The above information has just been announced by the Ministry of Information and Communications, the standing agency of the National Committee on Digital Transformation, in the national digital transformation report for August 2024.

The 'Information and Communications Infrastructure Planning for the 2021 - 2030 period, with a vision to 2050' approved by the Prime Minister on January 11, 2024, clearly defined: "Information and Communications Infrastructure is a unified entity, formed on the basis of the connection between the postal network, digital infrastructure, IT industrial infrastructure, national digital transformation platforms and the system to ensure network information security, network security, creating a safe and reliable environment for the development of digital government, digital economy, and digital society".

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Information and Communications Infrastructure is identified as the infrastructure for national digital transformation, opening up new development space for the economy and society. Illustration photo: MH

In order to carry out the assigned tasks, last August, the Ministry of Information and Communications consulted and submitted to the Prime Minister for approval the "Plan to implement the information and communication infrastructure planning for the period 2021 - 2030, with a vision to 2050".

According to the representative of the Institute of Information and Communications Strategy (Ministry of Information and Communications) shared with VietNamNet reporter, the plan aims to raise awareness and responsibility for implementing the planning of information and communications infrastructure for the period up to 2030; at the same time, it guides ministries, branches and localities in coordinating with the Ministry of Information and Communications and related units to effectively implement the planning of information and communications infrastructure.

Developed based on the provisions of Article 45 of the Planning Law, one of the main contents of the 'Plan to implement the Information and Communications Infrastructure Planning for the period 2021 - 2030, with a vision to 2050' is to clearly identify the priority of allocating public investment capital using state budget capital to implement information and communications infrastructure development projects chaired by ministries, branches and localities, in accordance with the Information and Communications Infrastructure Planning.

The plan also outlines other important contents such as: Investment projects using capital sources other than public investment capital, including priority IT&T infrastructure projects implemented by enterprises; calling for investment projects to build new, upgrade, and expand IT&T infrastructure using capital sources other than public investment capital; land use arrangement for national IT&T infrastructure development must be consistent with national land use planning; policies and solutions on planning, development, and use of resources to implement the planning; detailed tasks assigned to ministries, branches, and localities.

Statistics at the time of the announcement of the Information and Communications Infrastructure Plan to 2030 in mid-February 2024 showed that: in the previous period, Vietnam's information and communications infrastructure had achieved many achievements, with a higher level of popularity than many countries. For example, although it is a developing country with a low average income, Vietnam has a higher 4G coverage than high-income developed countries. 4G coverage in Vietnam is 99.8%, while high-income countries have a coverage of 99.4%.

Along with the rate of smartphone users and fiber optic cable coverage to each household being about 20% higher than the world average, Vietnam also has the second highest rate of IPv6 Internet address usage in the ASEAN region and ninth globally. In particular, data fees in Vietnam are maintained at a low level, only half of the world average. Thanks to that, everyone has the opportunity to use the Internet, access, improve knowledge and get rich thanks to the digital space.

However, in the planning of IT&T infrastructure for the period up to 2030, Vietnam still sets high goals such as: Building 3-5 regional postal centers nationwide, with an average handling capacity of over 15,750 tons of postal items/day; investing and upgrading the fixed broadband network to ensure 100% of users have access at speeds over 1Gb/s; 5G mobile broadband network covering 99% of the population, aiming to develop the next generation of advanced mobile networks; developing 4-6 more international submarine optical cable lines...

Building IT&T infrastructure to open up new space for socio-economic development With the IT&T infrastructure planning to 2030 with a vision to 2050, Vietnam sets high goals to build infrastructure to serve national digital transformation, while opening up new space for socio-economic development.