Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh made the statement at a conference on December 25 to review the one-year implementation of the project on developing and applying the population data and electronic identification and authentication to serve national digital transformation during 2022-25 (Project 06).

Chinh also said that digital transformation must be defined as a transformation process in terms of thinking, perception and action; transitioning from traditional methods to a digital environment; comprehensively renovating and raising the effectiveness of management and administration of the Government, ministries, sectors and localities.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Chairman of the National Committee on Digital Transformation, chairs the conference

It is also a process of innovating production and business activities of enterprises, living and working methods of people in order to increase labour productivity, improve the competitiveness of enterprises and the country, and contribute to building an independent economy associated with extensive, substantive and effective international integration, he said.

Digital transformation is a new, difficult, sensitive and complex issue that needs to incorporate international achievements and experiences and be creatively applied to Viet Nam's specific conditions and circumstances, he added.

“We must have breakthrough thinking, strategic vision, promoting the spirit of self-reliance, solidarity, initiative, creativity, dare-to-think, dare-to-do for the common benefits,” he said.

Digital transformation must take the people and businesses as the centre, in order to provide better services to serve people and businesses, towards the formation of a digital population and a digital society, he said.

Regarding key tasks, Chinh ordered the ministries, sectors and localities to increase awareness of the role and importance of national digital transformation in the socio-economic development strategy for 2021-30.

The ministries, sector and localities have to focus on perfecting institutions, mechanisms and policies, creating a legal corridor to promote national digital transformation, as well as paying attention to the issue of ensuring information security, he said.

 The task of national digital transformation is very difficult, requiring us to have high determination, great efforts and drastic actions, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said

Shortcomings remain

PM Chinh said there are still many shortcomings in the implementation of the project.

Many heads of agencies, localities and units have not really paid attention to digital transformation and they have yet to consider digital transformation a key task, he said.

Thus, they have yet to prioritise resources for digital transformation, he said.

Institutions, mechanisms and policies to promote digital transformation are still incomplete, he said.

Digital infrastructure and national digital platforms have not been completed and have not met the demand, he said.

Digital platforms for education, training, healthcare and social security are still lacking, he said.

Many national and specialised databases are still slow in deployment, he said.

The connection and sharing of data among ministries, sectors and localities have still shown inefficiencies, he said.

Delegates at the conference

Quality and efficiency in providing and using high-level online public services are assessed to not be convenient for people and businesses, he said.

For example, for every 10 times people carry out administrative procedures, nearly seven times they have to do it directly, he said.

Besides, the digital transformation still has a big gap between urban and rural areas, he said.

According to initial statistics, 266 villages and hamlets do not have mobile-network coverage.

Cybersecurity in many places has not met the requirements, especially when the number of transnational high-tech crimes tends to increase, he said.

Human resources for digital transformation have failed to meet the demand in terms of quantity and quality and there is also a phenomenon of "brain drain", he said.

The lack of a mechanism to check and monitor the implementation of digital transformation is also one of the shortcomings, he said.

General Director of Viet Nam Social Security Nguyen The Manh delivers a speech at the conference

Some achievements

At the conference, reports and presentations focused on the results achieved over a year of implementing the project.

The reports said that awareness and actions on the national digital transformation have changed positively and spread at all levels of ministries, sectors and localities.

State management activities’ changes from traditional methods to the digital environment have been promoted and gained some initial results.

Delegates at the conference

Many digital products and services have served people and businesses in a timely and effective manner (such as registration for exams and admission to universities and colleges; online passport issuance; registration of birth - registration of permanent residence - issuance of health insurance cards for children under six years old and registration of death - deletion of permanent residence registration - funeral allowance).

This year, both fixed and mobile broadband-access speeds increased over the same period last year, ranking 45th and 52nd respectively, higher than the world average.

Specialised data transmission networks of Party and State agencies have already been connected to wards, communes and townships.

The Ministry of Public Security has actively implemented the national population database, gradually forming a digital citizen ecosystem.

It has connected with 47 ministries, sectors, localities, groups and State corporations; issued over 76 million chip-based identification cards; synchronised more than 234 million vaccination records; activated nearly 2.6 million electronic identity accounts; and identified accurate information of nearly 50 million mobile subscribers.

There are 69,000 community-based digital technology groups with more than 320,000 members in the country.

The digital economy and digital society have seen many positive changes, especially electronic tax payments, e-invoices, e-commerce, and non-cash payments.

About 99 per cent of businesses have paid taxes electronically; while all businesses have used e-invoices.

The proportion of e-commerce in total retail sales this year is estimated to reach 7.5 per cent, exceeding the target.