Four ambassadors of Nordic countries and Associate Professor Dương Trung Ý, Vice President of Hồ Chí Minh National Academy of Politics co-chair the seminar. VNA/VNS Photo Văn Điệp

HÀ NỘI Transparency and trust are the cornerstones of good governance, said Johan Ndisi, Swedish Ambassador to Việt Nam when talking about key factors that define modern governance.

Four ambassadors of Nordic countries this week co-hosted a seminar on the occasion of the Nordic Day 2025 to share those nations’ experience in advancing leadership in public administration in the context of digital transformation.

Governance in the Nordic countries—Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark—is distinguished by strong robust welfare systems, inclusive governance and a steadfast commitment to innovation and sustainability.

These nations consistently secure top positions in global indexes that assess governance and sustainable competitiveness.

Johan said the Nordic countries consistently rank among the highest in global governance indexes because of their commitment to transparency, anti-corruption efforts and open government practices. Việt Nam’s efforts to increase transparency and accountability will play a crucial role in strengthening public trust and creating a more engaged society.

The Nordic experience demonstrates that regional and local governments, when empowered with the right tools and responsibilities, can deliver more responsive and tailored public services, he said.

Anders Windinge, chief consultant of Denmark’s local government, said Denmark uses a lot of decision making that's close to the citizens because: “We believe that by decentralising decisions, we can also achieve more happy citizens.

“The closer to the citizen the decision is made, the happier the citizens are because they can relate to the decisions that are made,” he said.

Sharing Denmark’s experience in AI application or digitalisation in the governance, he said the public needs to get on board.

“If we try to do digitalisation without people having an ownership, it's not going to work. So you need to have something that connects people with the digitalisation,” he told Việt Nam News.

He said in Denmark each citizen has a digital signature. It makes it possible for everyone, basically from birth to death, to use all public services online.

“As a citizen, as for me as a citizen in Denmark, I can sign everything digitally. I can see all the information that the authorities have on me.

“In Denmark it's an obligation for me as a citizen to receive everything from the authorities digitally. It's also an obligation for the authorities to send everything to me digitally. That goes for both individuals and for businesses. For the businesses it's always been a huge step forward because it makes for a lot easier workflows,” he said.

Jarkko Levasma, the director of Public Sector ICT Department, Finnish Ministry of Finance, mentioned the Finnish government's long-term goal of digitalising public and private services to enhance productivity and ease of use for citizens and businesses.

The strategy focuses on human-centric digitalisation based on life events, aiming to automate processes and increase trust in public administration.

“Applying human centric digitalisation with life events gives us the possibility to digitalise and further automate and from automation to create real productivity growth,” he said.

It is so much easier to digitalise when you have a mutual trust between administration and the citizens and businesses, he said.

He cited an example of pre-filled tax returns to highlight how such automation can simplify tasks in Finland.

Keijo Norvanto, Ambassador of Finland to Việt Nam, said one of the cornerstones of his country's governance is the profound trust the citizens place in their institutions.

“Over generations, we have fostered an environment where the public feels confident that their government will act in their best interests – transparently, ethically, and with a high level of accountability. This trust is not a given thing. It is earned through consistent, responsible leadership and the belief that every decision is made with integrity and inclusivity,” he said. VNS