E-government in Vietnam remains weak and less developed than in other regional countries though it is vital to the nation’s international integration process, experts told a seminar in Hanoi on March 30.

Experts attributed the weak e-government to a slew of difficulties in applying information technology to carry out the e-government project in Vietnam. It is because of underdeveloped IT infrastructure for the service and there remain problems with the deployment of public services on the Internet.

Meanwhile, developed countries have made full use of e-government to provide public services and strengthen links between government agencies and enterprises and residents. In these countries, people and businesses can complete administrative procedures online.

Vietnam ranked 102nd out of 167 countries in terms of e-government development last year, down eight notches from 2014, according to a survey of the International Telecommunication Union.

However, experts are pinning high hopes that e-government could perform better in the coming years as the Government issued Resolution 36a/NQ-CP in October 2015 speeding up the deployment of e-government to ensure the effective operations of state agencies, better serve people and businesses, and improve the nation’s competitiveness.

The resolution identifies 2015-2017 as a crucial period for e-government development, with priorities given to supporting development of online public services, IT infrastructure and human resources.

The focus in the period is to boost administrative reform and application of IT to online management and provision of public services in order to save time and cost.

Le Manh Ha, vice chairman of the Government Office, described Resolution 36a as a foundation for e-government to develop in Vietnam. But he said it is urgent to establish a thorough connection among agencies of all levels to enable people and enterprises to access public services via a national portal.   

Thieu Phuong Nam, director of Qualcomm Indochina, said around 40% of Vietnamese use mobile devices to surf the Internet and the proportion is projected to go up in the coming time. Therefore, many residents and businesses will approach public services through their mobile devices and this should be taken into account for e-government development.

Nam called for agencies to attend to security when providing public services via mobile devices.