Participants at the 2020 Science Forum held by the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences (VASS) recently said they can see strong digital transformation in socio-economic development in Vietnam.

Le Xuan Sang, deputy head of the Vietnam Economics Institute, said the Covid-19 pandemic has changed the behavior of people and businesspeople in spending, corporate governance, and interactions.

It has forced businesses to change the way of management, behavior towards consumers, and organization of production and business, as well as communication between businesses and government agencies and related organizations.

“The reluctance for face-to-face communications now has accelerated the development of the contactless economy,” Sang said.

A survey by the Economics Institute found that the firms developing remote learning technologies have been growing well.

During the social distancing period, the number of accesses to VNPT E-learning increased by four times. There were 100,000 visitors within one hour at some moments. Viettel Study had 41 million accesses a month, used by 26,000 schools for 29,000 lessons at different levels.

The pandemic has helped AI develop more rapidly than ever.

The remote medical examination sector also witnessed high and stable growth rates. Other digital technology fields saw growth rates of between 18 percent (online media) and 46 percent (e-commerce).

The pandemic has not diminishef Vietnam’s interest in digital economy. On the contrary, the disruption of many economic activities used on a traditional basis has forced Vietnam’s enterprises to accelerate the application of digital platforms in management, production and business activities.

Nguyen Duc Vinh from VASS noted that Covid-19 has changed people’s indifference to the achievements of digital transformation within a very short time.

Moving activities from the real world to the digital world was the best solution to cope with the pandemic, especially activities that already had some online usage.

The survey found a sharp rise in the percentage of people using e-wallets and non-cash transactions, making online transactions, shopping online, studying, meeting, and having healthcare examinations online. This included people who were once reluctant to use new technologies.

Vietnam is taking the initiative in approaching opportunities from having a digital economy. Being a developing economy doesn’t mean that Vietnam will stay behind developed countries in digital economy development, according to Nguyen Anh Duong from CIEM.

The pandemic has not diminishef Vietnam’s interest in digital economy. On the contrary, the disruption of many economic activities used on a traditional basis has forced Vietnam’s enterprises to accelerate the application of digital platforms in management, production and business activities.

However, Duong said the digital economy in Vietnam is facing barriers, including unsynchronized infrastructure and low digital connection capability.

The current institutional mechanism has not created favorable conditions for digital economy development. Many laws were enacted a long time ago and they have not been reviewed for amendment. Vietnam still lacks regulations for some economic models on a digital basis.

Vietnam, for example, still doesn’t have regulations to control P2P lending. As a result, some businesses have exploited the people’s lack of knowledge to provide loans at exorbitant interest rates, thus causing serious consequences to society.

Duong said that Vietnam is not paying appropriate attention to the development of some core technologies in 4.0 industry, including AI, blockchain and machine learning. The legal framework for the development of 4.0 industries is still primitive.

As for AI, there is no legal framework that covers social relations related to AI, the legal status of AI and AI bearing entities, and intellectual property.

Sang stressed that the pandemic has given a push to the digital transformation in Vietnam, but the process won’t be easy because of many reasons.

He suggested that it is necessary to give long-term support to digital technology firms, even if they face difficulties; and carry out restructuring long enough for businesses in this group. 

Duy Anh

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