The main growth space comes from digital transformation of industries and fields.

On the afternoon of August 30, at the headquarters of the Ministry of Information and Communications, Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung, Vice Chairman of the National Committee on Digital Transformation chaired the second thematic meeting this year of the Committee with the theme "Breakthrough solutions to develop the digital economy in industries and fields".

Connected online with the bridge points of 63 localities, the Conference was also attended by Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Huy Dung, Member of the National Committee on Digital Transformation; Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Do Thanh Trung and leaders of the Steering Committees for Digital Transformation of ministries, branches and localities.

The symposium “Breakthrough solutions to develop digital economy in industries and sectors” of the National Committee on Digital Transformation was connected online to 63 localities. (Photo: Le Anh Dung)

Affirming the special importance of the digital economy, Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung pointed out that the Resolution of the 13th Party Congress emphasized that the digital economy must become the main driving force for rapid and sustainable growth, improving productivity, quality, efficiency and competitiveness of the economy.

To achieve the goal of the digital economy accounting for at least 20% of GDP by 2025 as set out in the National Strategy for Digital Economy and Digital Society Development, the digital economy must grow 3-4 times faster than GDP growth, or about 20% per year. “This is a difficult and challenging task and requires breakthrough solutions to achieve it,” the Minister said.

Based on the analysis of the current status of the two main components of the digital economy, which are the ICT industry and the digital economy of each industry and field, the Vice Chairman of the National Committee on Digital Transformation pointed out: The space for developing Vietnam's digital economy lies mainly in industries and fields.

In addition, special attention should be paid to the need to measure the national digital economy as well as the digital economy of each industry, sector, and locality. Only by measuring the level of digital economic development with low latency, monthly and quarterly, can we have data to promote digital economic development.

Along with discussing solutions to promote the development of digital economy in industries and fields, measuring the level of digital economic development is also an issue that delegates are interested in discussing. Feedback from local leaders and the Department of Information and Communications shows that localities are facing difficulties in measuring the digital economy of their provinces and cities.

Minister Nguyen Manh Hung affirmed that the Ministry of Information and Communications attaches special importance to measuring the digital economy, not only at the national level but also at the local and sectoral levels. (Illustration photo: Internet)

According to Mr. Tran Minh Tuan, Director of the Department of Digital Economy and Society (Ministry of Information and Communications), official data on the proportion of digital economy in Vietnam's GDP will be announced by the Ministry of Planning and Investment, directly by the General Statistics Office.

However, considering the important driving role of digital transformation and digital economy in the cause of industrialization and modernization of the country, in order to have a basis for forecasting trends and assessing the impact of policies on digital economic growth, while the General Statistics Office has not officially announced, the research team of the Ministry of Information and Communications and the Academy of Posts and Telecommunications Technology proposed a method to estimate and measure indicators of the digital economy.

Preliminary research results show that the estimated proportion of the digital economy to the country's GDP has continuously increased since 2021, from 11.91% in 2021 to 14.29% in 2022 and is estimated to be nearly 15% in the first 6 months of 2023. In particular, in 2022, the ratio between the ICT digital economy and ICT diffusion in industries and fields will be 65% and 35%, respectively.

Regarding the measurement of the proportion of the digital economy, the head of the information and communication industry noted that training and guidance are needed so that provinces and cities themselves understand the formula, know how to measure, and can measure themselves so that localities know how to promote the development of the digital economy in the area.

Popularizing smartphones to promote digital economy

Smartphone popularization is an important factor for people to transform activities from the real world to the digital environment, developing digital government, digital economy and digital society. According to statistics from the Department of Telecommunications (Ministry of Information and Communications), in 63 provinces and cities nationwide, the number of localities with smartphone subscription rates higher than 80% is 25; the remaining 38 localities have this rate below 80%.

According to the Department of Telecommunications, 25 localities currently have smartphone subscription rates of over 80%. (Illustration photo: V.Sy)

Director of the Department of Telecommunications (Ministry of Information and Communications) Nguyen Thanh Phuc said that based on analyzing the actual situation in Vietnam and referring to international experience, the Department proposed 5 solutions to increase the rate of people using smartphones in localities to promote the digital economy.

