National online connection session from the Government headquarters to the People's Committee headquarters of provinces and centrally run cities.

Attending the meeting were Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang, Permanent Vice Chairman of the National Committee on Digital Transformation; Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung, Vice Chairman of the National Committee on Digital Transformation; Ministers, leaders of ministries, branches, members of the Committee; leaders of localities, corporations, and large enterprises in information technology.

At the meeting, Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Pham Duc Long briefly reported on the national digital transformation situation in the first 6 months of 2024.

Digital data is a new resource, a new factor of production, an input of the economy.

Speaking at the meeting, Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung said that digital economic development in 2024 will focus on four main pillars: Information technology and communications industry; Digital economy of all sectors; Digital governance and Digital data.

In the first 6 months of 2024, digital economic growth is estimated at 22.4%, accounting for 18.3% of GDP. With such momentum, the goal set by the Party and State of Vietnam's digital economy growing by 20% by 2025 will be achieved. The ICT industry has regained its pre-COVID-19 growth momentum, increasing by 26% over the same period last year.

For the first time, we are drafting a separate law for the information and communications technology industry, which is the Law on Digital Technology Industry Development. It is expected that the National Assembly will pass this law in 2025. Vietnam will be one of the very few countries to have a separate law on digital technology industry development, demonstrating the Party and State's interest in the digital technology industry. This is a fundamental industry, the core to promote national digital transformation and develop the digital economy.

Emphasizing the important role of digital economic development in all sectors, the Minister pointed out, This is the convergence of digital technology in education, healthcare, commerce, banking, etc., not only contributing to the modernization and digitalization of these industries but also creating new products, new services, new business models, creating the main driving force for the growth of these industries. The digital economy of these industries will be the main part, accounting for 70% of the digital economy.

Digital data development is considered a new production factor, an input of the economy. Digital data is a new type of resource, created by people using digital technology. The Government has issued a decree on the development of national and ministerial-level databases, requiring ministries, sectors and localities to build core databases. To develop the digital economy quickly, these databases must be built quickly. The Prime Minister has directed ministries, sectors and localities to have a project like Project 06 of the Ministry of Public Security and should focus on making core data of their localities and sectors. This year, the Ministry of Information and Communications will pilot a data trading floor.

Regarding digital governance, the Prime Minister is directing the development of an action plan on building a digital government, directing and operating online and based on data. To do this, all ministries, branches and localities must connect online with the Government. Therefore, ministries, branches and localities must also transform digitally to direct and operate at their level online and use data.

The Minister especially emphasized that for this action plan to be successful, one thing that plays a decisive role is: All daily activities of civil servants from the lowest level in the government system must be carried out in the digital environment, if not updated periodically. Therefore, the most important thing in digital transformation is that all levels of government must institutionalize and have regulations on working in the digital environment and data entry by civil servants.

Regarding digital economic development, Minister Nguyen Manh Hung emphasized three issues:

Firstly, the National Committee on Digital Transformation held a conference on successful digital transformation models at the Ministry and sector levels at the Supreme People's Court. In the near future, there will be more conferences on online public service models and Smart Operations Center models, so that after many years of working on digital transformation, we can summarize successful models and replicate them.

Second, regarding AI applications, the Minister encouraged the development of virtual assistants to support civil servants in their activities, especially regarding legal documents, regulations and procedures.

Third, the Minister proposed that the Prime Minister approve digital transformation training programs for leaders at all levels, from Ministers to Chairmen of Provincial People's Committees, along with a national overall digital transformation plan, assigning specific digital transformation tasks to ministries, branches, and localities.

Digital transformation has come to "every alley, every house, every person"

Concluding the Conference, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh affirmed that digital transformation has become a movement, a trend, an objective requirement and a strategic choice. In recent times, the direction and management work has become more experienced, systematic, methodical, closer to reality and more effective. The organization and implementation work from the Central to the grassroots level has been deployed more synchronously and actively. The results have been more practical, positive and convincing.

The Prime Minister highly appreciated the active participation of people and businesses, contributing to inspiring and creating new development momentum.

On behalf of the Government, the Prime Minister acknowledged, commended and highly appreciated the efforts, endeavors and achievements of ministries, branches and localities; the drastic direction of members of the National Committee on Digital Transformation and the Project 06 Working Group. At the same time, the Prime Minister also pointed out the shortcomings, limitations and slow progress of tasks such as the construction and completion of the legal environment, mechanisms and policies that are still inadequate and untimely. Many tasks according to the plan of the National Committee on Digital Transformation and Project 06 have not been completed according to the set schedule.

According to the Prime Minister, the development of the digital economy is not commensurate with its potential, and investment is still scattered. The development of digital infrastructure, digital platforms, and digital data has not overcome the situation of "fragmentation, information isolation, separation, and data clustering" (digital infrastructure and digital platforms of many investment agencies are not synchronous, and do not ensure the ability to connect and share information). There are still many villages and hamlets without fiber optic cables; many signal and electricity gaps, and 821 mobile signal gaps. Network security and information security in many places have not received due attention. Cutting and simplifying administrative procedures is still slow. The quality of providing online public services is not high.

Emphasizing the role of leaders in digital transformation, the Prime Minister requested Ministers, heads of sectors, and Chairmen of People's Committees of provinces and centrally-run cities to directly direct this task, prioritize resources, and synchronously deploy the proposed tasks and solutions on digital transformation, with the spirit of only discussing and doing, not backtracking, saying is doing, committing to doing, and having specific products and results.

The Prime Minister requested ministries, branches and localities to raise awareness and prioritize resources for digital transformation. The goal by 2025 is that 100% of online public services are fully implemented; 50% of the adult population uses online public services; 100% of administrative procedure settlement records are attached with personal identification; 90% of people and businesses are satisfied with the settlement of administrative procedures; 50% of people's procedures and documents related to population data are reduced...

The Prime Minister assigned the Ministry of Information and Communications to organize a meeting with relevant ministries and branches to finalize and submit to the Prime Minister for promulgation the "Strategy for Development of Vietnam's Semiconductor Industry to 2030" in July 2024. The Ministry also needs to urgently develop and submit to the Government for promulgation of documents implementing the Law on Electronic Transactions, the Law on Telecommunications, and research and promulgate standards on national digital addresses./.