At a meeting with overseas Vietnamese in Luxembourg on December 10, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said: “Digital transformation has reached every corner of our life."

“Every happening in our life, from birth when we have to make birth certificates, to death when death certificates are issued, all have relations to digital transformation. Digital transformation is present in all aspects of life,” he said.

The resolution of the 13th Party Congress says that one of the most important tasks is "accelerating research, transfer and application of scientific and technological achievements, carrying out national digital transformation, developing a digital economy, and improving productivity and the competitiveness of the economy".

In September 2019, the Politburo issued Resolution 52 on adapting to the fourth industrial revolution, emphasizing digital transformation. 

Agencies of the Party, State, Fatherland Front and politico-social organizations will have to complete the transformation by 2025. Vietnam aims to be among the top 4 ASEAN countries in the UN’s electronic government rankings.

Closing the sixth Central Committee Conference in October 2022, Party Chief Nguyen Phu Trong stressed that digital transformation is a new method that can shorten the time of industrialization and modernization.

The guidelines of the Party Chief were later included in Resolution 29 on accelerating industrialization and modernization by 2030, with a vision towards 2045.

Allocating resources 

Several targets were set in Resolution 29: the proportion of digital economy will be 30 percent by 2030; the building of digital government will be completed; and Vietnam will be among 50 leading countries in the world and will be third in ASEAN in terms of electronic government and digital economy.

The Central Committee has set out key tasks to promote industrialization and modernization with solutions related to digital transformation in a comprehensive way in nearly all socio-economic fields.

The leading task set by the Party is "renovating thinking and awareness and taking drastic actions to continue to accelerate industrialization and modernization".

The core content of the country's industrialization and modernization in 2021-2030 is promoting the application of science and technology and innovation, especially achievements of the fourth industrial revolution so as to make a breakthrough in productivity, quality, efficiency and competitiveness of business fields and the whole economy; and carrying out digital transformation in a comprehensive, effective and sustainable manner.

Regarding institutional building and improvement, the resolution points out that it is necessary to build a legal framework for the development of a digital economy, society and government; set up a "sandbox" to implement policies on a trial basis; and experiment and apply digital technology-based products, solutions, services and business models.

Among the solutions to building a self-reliant and powerful industry and country, the Party points out that Vietnam will allocate resources and design policies with attractive incentives to develop fundamental industries, including digital technology – Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data, Blockchain, cloud computing, Internet of Things (IoT), electronics and telecommunication equipment, semiconductor chip designing and manufacturing.

Beneficiaries of digital transformation

As an executive body, the government has issued many decisions to concretize the Party’s guidelines about digital transformation.

In early 2022, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh issued Decision 06 approving the plan on promoting the application of data on population, electronic identification and authentication for the national digital transformation program in 2022-2025, with a vision towards 2030 (Plan 6).

The databases on population, electronic identification and authentication are the foundations for digital transformation, and a production method based on digital technologies. People and enterprises are put at the center of the transformation.

The major requirement of Plan 6 is ensuring that the national database is "right, sufficient, clean and lively".

On April 22, 2022, the Prime Minister issued Decision 505 that states October 10 from now on will be National Digital Transformation Day.

Gia Nguyen