Covid-19 has forced people, businesses, organizations and the government to use digital tools to maintain their normal lives and work, helping the country accelerate the digital transformation process.

Students study online classes, businesses organize online working shifts and ministries organize online meetings.

Grab Vietnam’s statistics in mid-October 2019 (before the epidemic outbreak) and in mid-April 2020 (during the epidemic) showed that the large-scale application of measures to prevent coronavirus acted as the ‘catalyst’ to accelerate digital transformation in Vietnam.

It reported that orders for GrabMart, the shopping service launched in HCM City on March 23 and in Hanoi 14 days later, soared by 91 percent after one week of launching. The number of orders reached a peak on March 31, just before the social distancing campaign began.

Covid-19 has forced people, businesses, organizations and the government to use digital tools to maintain their normal lives and work, helping the country accelerate the digital transformation process.

Because of Covid-19, a high number of Vietnamese people have for the first time accessed online payment methods.

According to Moca e-wallet, the strategic partner of Grab, the number of users for the first time who made non-cash payment on Grab platform in March 2020 increased by 22.5 percent over the month before. Meanwhile, on the Grab ecosystem in general, non-cash transactions accounted for 43 percent. The figure was higher, 70 percent, for GrabMart.

Minister of Information and Communication Nguyen Manh Hung said Vietnam can control Covid-19 soon, while the world is still at the peak of the epidemic, which is a great opportunity for Vietnam to rise up through digital transformation.

During Covid-19, Vietnam is one of a few countries which can develop technological apps to fight the epidemic and bring life to ‘new normal conditions’ as businesses can master technologies.

Hung said Covid-19 not only brings challenges, but also opportunities to step up digitalization in many fields. Thanks to Covid-19, learning from a distance has become more familiar, while people have become used to online medical examination

Sharing the same view, president of CMC Group said it is now the time for Vietnam to create a digital life.

He said the government needs to make big investments in digital transformation and building a digital government. He cited a report of CSIRO (the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization) as saying that digital transformation would bring 1.1 percent GDP growth rate each year. It will help Vietnam regain the growth momentum which has slowed down because of Covid-19.

Under the national digital transformation program, by 2030, Vietnam would be one of 50 leading countries in terms of e-government and digital economy would make up 30 percent of GDP value. 

Tu Linh

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