On the morning of March 18, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Head of the Government's Steering Committee on Science, Technology, Innovation, Digital Transformation and Project 06 (Steering Committee) chaired the first meeting of the Steering Committee.

The meeting was held directly at the Government Headquarters, online with connecting points of ministries, ministerial-level agencies, government agencies and 63 provinces and centrally run cities. Attending the meeting were Deputy Prime Ministers, Deputy Heads of the Steering Committee Ho Duc Phoc and Bui Thanh Son; Ministers, Heads of ministerial-level agencies, government agencies; leaders of ministries, agencies and leaders of provinces and centrally run cities.

Previously, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 598/QD-TTg dated March 13, 2025 on the establishment of the Government Steering Committee on science, technology, innovation, digital transformation and Project 06, on the basis of merging the Government's Steering Committee for administrative reform, the National Committee on digital transformation and the Prime Minister's Working Group on Project 06.

The Steering Committee has 3 supporting subcommittees: Subcommittee for Project 06 Implementation; Subcommittee for Science, Technology, Innovation and Digital Transformation; Subcommittee for Administrative Reform headed by the Minister of Home Affairs.

Concluding the meeting, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh basically agreed with the content of the reports, discussions, and opinions; assigned relevant agencies to absorb the opinions, complete and submit for promulgation the Conclusion of the Prime Minister and Head of the Steering Committee for unified implementation in the coming time.

The Prime Minister once again emphasized the importance of developing science and technology, innovation, digital transformation, administrative reform and implementing Project 06. These are things that "must be done, but must be done effectively, strongly transforming awareness into action, bringing specific results and benefits to the nation, the people and the people".

The Prime Minister pointed out the results achieved in implementing these tasks in recent times.

Firstly, leadership and direction work is deployed resolutely, implementation is carried out synchronously with high determination from the Central to the grassroots levels, creating new momentum and new spirit in the whole society.

Immediately after the Politburo issued Resolution No. 57-NQ/TW dated December 22, 2024 on breakthroughs in science and technology development, innovation and digital transformation, on January 9, 2025, the Government issued Resolution No. 03/NQ-CP promulgating the Action Plan to implement Resolution No. 57, ensuring quality and time as prescribed (50/63 localities; 14/22 ministries, ministerial-level agencies, and agencies under the Government have issued Action Plans to implement the Resolution).

The Government has completed and established the Steering Committee (Decision No. 598/QD-TTg) with the Prime Minister as Head of the Committee (2 ministries and 15 localities have completed the Steering Committee).

The Government and the Prime Minister have issued 15 resolutions, 12 decisions, 9 directives, and 7 dispatches on digital transformation, administrative reform, and implementation of Project 06. Organized 25 national online meetings and conferences on science and technology, innovation, digital transformation, administrative reform, and implementation of Project 06 (in 2024 and the first two months of 2025).

Second, institutions, mechanisms and policies related to science and technology, innovation, digital transformation, administrative reform and Project 06 continue to be focused on completion.

The National Assembly has issued 4 laws and Resolution 193 on piloting a number of special mechanisms and policies to create breakthroughs in science, technology, innovation and national digital transformation. The Government has issued 32 decrees; ministries have issued 34 circulars under their authority.

379/1,084 administrative procedures have been simplified (to date, the total number of administrative procedures implemented by ministries and agencies is 964/1,084, reaching 89%; 8 ministries and agencies have completed 100%). 63/63 localities have issued Resolutions on exemption and reduction of fees and charges for people and businesses in implementing administrative procedures.

Third, digital transformation continues to develop strongly. Since October 2024, Vietnam has officially commercialized 5G telecommunications services. Vietnam's Internet speed in 2024 ranked 37th, up 7 places compared to 2023. Another international submarine optical cable line, the largest ever, has been put into operation.

E-commerce continues to grow strongly (28 billion USD in 2024, up 36%). Cashless payments are widely deployed (average annual growth rate of 57%).

The ICT industry has developed quite well (revenue in 2024 will reach 152 billion USD, up 10.9%). The semiconductor industry has a revenue of 18.7 billion USD with 50 microchip design enterprises and 6 thousand design engineers. Revenue from software and information technology services will increase sharply (revenue in 2024 will reach 18 billion USD, up 38.5%).

Many of the world's leading technology corporations invest and expand their investment in Vietnam (Marvell - chip design; NVIDIA - research and development; SK Hynix - memory production).

The work of expanding the tax collection and management base and electronic invoices has been actively and effectively implemented, contributing to increasing state budget revenue and ensuring national financial balance; tax revenue from e-commerce activities has increased sharply (in 2024, it will be 116 trillion VND, an increase of 19.5%).

Fourth, the implementation of Project 06 is strongly promoted and spread, bringing practical results to people and businesses, strengthening social management and serving socio-economic development.

The national population database has been promoted, bringing practical results (completing the issuance of 100% of chip-embedded citizen identification cards for eligible citizens; activating over 61 million electronic identification accounts; providing 40 utilities on the VNeID application, an increase of 27 utilities compared to 2023; cleaning 45.7 million driver's license data).

Online public services serving people and businesses are increasingly being improved, gradually building a professional and modern administration (58/76 essential online public services have been deployed; 200 administrative procedures can be exploited to reduce the number of documents).

Integrated the Electronic Health Book and Electronic Medical Records with over 15.5 million citizen information; put into operation the Medical Data Coordination System (with 142 medical examination and treatment facilities in 29 localities using Electronic Medical Records). More than 2.7 million policy beneficiaries receive social security benefits and 79.2% of people receive pensions and social insurance benefits through accounts.

