardship organized in Hanoi by the General Statistics Office in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Mr. Rémi Nono Womdim, Representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Vietnam, emphasized that achieving these goals requires high-quality and reliable statistical data. "Such data serves as a foundation for policy-making and is essential for the design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of progress toward socio-economic and sustainable development goals," he stressed.

Global experience shows that countries with high-quality data often achieve impressive socio-economic growth. Therefore, reliable, consistent, and comparable data is a crucial factor in policymaking, implementation, and evaluating progress toward set objectives. According to Professor Paul Cheung, former Director of the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) and former Chief Statistician of Singapore (DOS), in today's rapidly changing world, data plays an increasingly critical role in governance, and effective data management should be a top priority. Once governments understand the importance of the data ecosystem, they can develop suitable strategies and programs to fully harness its value. However, achieving this requires integrating data systems rather than allowing each agency to manage its own separate database. Data should be transformed into accessible services for the public to maximize its benefits.

Regarding Vietnam's situation, Mr. Rémi Nono Womdim noted that in recent years, the General Statistics Office and various ministries have made significant efforts to provide national data and statistics. However, there is still a lack of disaggregated data, such as by ethnic groups and age groups, which would support evidence-based policymaking to address inequality. Additionally, administrative statistics, such as civil registration and big data, remain underutilized. There is also a shortage of in-depth population analyses using diverse data sources to better understand factors influencing demographic changes. Furthermore, data sharing between ministries, agencies, and non-governmental stakeholders remains limited due to the absence of clear regulations and guidelines. In this context, UNFPA is implementing a five-year project to support Vietnam in building and utilizing high-quality population and development data for policy-making, strategy development, and socio-economic planning while tracking progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In the roadmap for implementing the E-Government Development Strategy and advancing towards a digital government for the 2021-2025 period with a vision to 2030, it has been clearly outlined that by 2025, government agencies must streamline, restructure, simplify, standardize, and unify administrative procedures nationwide. The principles guiding this transformation include ensuring service quality, reducing costs, increasing labor productivity, and meeting societal needs in a timely manner. Several specific targets have been set for 2025, including: 100% of eligible administrative procedures must be available as level-4 online public services; 100% of citizens and businesses using online public services must have a seamless and unified digital identity across all governmental levels, from central to local; at least 80% of administrative procedure records must be processed entirely online, requiring citizens to enter their data only once; and at least 90% of citizens and businesses must be satisfied with administrative procedure services.

According to Mr. Nguyễn Quang Tùng, Deputy Director of the Secretariat and Editorial Department (Government Office), who oversees the Government's Information and Command Center, the development of e-government towards digital government is a top priority for the Vietnamese Government. Regarding the key challenges in data and information management, Mr. Tùng highlighted that surveys across ministries, agencies, and localities reveal several issues: the legal framework is still incomplete, investment procedures remain complicated, the application of standards is rigid, there is no controlled testing framework, coordination and data-sharing are insufficient, there is a shortage of skilled human resources, and the technological readiness of different ministries and localities varies significantly.

"We are currently advising the Government on issuing an index framework to support decision-making and administration at all levels. This includes an index framework for the Government and the Prime Minister with eight categories of information, an index framework for ministries with seven categories, and an index framework for local governments with ten categories," Mr. Tùng stated.

The integration and sharing of data to support government decision-making at national, ministerial, and local levels is expected to be a breakthrough in digital government development. This presents an opportunity for the Government, ministries, and localities to undergo a strong transformation and govern according to modern national management standards. As digital transformation operates on advanced technological platforms, it is certain to bring significant benefits, enhance national governance quality, and drive socio-economic development.