Local businesses must work together to achieve Vietnam’s digital economy goals, in which each person has a smartphone and each household has a fiber optic internet subscription.

Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung reiterated his request at a recent conference held by the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC).

VinSmart factory in Hoa Lac Industrial Park. Photo: Vingroup

The minister said that increasing the capacity and speed of the 4G network and expanding the number of mobile subscribers using Mobile Money (direct carrier billing services) to 80% of the population and nationwide coverage of 5G by 2022.

Deputy Minister Pham Duc Long is assigned to organize a working session with telecommunications businesses in the near future, in which they will discuss how to reduce the coverage of the 2G network to 5% of the population by June 2022.

By the end of 2022, the goal of increasing the number of fiber optic cable subscribers by 5 million must be attained, totaling 24 million.

Relevant units also need to set specific development goals for the digital economy, digital government, and digital society in their 2022 plan, Hung said.

In order to ensure successful digital transformation, active and appropriate measures are needed to protect the systems of state agencies, governments, people, and businesses.

Although the domestic market faces many difficulties due to the prolonged Covid-19 pandemic, in the first ten months of 2021, the total revenue of the information and communication technology industry was estimated at more than VND2.56 quadrillion ($110.7 billion) up 9% over the same period in 2020. 

Of the total, Vietnamese enterprises earned VND292 trillion (nearly $12.7 billion), accounting for 11%. Revenue in the third quarter grew by 26.8% compared to the second quarter.

Revenue from the hardware and electronics industry reached nearly VND2.3 quadrillion ($98.1 billion), accounting for nearly 90%.

Vietnamese ICT industry exported $88.3 billion worth of products, accounting for 32.5% of the total export value during January-October.

In October, the revenue of telecommunications services was estimated at VND107.5 trillion ($4.7 billion), up nearly 1% over the same period last year.

Revenue of postal companies declined to VND7.5 trillion ($326 million) in Q3.