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| The ultimate goal of digital transformation is to serve people, in the spirit of taking people as the center, the subject, the goal, the driving force and the resource for development. |
Perfecting the legal corridor
In 2019, the Politburo issued Resolution No. 52-NQ/TW dated September 27, 2019 on a number of policies and strategies to proactively participate in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which identified the general goal as “Effectively exploiting the opportunities brought about by the Fourth Industrial Revolution to promote the process of growth model innovation, economic restructuring associated with implementing strategic breakthroughs and modernizing the country; strongly developing the digital economy; developing rapidly and sustainably based on science and technology, innovation and high-quality human resources; improving the quality of life and welfare of the people; firmly ensuring national defense, security, and protecting the ecological environment”.
From 2020-2022, the Prime Minister has approved and issued many decisions and strategies on digital government, digital economy and digital society, including Decision No. 749/QD-TTg promulgating the National Digital Transformation Program with three pillars: Digital government, digital economy and digital society; E-government strategy towards digital government; Digital economy and digital society strategy.
Following that, almost all ministries, sectors and localities have issued resolutions, strategies and digital transformation programs. This is a fundamental advantage, decisive for success in the next steps. From this perspective, Vietnam's determination, aspiration and agility are no less than any other country in the world.
To protect human rights in cyberspace and national interests, many legal documents such as the Law on Information Security, the Law on Cyber Security, the Law on Electronic Transactions, the Law on Information Technology, etc. have been issued, including specific regulations on people's rights when using and doing business on the Internet. In addition, preventing and handling malicious news on cross-border platforms is considered a top priority for authorities.
The Law on Electronic Transactions 2023, which takes effect from July 1, 2024, also contributes to perfecting the legal framework, facilitating the conversion of operations from the physical environment to the digital environment in all sectors and fields, promptly institutionalizing the Party's policies and guidelines on digital economic development and digital transformation, and promoting the national digital transformation process.
Vietnam is one of the countries with the highest Internet development and application speed in the world with the number of Internet users reaching more than 70 million people, equivalent to 73% of the total population. Personal data has gone from being not really important to becoming the main raw material for the operation of industries, professions, business services and increasingly occupies an important position in the overall field of creating high profit value in the national economy.
This raises the problem of effective management, compatibility between the use and protection of personal data, response, risk limitation, and handling of violations to maintain the development and value created by personal data.
In each field, the government, ministries and branches also develop documents and guidelines according to their authority, with specific regulations on standards, norms and guidelines on safe interaction in cyberspace.
Specifically, Decree No. 72/2013/ND-CP on management, provision and use of Internet services and online information and Decree No. 104/2022/ND-CP of the Government are important legal bases for implementing the abolition of paper household registration books and temporary residence books and switching to a digital environment; Circular No. 09/2021/TT-BGDDT of the Ministry of Education and Training regulating the management and organization of online teaching and learning in general education institutions and continuing education institutions; Joint Circular No. 05/2021/TTLT-TANDTC-VKSNDTC-BCA-BQP-BTP jointly issued by the Chief Justice of the Supreme People's Court, the Chief Prosecutor of the Supreme People's Procuracy, the Minister of Public Security, the Minister of National Defense, and the Minister of Justice; Decision No. 131/QD-TTg dated January 25, 2022 and Decision No. 411/QD-TTg dated March 31, 2022 of the Prime Minister assigned the Ministry of Education and Training to "Develop digital learning materials and open learning materials for sharing throughout the education sector", preside over and coordinate with the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs to "Build a network of electronic libraries, open educational resource platforms, pilot the development and implementation of the open textbook program"; Decision No. 830/QD-TTg dated June 1, 2021 approved the Program "Protecting and supporting children to interact healthily and creatively in the online environment for the period 2021 - 2025"...
It can be affirmed that the system of policy and legal documents on digital transformation in Vietnam has mentioned and regulated social relationships occurring in the network environment relatively comprehensively and compatible with international standards and experiences.
However, similar to many other countries, Vietnam's legal framework on digital transformation still has many gaps, requiring continuous consolidation and supplementation in accordance with the actual development of CNS and digital transformation.
Digital transformation serves social life
Information technology infrastructure and digital platforms continue to develop: (i) Fixed and mobile broadband access speeds increased compared to the same period, ranking 45th and 52nd respectively, higher than the world average; (ii) Specialized data transmission networks of Party and State agencies connect to wards, communes and towns; (iii) National and specialized databases are being promoted to be built, connected, shared, creating convenience in providing online public services to people and businesses (population management, business registration, insurance, electronic household registration, etc.).
