Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Bùi Hoàng Phương speaks at the event. — Photos courtesy of the Ministry of Science and Technology

BẮC NINH — Supporting shops and household businesses in digital transformation was one of the key solutions for giving concrete effect to the Party's and State's policy at the grassroots economic level, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Bùi Hoàng Phương stated.

He made the statement on Thursday in a conference to roll out a cooperation plan to pilot support for wholesale and retail shops as well as household businesses in digital transformation across Bắc Ninh Province.

The event was co-organised by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) and the Bắc Ninh People's Committee.

Bắc Ninh is one of the first five localities nationwide in which the MoST is jointly implementing this programme.

The Deputy Minister affirmed that through tools such as sales management software, e-invoices, digital payments and e-commerce, household businesses could manage their operations more effectively while reducing time, costs and effort.

"Digital transformation is not merely the application of a few standalone software packages, nor is it simply the digitisation of the work we have done up to now. Digital transformation must become a new mode of development, generating new models of production and business in order to enhance competitiveness," Phương said.

To ensure the programme achieves tangible results, the Deputy Minister proposed that support measures be easy to access and suited to the scale and capacity of household businesses, with priority initially given to essential needs such as sales management, warehouse management and cashless payments.

The realisation process must be “clear on who does what, on progress, on responsibility and on results”.

In particular, the Deputy Minister drew attention to requirement to ensure cybersecurity and data safety when moving business operations onto the digital environment.

The MoST committed to working closely with Bắc Ninh Province, its departments, agencies and businesses to conduct the plan, while also proposing that digital technology enterprises consider extending their support periods so that household businesses have sufficient time to become familiar with and regularly use the digital platforms.

The signing ceremony of the cooperation plan to support businesses in digital transformation in Bắc Ninh Province, between the Ministry of Science and Technology and the provincial People's Committee.

Permanent Deputy Chairman of the Bắc Ninh People's Committee Mai Sơn said the province regarded the conference as the starting point for a concrete programme of action with clear objectives, timelines and responsibilities.

He believes that the programme is significant at a time when household businesses are moving to tax declaration methods that demand increasingly rigorous management of books, invoices and sales data.

According to Sơn, Bắc Ninh currently has 106,537 household businesses in operation, yet only just over 2,000 of them use sales management software.

"This is precisely the gap that today's plan aims to address," he stressed.

The province has set itself the objective of reaching and guiding at least 10,000 shops and household businesses, striving for at least 50 per cent of these to have software and digital platforms installed, while also supporting entities, household businesses and craft villages in building their brands on the national domain, to be completed before the end of this year.

Sơn emphasised that the programme's results must be measured by the number of households that actually use and maintain the digital platforms after the support programme ends, "rather than merely by the number of conferences or training sessions held."

The province has also required communes and wards to organise training, call for community digital technology teams, youth unions, neighbourhood groups and businesses to visit shops directly, in line with the motto “go to the very doorstep, guide by hand”.

At the conference, the MoST and the Bắc Ninh People's Committee signed the cooperation plan for piloting support for wholesale, retail shops and household businesses in their digital transformation across the province.

The programme is accompanied by digital technology enterprises and aims to create concrete, effective models of digital transformation that can serve as a basis for further replication in Bắc Ninh and other localities. — VNS