Vo Thi Trung Trinh, deputy director of the HCM City Department of Information and Communications, said on the sidelines of the VNNIC (VietNam Internet Network Information Center) Internet Conference 2023, an event in late June, that the targets are important strategies to ensure a smart city, a digital society, and effective digital transformation.

HCM City will provide connection tools so that people can easily access smart services on the internet, such as public services, utility services and digital content.

In addition to the expected benefits, suitable solutions to mitigate risks when using the internet will be considered.

HCM City is creating information security solutions to be sure that the internet can be used in an effective way, because once digitized, all operations of local authorities, as well as the national economy, will be carried out in that environment.

The city will also provide users with tools, knowledge and skills to protect themselves during the use of the internet. It is necessary to create reasonable rules of conduct on social networks to be sure that users won’t become victims of people with bad intent, or accidentally lend a hand to dissemination of toxic information. 

Regarding the universalization of the internet in HCM City and Vietnam in general, Tran Quoc Hung, deputy head of the technology division of VNPT (Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group), said Vietnam has a population of 100 million and 78 million internet users. Currently, VNPT is interested in universalizing the Internet to include disadvantaged people, people with low incomes, and people with difficult circumstances who are unable to access or have limited access to the internet.

VNPT will continue to expand the internet coverage area. The telecom carrier has brought fiber optic cables to 100 percent of communes, and mobile internet to 99.8 percent of the population. It plans to cover 100 percent of hamlets and villages with fiber optic internet and 100 percent of the population with mobile broadband.

VNPT will also continue implementing community internet programs, offer low-fee service packages, support disadvantaged people, observe the instructions by the State, especially the Prime Minister’s Decision No 411 that approves the national strategy on developing digital economy and digital society by 2025, with the vision towards 2030, under which 80 percent of households would have fiber optic internet by 2025 and 100 percent by 2030.

Van Anh