In particular, the national population database has connected and communicated with 47 ministries, branches, localities, corporations, and state-owned corporations; issued over 76 million citizen identification cards with electronic chips; synchronized over 234 million vaccination information; activated nearly 2.6 million electronic identification accounts; identified accurate information of nearly 50 million mobile subscribers...
Exploiting the national population database brings many benefits, such as helping to save costs for copying documents and results of administrative procedures; limiting travel; limiting the need for verification and using data from ministries and branches to authenticate and verify information on identification documents; streamlining the staff of the citizen reception department, reducing direct meetings, gradually eliminating "petty corruption" and harassment of people... According to estimates, this has helped save society thousands of billions of VND.
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| Online public services are deployed more and more widely and effectively. |
Online public services are being deployed more and more widely and effectively: The National Public Service Portal has provided nearly 4,400 online public services at levels 3 and 4 (3 times more than in 2021); more than 154 million records have synchronized status (1.7 times more than in 2021); more than 3.9 million online payment transactions (5.7 times more than in 2021); many digital services serving people and businesses are provided promptly and effectively (registration for exams, university and college admissions; online passport issuance; successful piloting of 2 public services connecting birth registration - permanent residence registration - issuance of health insurance cards for children under 6 years old and death registration - deletion of permanent residence registration - funeral allowance).
The Vietnam Social Insurance sector has now integrated into the national population database, including 6 basic information fields of more than 98 million people, corresponding to nearly 28 million households nationwide; interconnected with nearly 13,000 medical examination and treatment facilities and more than 500,000 organizations and enterprises using public services nationwide and ministries and branches.
Each year, the Electronic Transaction Portal receives and processes nearly 100 million records; on average, each social insurance officer handles about 4,000 records/year... With the application "VssID - Digital Social Insurance", nearly 30 million accounts can manage and control information about the implementation of social insurance and health insurance services, perform public services on social insurance and health insurance conveniently, quickly, easily, saving time and travel costs; use directly when going to see a doctor or get medical treatment under health insurance nationwide...
| The system of policy documents and laws on digital transformation in Vietnam has been issued and regulated social relations occurring in the network environment in a relatively comprehensive manner and compatible with international standards and experiences. However, similar to many other countries, Vietnam's legal framework on digital transformation still has many gaps, requiring continuous consolidation and supplementation in accordance with the actual development of digital technology and digital transformation. |
On April 6, 2023, the Prime Minister approved the Digital Transformation Strategy for Journalism to 2025, with a vision to 2030. In addition to normative documents, guidelines and codes of conduct are also being developed, such as the Code of Conduct on Social Networks issued by the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) in June 2021.
The Code of Conduct is the basis for guiding ministries, branches and localities to develop and promulgate Codes of Conduct within their specialized fields and management areas, such as the Code of Conduct for people working in the arts sector issued by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in December 2021.
The Ministry of Information and Communications also proactively researches and studies to quickly master new features and tools of the Internet and social networks to serve management, propaganda, grasp public opinion, and promote proactive communication.
A typical example is the program "People ask - City answers" implemented by the Ministry of Information and Communications and Ho Chi Minh City during the peak period of the fight against Covid-19 epidemic, promptly answering questions, providing direct information between the City and the people, promptly clearing up a lot of false information, causing confusion among the people about the policies and measures to prevent the epidemic of the Party, State and City. Using the social network livestream feature for direct dialogue and interaction has contributed to narrowing the gap between the management agency and the people, contributing to eliminating fake news and bad news on the network environment.
The Government’s official Facebook fan page “Government Information” is also a typical example of effective application of social networks in policy communication. With 4.1 million followers, each post receives an average of more than 2,000 likes and hundreds of comments and interactions.
In addition to cooperating and exploiting the features of social networks in policy communication, Vietnam also simultaneously deploys measures requiring cross-border platforms to operate responsibly towards users and comply with Vietnamese laws.
Measures being implemented include: building direct feedback and reporting channels between functional units and platforms to promptly remove and filter bad and toxic information and violating channels; building a National Cyber Security Monitoring Center and a Vietnam Fake News Handling Center; building a handbook on preventing and combating fake news and false information on cyberspace to equip agencies, organizations and individuals with skills in identifying, detecting, responding to and effectively handling fake news and toxic bad news; collecting evidence, forcing platforms to be responsible, fulfilling tax obligations to the Vietnamese State and returning copyrights of news sources to domestic press agencies and sites...
Digital transformation is an inevitable trend of the times. On that journey, each country faces many choices in terms of approach, viewpoint, policy, and institution. Vietnam's choice is to proactively and actively promote digital transformation with the ultimate goal of serving people.
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