Fifth, Vietnam has made strong progress in the international digital transformation rankings. The e-Government Development Index in 2024 increased by 15 places, ranking 71/193. The global innovation index in 2024 increased by 2 places, ranking 44/133. The global cybersecurity index in 2024 increased by 8 places, ranking 17/194.

On behalf of the Government leaders, the Prime Minister commended the efforts, attempts and achievements of ministries, branches and localities, the drastic direction of members of the previous Steering Committees of the Government, the important contributions of the People's Public Security force, the consensus, support and active participation of the people and businesses.

In addition, the Prime Minister pointed out the shortcomings, limitations and slow-progress tasks, such as 5 decrees being issued late; many tasks in programs, plans and projects are still behind schedule and have not changed.

Digital transformation has not developed commensurate with its potential and advantages and has not been a driving force for economic growth. Currently, only about 30% of enterprises apply digital technology to production and business activities. Remote areas still have difficulty accessing the Internet.

Administrative reform has not received due attention; coordination between ministries, branches and localities is slow in some places and at some times, and not very effective. Cutting and simplifying administrative procedures is still slow; the quality of online public service provision is not high (the rate of providing online public services on the National Public Service Portal has only reached 69.5%, the target for 2024 is at least 80%, the rate of digitizing records and results of handling administrative procedures has only reached 63.4%, the target for 2024 is at least 80%).

Human resources for science and technology, innovation, digital transformation, administrative reform and implementation of Project 06 have not yet met the demand in terms of quantity, quality, distribution, working attitude and professional ethics; there is no public-private partnership mechanism in resource mobilization...

According to the Prime Minister, the above-mentioned shortcomings and limitations are due to objective and subjective causes, but the subjective causes are the main ones, especially in some ministries, branches and localities, the role of leaders has not been promoted, discipline and order are not strict, and there is no effective coordination between agencies and units.

Forming large-scale strategic technology enterprises

Regarding the future orientation, the Prime Minister clearly stated 5 viewpoints and guiding thoughts:

Firstly, administrative reform and science and technology development, innovation, and digital transformation are closely linked together, promoting and supporting each other, taking people and businesses as the center and subject.

Second, administrative reform, science and technology, innovation, and digital transformation are objective requirements, strategic choices, top priorities, and "must be done".

Third, "The Party leads, the Government is unified, the National Assembly agrees, the People support, and the Fatherland expects, then only discuss and do, not retreat"; do things with focus, not spread out, not half-heartedly, do each thing properly, do each thing to the end.

Fourth , resolutely change the state from passively receiving and resolving administrative procedures to proactively and actively serving people and businesses.

Fifth , praise and criticism are clear, timely, appropriate and effective.

Along with the 5 viewpoints and guiding thoughts are 3 important tasks for all levels, sectors, localities and subjects: (1) Implementing and promoting national digitalization; (2) cutting and simplifying administrative procedures without limits, doing as much as possible; (3) developing comprehensive digital citizenship. The spirit is "the apparatus must be streamlined, data must be connected, and governance must be smart".

Along with that are 3 key tasks, both immediate and long-term : (1) Perfecting an open institution, in the immediate future, proposing that the National Assembly use one law to amend many laws; (2) infrastructure development must be smooth, promoting the development of 5G coverage, fiber optic cable systems, satellites, especially databases; (3) all levels, sectors, localities, enterprises, educational and training institutions develop and implement human resource training plans (from popular digital education to advanced, professional, high-quality).

Pointing out 3 specific tasks that need to be focused on , the Prime Minister requested: (1) Processing administrative documents and especially administrative procedures in the digital environment; (2) promoting and popularizing cashless payments, with a specific roadmap to do better; (3) promoting electronic tax collection, applying electronic invoices generated from cash registers, especially for food and retail services.

Regarding science and technology development, innovation, and digital transformation, the Prime Minister requested the development and promulgation of a National Program for strategic technology and industry development, including the development of a system of research and testing centers, key national laboratories, focusing on strategic technology.

Develop a project to form large-scale domestic strategic technology enterprises to develop digital infrastructure, digital human resources, digital data, strategic technology, and network security.

Develop and submit to the Prime Minister the establishment of a Strategic Industrial Development Investment Fund. Develop a Digital Government Development Program and implement a paperless Government and conduct direction and administration in an electronic environment based on data.

Putting the National Data Center into operation in 2025, ministries, sectors and localities will build their own databases; soon open digital data trading floors; promote the development of data transmission systems via satellite; high-speed broadband optical cables...

Regarding administrative reform, the Prime Minister requested to continue to promote the provision, improve the quality and efficiency of online public service provision, associated with the arrangement of administrative units, and avoid work congestion. Promote the reduction and elimination of administrative procedures; change the state of "requesting" for public service provision to the state of "proactively" providing public services to the people. In 2025, 100% of airports, ports, and border gates will apply biometric technology and the VNeID platform.

To promote the implementation of Project 06, the Prime Minister directed to closely follow Directive No. 07/CT-TTg, develop an implementation plan, have specific solutions, detailed roadmap, ensure "clear people, clear work, clear time, clear responsibilities, clear results", attaching responsibilities to each specific agency and individual.

Ministries and branches shall reduce the dossier components for 324 administrative procedures with paper information that have been integrated into electronic identification accounts; to be completed in the second quarter of 2025.

Localities urgently complete the digitization of civil status data and land data, proactively research plans to reuse digitized data to simplify 200 administrative procedures under their authority (10 localities: Binh Duong, Dong Nai, Ba Ria - Vung Tau, Ho Chi Minh City, Bac Giang, Ha Nam, Nam Dinh, Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, Khanh Hoa have exploited land data in handling residence registration procedures).

Source: https://thoidai.com.vn/thu-tuong-khong-co-gioi-han-trong-cat-giam-thu-tuc-hanh-chinh-211425.html