Vietnam's Ministry of Public Security (MPS) on August 17 launched the National Center for Population Database which is the fundamental for e-government application and digital economy building.

Vietnam's population database is handled mostly manually. Photo: doanhnhansaigon

With a total investment of more than VND3.3 trillion (US$150 million), the project was approved by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in 2015. This is Vietnam’s largest project on information technology so far, modernizing population management with the application of science and technology, based on the national population database and ID, the MPS said on its website.

Components of the project are building technical infrastructure, leasing transmission infrastructure, and building application software systems. It will form the basic content of the national scheme on simplifying administrative procedures, the management of citizenship documents and population databases.

The MPS is responsible for building the database to store, standardize, digitize and manage the basic information of all Vietnamese citizens. The task has required the re-arrangement of the organizational structure of the ministry's Police Department for Administrative Management of Social Order. 

To deploy the task, the department reduced its units from 11 to 6, including one special unit - the National Center for Population Database which is a merger of five units.

Senior Lieutenant Colonel To Anh Dung, deputy director of the Police Department for Administrative Management of Social Order, was appointed to concurrently hold the position of director of the center.

Speaking at the launching ceremony, Deputy Minister of Public Security Nguyen Duy Ngoc suggested that the Police Department for Administrative Management of Social Order should continue to coordinate with professional units to advise ministry and government leaders in reporting on the revised Residency Act to the National Assembly.