Vietnam’s ICT industry sets ambitious goals for H2 after big gains in first half

With positive results in the first half of 2021, Vietnam’s ICT industry is setting out major tasks for the upcoming months, with digital transformation being a focus.

Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung chaired the first-half meeting.

The Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) on July 16 held a meeting to review the first-half performance of 2021 and set tasks for the second half.

The virtual meeting attracted the participation of leaders of the MIC, leaders of provinces and cities directly under central management, state agencies, heads of provincial and municipal Departments of Information and Communications, and the business community.

Highlights from H1

In the first half, the revenue of the post industry reached nearly $900 million, up 23 per cent on-year. The volume of postal products hit over 590 million, up over 30 per cent on-year.

During the period, total revenue from telecommunications services reached nearly VND66.5 trillion ($2.89 billion), up 5 per cent from the same period last year. Mobile Internet speed improved substantially by 35.5 per cent on-year.

The total revenue of the ICT industry hit $65 billion, up 22 per cent on-year. The total number of digital technology businesses increased to 61,359, up 20.11 per cent on-year.

Between January and June, the MIC directed and urged telecom businesses to sign and implement plans to deal with junk SIM, spam messages, and spam calls by applying new technology solutions and improving internal management. It was estimated that the number of junk SIMs fell by over 60 per cent on-year, while spam messages and spam calls dropped 68.6 per cent and 32 per cent on-year, respectively.

The virtual meeting to review the performance of the ICT industry in the first half and discuss key tasks for H2.

The MIC actively supported ministries, agencies, and localities in developing e-government and digital government: About 12 ministries and agencies as well as 49 cities and provinces are developing and updating e-government architecture 2.0, while 11 ministries and agencies and 37 cities and provinces issued action plans/programmes on digital transformation. The MIC also urged digital technology firms to develop and announce 43 digital platforms.

For the first time, ministries, agencies and localities joined force to support the MIC in promoting the sales of farm produce via the e-commerce platforms of postal firms. This is also the first time litchi from the northern province of Bac Gang was exported to the EU via trans-national e-commerce on made-in-Vietnam e-commerce platforms.

In the Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI) 2020, Vietnam jumped to the 25th position out of 194 countries and territories.

Key tasks for H2

The MIC will focus on the completion of major strategies such as the strategy on the development of postal infrastructure, digital infrastructure, and national database development to promote the country's diverse programmes and national strategies to promote digital government, cybersecurity, and the establishment of the digital economy.

Specifically, in the telecommunications industry, the auction of frequency bands will be promoted, while boosting 5G availability at concentrated IT areas, industrial parks, research centres, and universities to support the commercialisation of 5G.

IT application will accelerate the digital transformation of ministries, agencies, as well as cities and provinces in line with the prime minister’s directions. This process will be based on three major pillars: digital government, digital economy, and digital society, while supporting ministries, agencies, and localities to fulfil the target of putting 100 per cent of Level 4 public services online and completing national digital technology platforms to serve the COVID-19 prevention and fight.

In the field of digital economy, the MIC is compiling statistics and is identifying standards on digital economy to calculate its contribution to GDP/GRDP. At the same time, it will strongly implement the programme on supporting small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in digital transformation, and will build a set of indicators to assess digital transformation among businesses.

In the ICT industry, the ministry will encourage cities and provinces to issue plans on developing digital technology firms in line with the national digital transformation strategy while submitting plans to the prime minister for the establishment of two concentrated IT parks in Thai Nguyen and Bac Ninh.

Source: VIR