In particular, the two key solutions are to direct businesses to develop and implement a program to convert subscribers using old 2G/3G technology to smartphones and to strengthen the implementation of Circular 43 of 2020 of the Ministry of Information and Communications to contribute to increasing the conversion of smartphone mobile devices operating on the network.

In the coming time, in addition to implementing inspections and checks on the import and circulation of 2G Only and 3G Only phones; the Ministry of Information and Communications will direct network operators to prevent 2G Only and 3G Only phones (not complying with QCVN 117:2020/BTTTT) from connecting to mobile telecommunications networks and deploy communication solutions to raise people's awareness and promote the transition to smartphone use.

Director of the Information Technology Center, Ministry of Transport Le Thanh Tung shares the story of digital transformation of seaports. (Photo: Le Anh Dung)

In the second thematic session of the National Committee on Digital Transformation, the discussion content continued to be devoted to most of the time. Representatives of the Ministry of Transport; Hai Phong, Binh Thuan, Lang Son provinces and enterprises Smartlog, ezCloud, Vinatex, InfoRe shared good experiences, breakthrough methods and new ideas to develop the digital economy in industries and fields.

Talking about how to solve the Digital Seaport problem, Mr. Le Thanh Tung, Director of the Information Technology Center - Ministry of Transport said that with the support of the two Ministries of Information and Communications and Transport from the time of finding solutions to implementing practical applications, from only being applied at 1 port, to date, the Digital Seaport platform of Smart Logistics Technology Company has been applied at 21/148 major ports and the platform has connected 15 ports. "Up to now, it can be affirmed that Vietnamese enterprises are capable of solving the Digital Seaport problem", Mr. Le Thanh Tung shared.

Sharing the experience of the first locality to deploy the Digital Border Gate platform, Chairman of Lang Son Provincial People's Committee Ho Tien Thieu said that after nearly 2 years, 100% of cargo vehicles have declared online on the platform. The platform has been upgraded 26 times with 300 large and small edits according to actual conditions, and to date, it has processed 369,000 vehicles, with a total import-export turnover of 53.57 billion USD.

Developing the digital economy the Vietnamese way

Concluding the conference, Minister Nguyen Manh Hung once again emphasized that the digital economy has been playing an increasingly important role and becoming the main driving force for economic development, especially during and after the Covid-19 pandemic.

Minister Nguyen Manh Hung emphasized that digital technology enterprises must take on the mission and responsibility of creating infrastructure and tools to develop the digital economy. (Photo: Le Anh Dung)

Pointing out that in the long term, the digital economy will be the main industry, Minister Nguyen Manh Hung said that Vietnam needs to promote digital transformation to create a digital economy in each industry and field, bringing data and digital technology to naturally and by default permeate every activity of the economy.

Digital transformation and digital economic development are a long journey, more about application than research. Therefore, national characteristics, country context, and specificities of each industry are decisive factors. Vietnamese problems create Vietnamese solutions and products, creating Vietnamese approaches.

“Vietnam must follow the Vietnamese path and because of following the Vietnamese path, we have the opportunity to take the lead. A theory on digital transformation and developing Vietnam's digital economy is of decisive significance. The Ministry of Information and Communications aims to build this theory,” the Minister affirmed.

Within the framework of the Conference, the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Information and Communications signed a memorandum of understanding on coordination in supporting businesses in digital transformation and promoting digital economic development. (Photo: Le Anh Dung)

Introducing the concept of digital economy in a broad sense with the hope that everyone can understand and do it, the Minister also pointed out that to grow faster and higher, new space, new productive forces, new productive resources, new production factors and new driving forces are needed. The new space is the digital economy, the new productive forces are digital technology, the new productive resources are digital human resources and the new production factors are digital data, the new driving force is digital innovation.

Developing Vietnam's digital economy must fundamentally be based on digital innovation, investment in digital infrastructure, integration of the digital economy into all sectors and fields, completion of digital institutions, implementation of digital governance, training of digital skills, digital human resources and especially attracting digital talent.

The Minister also pointed out that learning from each other is still an important factor. The Ministry of Information and Communications will synthesize good experiences in digital economic development from localities, industries, and countries to share. The newsletter on digital economic development experiences will be published monthly, similar to the digital transformation newsletter.

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