Vietnam will build a public and private cooperation mechanism in building e-government, and rank 63 provinces and cities in terms of information technology (IT) application and e-government implementation, said Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan.

Deputy PM Nhan, who is also Head of the National IT Steering Committee, made the statement at a conference entitled “ Towards high impact e-government and e-governance during 2011 – 2015 period” in HCM City on July 15.

The conference heard that positive results have been recorded in schemes to simplify administrative procedures in State management during the 2007-2010 period and apply IT in State administrative agencies during the 2008-2010 period.

A total of 5,700 administrative procedures and more than 9,000 regulations and guidance on administrative procedures have been digitised.

Administrative reform has helped save around 5.7 trillion VND (300 million USD) per year for organisations, businesses and individuals in the country.

Vice President of the Vietnam IT Association Le Truong Tung cited the United Nations’ report as saying that Vietnam ranks 90 out of 192 countries in IT application in the public sector in 2010.

The participants also focused their discussion on public-private cooperation for the fast development of e-services.

Twenty projects of the national programme on the application of information and communication technologies (ICT) in State agencies during the 2011-2015 period are considered an important part of the Government’s commitment to turn Vietnam into a strong ICT nation, said the conference./.