HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam needs to form policies that will boost the digital economy, a move that will generate added value and help sustainable development, experts said at a conference on Wednesday in Hà Nội.

Đào Huy Giám, General Secretary of the Việt Nam Private Sector Forum (VPSF), said that more than ever, it’s time for Việt Nam to pay attention to digital economy.

Giám cited statistics showing that 1.7 per cent of the population are involved in the digital economy and contribute 5 per cent to the gross domestic product (GDP). Each labour worked in the digital economy creates added value three times higher than the national average.

“The digital economy stimulates high added value and leads to breakthroughs in capacity for sustainable development,” Giám stressed.

According to Nguyễn Trung Chính, head of the VPSF’s working group on digital economy, with US$900 million revenue from e-commerce in 2016 and 60 million smartphone users, Việt Nam had significant room to boost the digital economy.

Still, the biggest challenge is that Việt Nam had not had favourable policies to encourage new business models and digital technology-enabled companies, Chính said.

He said that to develop digital economy, the Government should hasten efforts in limiting the use of cash, promoting e-commerce and e-contracts and creating payment infrastructure for electronic transactions. In addition, incentives should be given to the software industry and hi-tech zones.

Chính said that in digital economy, firms needed fair playing ground to develop, adding that there are still differences in treatment compared to different economic sectors.

According to Bùi Quang Ngọc, deputy chairman of technology FPT Group, “It is critical to create a fair playing ground for different economic sector, especially in accessing State-funded IT projects.”

Experts added that focus should be paid to develop IT human resource.

According to Phạm Văn Hải from the Hà Nội University of Technology, the IT sector faces a severe human resource shortage.

A report by job finding website VietnamWorks in 2015 said that Việt Nam needed 1.2 million IT workers by 2020. However, with the current growth rate of 8 per cent per year, Việt Nam will faced with a shortage of 500,000 workers.

VPSF statistics show that the global digital economy was worth $3 trillion in 2016 with an anticipated annual growth rate of 9 per cent by 2020. ASEAN’s digital economy is worth $150 billion. — VNS