Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, Minister of Information and Communications speaks at the 13th Party Congress. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI —  Việt Nam is one of the first countries in the world to issue a programme or strategy on National Digital Transformation, putting the country on par with others more advanced in the world, said Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, Minister of Information and Communications as the 13th Party Congress continued discussion of draft documents.

Hùng said that this was good news for Việt Nam to fully exploit opportunities brought about by the technology revolution.

“Digital transformation is a comprehensive transformation from real space to digital space, allowing the entire operation to be put into digital space," he said.

"This movement is taking place at a rapid rate under three pillars: digital government, digital economy and digital society. Like exploring new lands, the expanding cyberspace will open up a new development space for the country.”

Hùng said digital transformation has far-reaching impacts, covering all socio-economic sectors and fields, contributing to increasing labour productivity, transforming operating models, and doing business in the direction of innovation which would enhance the country's competitiveness.

One of the goals of the national digital transformational programme, approved by Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc, is to make the digital economy account for 30 per cent of the country’s GDP by 2030.

Việt Nam will be among the world’s top 50 countries in terms of e- government and labour productivity, increasing by 8 per cent annually at the same time.

To achieve the goals, Hùng said, it was necessary to have a good command of digital infrastructure and digital platforms, thereby mastering the national network space based on “Make in Viet Nam” products.

Digital infrastructure plays a decisive role in the development of digital economy and digital society while developing a digital platform is a breakthrough solution to promote digital government, hasten digital transformation, reduce costs and increase efficiency.

The information and communication sector aims to develop the digital platform ecosystem to meet the needs of Vietnamese people and then to the world. “Việt Nam needs more “Make in Viet Nam” digital platforms capable of going global to occupy new spaces,” he said.

The orientation of the sector in the future is to focus on product development.

More efforts would be made by the ministry to play a leading role in the process of digital transformation in all aspects of socio-economic development on the basis of promoting the strength of the whole society, Hùng said.

Delegates deliberates key Congress documents on Thursday. — VNA/VNS Photo

Administrative reform

Addressing the Congress, Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Phạm Thị Thanh Trà, said in the socio-economic development strategy for 2011-2020, the Party has identified administrative reform was one of the three breakthroughs for national development, contributing to improving capacity, efficiency and accountability of State apparatus at all levels.

In spite of gaining positive results in terms of administrative procedure reform thanks to the effort of the Government and the Prime Minister who have ordered drastic measures toward reducing the cost of administrative procedures as well as lessen the burden on people and businesses, there were still shortcomings, she said.

“Administrative procedures in some fields are still cumbersome and complicated, especially administrative procedures in the field of land and construction," Trà said.

"The operation of the State administrative apparatus from the central to local levels has not yet been unified while the quality of the contingent of cadres and civil servants in some places was not equal."

To promote administrative reform, building a democratic, professional and modern State administration serving the people, it was necessary to continue building and perfecting the institutional system, particularly the socialist-oriented market economy institutions and the institutions of the State administration.

Focus would be made on stepping up the reform of public service and civil servants, as well as building a contingent of qualified civil servants and public employees who meet the requirements for the new situation.

The Ministry of Home Affairs would vigorously carry out the development of e-Government and digital government which closely linked with administrative reform, aiming to improve the effectiveness in operations and service of administrative agencies at all levels in an open, transparent and modern manner.

Enhance value chains

After 35 years of adopting the renewal process, Việt Nam has obtained a number of achievements in modernisation and industrialisation, turning the country from one of the poorest in the world to a low-middle-income country and increasingly integrating deeply with the region and the world, said Trần Tuấn Anh, Minister of Industry and Trade in his presentation at the Congress.

People's lives have been improved while the prestige of the country in the international arena has been enhanced.

He emphasised that the industrial sector has, and would continue to play, an important role as a driving force for socio-economic development.

The sector is the one with the highest growth rate in the national economy contributing 30 per cent of the country’s GDP in 2011-2020 period. It has become the main export sector, helping the country climbing up from world’s 50th largest exporting countries in 2010 to 22nd in 2019.

However, he said that shortcomings still remained.

Industrial production in Việt Nam focused mainly on the final stage of production, resulting in low added value.

The driving force in the production and export of industrial products in the country is mainly aided by the FDI sector, accounting for approximately 70 per cent of the country's total export turnover.

The sustainability of Việt Nam's product development and export development still faced many potential risks while the country’s trade costs were higher than the ASEAN average regarding logistics.

The minister suggested a number of measures to enhance the country’s role and position in the global production network and value chains. The measures include creating a favourable environment for digital innovation and transformation on the basis of restructuring each industry and fully exploiting the achievements of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and exercise digitalisation.

He underscored the need to effectively implement the allocation of resources for development, concentrating on creating growth poles, strong engines in all sectors and fields.

It was also necessary to complete a mechanism towards creative government and offering a favourable and open environment for business investment.

More efforts would be paid to effective implementation of free trade agreements and increase investment attraction to expand production for the country's economic development in the context of complicated developments from political tensions, trade conflicts and the trend of trade protectionism in the world, he said. 

Meanwhile, in the afternoon, participants discussed personnel matter of those people to be elected to the 13th tenure Party Central Committee. They approved through voting that the number of members of the Party Central Committee will be 200, including 180 official members and 20 alternate members. — VNS