The key to Vietnam’s digital transformation

By Nguyen Manh Hung-Minister of Information and Communications

This came two years after the first Forum for Digital Technology Enterprise Development, when the prime minister issued a direction on the development of digital technology businesses in Vietnam in the form of core technologies, product developers, deploying enterprises, and startups.

And last year, “Make in Vietnam” became a key message, calling for businesses to design, create, and manufacture in Vietnam instead of outsourcing to help solve the nation’s problems and enable the country to boost its presence globally.

At the third Forum for Digital Technology Enterprise Development, we reaffirmed that without “Make in Vietnam”, Vietnam is unable to develop into a developed nation, unable to go out into the world, unable to self-strengthen, and unable to be mighty and prosperous. “Make in Vietnam” is the pride of Vietnam, and it now spreads across the land.

In 2021, the number of Vietnamese digital technology companies and their revenues experienced growth of nearly 10 per cent. We have seen an increase in the number of outstanding Vietnamese-made digital products, as well as products in the international market. Vietnam’s ranking in digital technology has also increased globally.

Digital technology enterprises should take responsibility for the development of platforms for national digital transformation. This is a national mission because platforms are the infrastructure of the digital economy, and more than that, they keep Vietnamese data resources inside the country. These digital platforms will help Vietnam develop into a digital nation, and create motivation for sustainable growth, thus enabling it to become a developed nation with high income by 2045.

The National Committee on Digital Transformation led by the prime minister is demonstrating the strong commitment of the government and its leaders. Its first meeting on November 30 agreed on issues about awareness and Vietnam’s approach, vision, and national strategies on digital infrastructure, digital industries, digital government, the digital economy, and digital society, thus building specific plans for 2022.

Vietnam is almost ready for a strong digital development with a young and large-scale market that enables quick commercialisation of new digital ideas, as well as dynamic digital technology enterprises. A push from the government’s completion of digital institutions, and legalisation of digital assets, products, and services will open a new development space for such enterprises.

Digital transformation creates three major trends: disintermediation, decentralisation, and dematerialisation. The first through the platform economy can be seen in e-commerce; the second is through the sharing economy, with ride-hailing apps being an example; and the third is the virtualisation of physical products and services such as e-books, digital music, and more. The three trends will help improve the efficiency and competitiveness of our economy.

The digital economy is data-driven. Therefore, the policy on data plays a decisive role. Digital transformation helps create a new resource. In the long development history, human beings just exploited and used resources. The government will have a strategy on data to create more data, thus creating favourable conditions for businesses to create new value. The government is also expected to issue a decree on the protection of individual data.

The creativeness involved in this transformation must be for all of the people. Vietnam gets strongest when it brings into play the power of its population. To this end, the best way is to announce digital transformation issues and problems at national, ministry, agency, and local level, as well as those for enterprises. The Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) will act as the anchor for this.

To accelerate this digital transformation, a set of measurement indicators is very important. We have issued a set of measurement indicators, and for the first time announced digital transformation of authorities, including ministries, agencies, and localities. Next will be a set of indicators to measure the digital economy and digital society led by the Ministry of Planning and Investment, which will be announced in 2022. Meanwhile, a set of indicators to measure digital transformation among businesses chaired by the MIC will also be issued.

Industrialisation and modernisation focus on IT, while digital transformation in the manufacturing sector means the process of automation and improving intelligence. Vietnam’s electronics industry also has a huge opportunity to produce billions of devices related to the Internet of Things to serve real world digitalisation.

Vietnam’s digital tech enterprises have the missions and specific tasks – it’s now time for them to take action in a fast and efficient manner.