E-governance approaches critical mass

E-governance approaches critical mass, Source: internet

The Government Office last week officially launched the National Reporting Platform (NRP), the government and the prime minister’s Centre for Information and Direction (CID), and the 1,000th online public service on the National Public Service Portal (NPSP).

“The NRP and the CID becoming operational are major milestones in the government’s macroeconomic monitoring and administrative reform as well as the move from paper to digital-based processes,” said Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc at the launch. “They demonstrate the government’s strong determination to develop an effective e-government.”

Constructed by local and foreign experts with help from VNPT, the NRP and CID are directly connected with the directing centres, reporting systems, and data bases of all ministries, agencies, and localities at all levels. From the NRP and CID, the prime minister can directly monitor and supervise all sectors managed by ministries, agencies, and localities. Based on digitalised data and images, the government leaders will be able to provide directions for them.

So far, the reporting platforms of 30 ministries, agencies, and localities, as well as state-owned groups and corporations have been connected with the NRP. All information is provided and exchanged continuously, transparently, and safely.

In addition to the NRP and the CID, the government has also paid special attention to cement the relationship between it and people, enterprises, and investors via the NPSP.

According to the Government Office, as of August 18, the NPSP received registrations from more than 227,000 accounts and was accessed over 58 million times for seeking information and conducting public services. Moreover, more than 14.3 million synchronous dossiers and 246,000 online dossiers were processed on the NPSP.

On average, each day sees the portal receive and process about 4,000 online dossiers, more than 23,000 calls, and over 7,600 proposals from the public, enterprises, and investors.

The online payment system of the NPSP, put into operation in March, has also processed nearly 7,000 online payment transactions, over 4,000 of which have been conducted since July.

After eight months of operation, the number of the NPSP’s public services offered has skyrocketed from eight to 1,000 by August 18, including the three new services launched last week.

The new services include one on payment of compulsory social insurance, health insurance, unemployment insurance, and compulsory insurance for occupational accidents and occupational diseases; one on registration of adjustments to compulsory social insurance, health insurance, unemployment insurance, and reports on labour changes; and the 1,000th public service which is on declaration and payment of registration fees and submission of automobile registration declarations.

Many new online services involve notarisation, voluntary social insurance, extension of medical insurance cards for households, granting new driving licences, changing driving licences, and payment of fines for traffic violations. These services are estimated to help the state to save about VND1.69 trillion ($73.47 million) per year.

For example, individuals and enterprises can access the portal to self-process their documents and certificates to have them notarised in a wink, with a digital signature and sharp accuracy on the notarised electric copies.

The NPSP has connected with 18 ministries and central agencies, all 63 provinces and cities, 12 state-run groups and corporations, eight banks, and many e-wallet service providers. The portal could help save more than VND13 trillion ($565.2 million) in costs for people, enterprises, and investors every year.

Under the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs’ newly-launched hallmark UN E-government Survey 2020, Vietnam has climbed two places to rank 86th out of 193 countries. With this ranking, Vietnam has maintained its record of consecutive increases since 2014, climbing from 99th in the process.

Harvesting 0.6667 points in the survey’s E-Government Development Index (EGDI), Vietnam is among the e-government developing countries with a high index, a score which is higher than the global EGDI average of 0.5988 points, the Asian average of 0.6373 points, and the Southeast Asian average of 0.6321 points.

In Southeast Asia, Vietnam has successfully maintained the same position as in 2018, ranking sixth among 11 countries, behind Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Brunei, and the Philippines.

According to the Ministry of Information and Communications, with a population of nearly 100 million people, Vietnam is among the few nations in Southeast Asia with high growth in digital transformation. As of late June, the country has 127 million mobile phone subscribers, while it is estimated that 54.2 per cent of the population are connected to broadband wire-based internet.