HCMA Deputy Director Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng (sixth from left) and his delegation, along with Czech senators. — VNA/VNS Photo

PRAGUE — A delegation from the Hồ Chí Minh National Academy of Politics (HCMA), led by Associate Prof. Dr. Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, Deputy Director of the HCMA and Vice Chairman of the Central Theoretical Council, paid a working visit to the Czech Republic from November 10–13 to advance strategic cooperation and exchange experience in policymaking, digital transformation, science-technology and national governance.

During the trip, the delegation held meetings on November 11 with the Czech Senate, the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia, and the Centre for Asia-Pacific Studies. At the meetings, Czech leaders highlighted the traditional friendship and long-standing cooperation between the two countries, underscoring the significance of the 75th anniversary of diplomatic ties (1950-2025) and the decision to upgrade the bilateral relations to a Strategic Partnership in January 2025.

They affirmed that Việt Nam remains an important partner and promising market in Southeast Asia, noting strong opportunities for collaboration in the fields of investment, education and training, and digital transformation. Czech leaders also recognised the positive contributions of the Vietnamese community in the Czech Republic, which serves as an important bridge fostering bilateral friendship and cooperation.

For his part, Hùng emphasised that the visit aimed to concretise the newly elevated Strategic Partnership while preparing for the upcoming visit to Việt Nam by senior Czech leaders. He briefed the hosts on Việt Nam’s socio-economic situation, highlighting major breakthroughs in science–technology, innovation, digital transformation and human resources development.

The official noted that Việt Nam is studying revisions to key legal frameworks to remove bottlenecks, create favourable conditions for priority sectors and ensure steady progress toward sustainable development goals.

Both sides discussed specific measures to effectively implement the strategic partnership framework, with a focus on digital transformation, education and training, science-technology cooperation and information exchange.

On November 13, the delegation held a meeting with representatives of the Czech Digital and Information Agency. Hùng introduced Việt Nam’s digital transformation efforts, including the integration of multiple public service functions into the chip-based electronic ID cards, which support vaccination records, vehicle registration, driver's licences and policy-related entitlements. He stressed that the national ID cards form a core component of Việt Nam’s national database, population database and digital identification infrastructure.

For the Czech side, Ondřej Menoušek, Director of the E-government Services Department, shared the European nation's experience in building a citizen-support network covering 7,200 locations nationwide, maintaining free personal digital mailboxes, and developing an integrated data system similar to Việt Nam’s VNeID platform.

He also described the Czech government’s dedicated digital systems for ministries and agencies, alongside direct training programmes that equip civil servants to use newly developed e-government tools effectively. These experiences could provide useful reference for Việt Nam’s ongoing administrative reforms and digital transformation agenda, he said.

Earlier, on November 10, the delegation worked with the Vietnamese Embassy in the Czech Republic to organise a consultation session on the draft documents to be submitted to the 14th National Party Congress. — VNA