Vice Director of the Hanoi Department of Information and Communications Nguyen Viet Hung told The Hanoi Times about the city’s progress in digitalization in the past year.

Mobile carriers have been actively involved in the process of upgrading digital infrastructure and ensuring data privacy in the city. Photo: Cao Hung

Moving toward e-Governance

In 2022, Vietnam accelerated the national digital transformation with Hanoi among the leading localities. What has the city achieved during this process?

Last year, the Hanoi People's Committee carried out a series of plans to implement information technology (IT) under the "Hanoi City Digital Transformation Program to 2025, targeting 2030". Thanks to a clear roadmap and step-by-step implementation, Hanoi's digital transformation has been rolled out from the city to the grassroots.

Platforms for the development of digital administration are being deployed, such as the Local Government Service Platform (LGSP), which is connected to the National Government Service Platform (NGSP). Hanoi is considering outsourcing the city's data center services with cloud computing technology to better meet the needs of agencies and units and ensure data privacy.

Soon, Hanoi will put into operation a new-generation 3-level interconnected administrative processing solution system, aiming to meet the requirements of the Government, the Ministry of Information and Communications, and the conditions of using population data to build a digital government.

In addition, information systems and databases are being developed in education, transportation, construction, environmental resources, agriculture, investment, finance, and taxation for more effective state governance.

For the digital economy and society, the Hanoi People's Committee also simultaneously implemented strategies such as: "National strategy to develop digital economy and society to 2025, with an orientation to 2030", "Plan to develop the National Digital Address Platform associated with digital maps", "Taking farm produce to the e-commerce platform, promoting the development of the agricultural and rural digital economy."

Digital transformation is not only about technological transformation but more importantly a transformation of perception. What are the advantages and disadvantages of Hanoi's digital transformation?

Over the past years, all levels of Party committees, authorities, businesses, and people in the city have been focusing on investing in infrastructure and applying IT to improve the effectiveness of governance, production, and doing business.

The telecommunications and IT infrastructure has been deployed synchronously to meet the requirements. In this regard, leaders and cadres at all levels have changed their way of thinking and working to move away from paper-based administrative procedures. This resulted in greater efficiency and transparency in the state's process of handling administrative work.

However, there are still difficulties and limitations in the process of the city's digital transformation. Some leaders, cadres, and officials are not fully aware of the meaning, importance, and urgency of digital transformation. In addition, there is a shortage of IT human resources in the state apparatus, especially in the communes where there is no specialized IT personnel, which greatly affects the progress and quality of the digitization task.

Facilitating business development

Every major change in a country in general and a city/province, in particular, is aimed at bringing maximum benefits to the people. So, with digital transformation, what would the people benefit from?

The "Digital Transformation of Hanoi to 2025, with a vision 2030" program is being implemented by local authorities to harness the power of advanced technologies associated with the simplification of administrative procedures to better serve the interests of the population.

Currently, the city's digital transformation process has yielded positive results and generated significant changes in people's lives. For example, in the field of education and training, the city continues to maintain and implement online enrollment for preschool, first and sixth grades. The electronic contact book system provides comprehensive and free information on student performance through smartphone applications, which are being implemented in elementary, middle, and high schools.

In addition, in the agricultural sector, Hanoi has maintained a traceability system for local agricultural products (check.hanoi.gov.vn), the application of QR codes to trace the origin of OCOP (one commune, one product) through smart devices, ensuring the safety of agricultural, forestry and fishery products in Hanoi's grocery stores and supermarkets.

The digital transformation process in Vietnam is people-centered. So what has Hanoi done to get people's response to this process?

Since the launch of the program "Digital Transformation of Hanoi to 2025, with an orientation to 2030" in 2021, Hanoi has identified digital transformation as an opportunity to bring equality and benefits to every citizen. Therefore, people and businesses must be at the center of the digitalization process.

In addition to the efforts of authorities at all levels, efforts to raise public awareness of the importance of digitization at the grassroots level are a top priority. In this sense, the Digital Technology Community Group is identified as the nucleus to carry out this task. So far, there are 545 Digital Technology Community Groups with 2,396 members in four districts: Hoan Kiem, Ba Dinh, Dong Anh, and Soc Son.

In addition to promoting digitization policies, these groups have also gone house-to-house to specifically guide local people on issues such as registering an account on the National Public Service Portal and the Hanoi Public Service Portal, how to use the online public services, digital services, and interacting with the Government through digital platforms, or opening electronic payment accounts.

In the coming time, the city will continue to expand the operation model of the Community Digital Technology Group in every locality; guide people, organizations, and households to use online public services, and national digital platforms to develop digital government, economy, and society. This would help create a safe and constructive environment for people and businesses.

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