He made the statement at an international seminar jointly held on July 17 inNew York by Vietnam, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Italy, the United NationsDevelopment Programme (UNDP) and the International Telecommunication Union(ITU).
Vietnam will invest 11 trillion VND (484 million USD) from the Public-Utility TelecommunicationService Fund by 2020 to ensure that internet and other telecommunicationservices are accessible to all schools, hospitals, communes, poor and near-poorhouseholds, highlighted Phuong, who is also head of the Vietnamese delegationto the ECOSOC high-level segment.
He shared Vietnam’s challenges in the field, including capacity of localauthorities, application skills of people, and data base.
Phuong added that the full involvement of the State, local people, businessesand foreign partners will speed up the country’s ICT application in poverty alleviationand Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) implementation.
At the event, international representatives said that ICT is a key tool to implementSDGs, contributing to generating jobs, eradicating poverty and ensuring socialwelfare.
Specific experiences in ICT application were shared, including simplifyingadministrative procedures on land for farmers, building up the poor’shealthcare record, promoting education and vocational training and providingonline financial services for production households and vulnerable groups.
Theyalso gave out recommendations on low-cost ICT solutions to enhance economicefficiency, governments’ support for direct dialogues between local people,businesses and ICT service providers as well as study on the possibility oflatest ICT application in poverty reduction like artificial intelligence and 3Dprinting.
Besides encouraging bilateral cooperation, the participants called for the UN’ssupport for developing nations through the its organisations like the UNDP andITU.
The international seminar was initiative of Vietnam as an ECOSOC member for2016-2018 tenure, aiming to make contributions to the discussion of thehigh-level segment themed “Eradicating poverty and promoting prosperity in achanging world”.-VNA