Smart traffic monitoring and operation centre in HCM City. Việt Nam targets to form digital Government by 2025. — Photo hanoimoi.com.vn

HÀ NỘI — Minister of Information and Communications Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng said on Wednesday that the Government within the first quarter or early in the second quarter of this year would approve a strategy to develop e-government as part of efforts to form a digital Government by 2025.

The building and deployment of the e-government architecture and government services platforms achieved significant results in recent years, Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Nguyễn Huy Dũng said.

For example, 100 per cent of ministries, ministerial-level agencies, provinces and cities under the central Government deployed the local/national government service platforms(LGSP) by the end of 2020, from just 3.2 per cent or three ministries and localities in 2018.

Dũng added that the national database about business registration also created significant reforms, which helped save time and costs. With around 700,000 firms operating in Việt Nam with millions of administrative procedures handled per day, the system helped save significant sums.

By the end of 2020, all ministries and localities had portals to provide online public services. More than 55 per cent of public services were provided online at level 3 or level 4 which allowed citizens to submit documents online and pay online, respectively.

The percentage of public services at level 4 increased from 1.42 per cent in 2016 to 30.86 in 2020.

Most ministries and localities implemented the electronic single-window system to computerise the administrative procedure handling process, which also helped improve efficiency and transparency.

According to Hùng, to build e-government, it was important to apply the latest technologies to accelerate the progress. Hùng added that Việt Nam needed breakthrough solutions to move faster.

He added that a stable budget was needed for the development of e-government which could be about 1 per cent of the annual budget of ministries and localities – the average level of the world.

Under the strategy of e-government towards digital Government which was expected to be approved within this quarter of in early the second quarter, digital Government would be formed by 2025.

This meant all administrative management agencies would operate in the digital environment for more efficiency, adding that the digital Government would lead the process of the national digital transformation and also promote the development of digital technology companies, Hùng said.

Accordingly, e-government would be basically completed in 2021 with the goal all public services would be provided at level 4 then digital Government would be formed in 2025 which would allow the automatic provision of Government services around the clock.

Hùng said the strategy would focus on completing the legal framework for digital transformation, developing the national digital infrastructure and platforms, developing national databases and ensuring national network security.

Big tech firms ready

Big tech firms said that they were willing to contribute to the development of e-government and accelerate the national digital transformation.

According to Phạm Đức Long, chairman of the Việt Nam Posts and Telecommunications Group, Vietnamese firms were capable of solving problems in national digital transformation, resources and technologies.

Long said tech firms should not only provide what they have but must pay attention to solving problems that localities were facing.

Nguyễn Đình Chiến, deputy director of military-run telecommunications group Viettel said it was important to hasten the development of the legal framework for digital Government, digital economy and digital society and develop mechanisms for capable firms to deploy the digital database to create new values.

Trương Gia Bình, chairman of FPT Group, said a clean financial mechanism should be raised to acclerate the development of digital Government. — VNS