Attendees at the “People Ask – Government Answers” programme in HCM City on Sunday. — Photo courtesy of sggp.org.vn

HCM CITY — HCM City considers digital transformation one of its key tasks and wants businesses to be more proactive in offering efficient digital transformation solutions to it, its deputy chairman, Dương Anh Đức, has said.

He was speaking on the “People Ask – Government Answers” programme on a topic called “Investment in digital transformation in State management to serve people and businesses” held by the People's Council, the city legislature, along with HCM City Television and the Department of Information and Communications on May 14.

The city sets its development goals based on technology and so steadily increases investment in digital transformation, according to Đức. It spent 0.78 per cent of its budget on digital transformation in 2021, 0.97 per cent last year, and it is expected to exceed 1 per cent this year.

The city administration has instructed the Department of Information and Communications to comprehensively deploy core digital transformation applications and services, and pays close attention to developing skilled human resources to serve the digital transformation.

Of the businesses in the city IT sector, more than 98 per cent are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which is a huge resource for the city in digital transformation.

"The city does not discriminate between State-owned and private and large and small enterprises, and seeks to create favourable conditions for all businesses to develop," he said, pointing out that 16 SMEs were participating in the City Digital Transformation Programme.

The People's Committee has instructed the Department of Information and Communications to build a digital transformation centre to showcase the city's digital transformation needs to businesses and for the latter to showcase their solutions.

“The city is always ready to receive innovative ideas and solutions from businesses and individuals to speed up digital transformation and improve public services,” Đức said.

It is the only locality in the country that has an investment stimulus programme, according to the official.

In the near future, when the National Assembly approves a resolution to supersede Resolution No.54 on specific mechanisms and policies for the development of the city, the stimulus programme could be expanded to many sectors.

In 2015 the People’s Committee began the programme, with technology, manufacturing, supporting industry, trading, agriculture, healthcare, education and training, culture and sports, infrastructure, and environmental companies receiving 50-100 per cent interest rate subsidies on loans of up to VNĐ100 billion. — VNS