A view of the workshop on the development of Vietnam’s digital economy held by the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) in Hanoi on June 28. (Photo: hanoimoi.com.vn)Hanoi (VNA) – The digital economy has created new trends and demands and Vietnam should take advantage of these while preparing for necessary changes to build the digital economy, said Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Cao Quoc Hung.
He made the statement to a workshop on the development of Vietnam’s digital economy held by the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) in Hanoi on June 28.
The digital economy has been defined as a vital pillar for economic growth, creating breakthroughs for each country as the world enters the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0), Hung said. Many technology solutions in all sectors have been built, bringing huge new benefits.
“In Vietnam, the digitalisation trend or digital transformation has been seen in all sectors from trade, payment to healthcare, education, tourism and transport. The digital economy based on digital technology foundation and integrating smart technologies to maximise process and production models, especially Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and blockchain have changed the world’s production,” he added.
Developing a digital economy is not a task for Vietnam only, said Dang Hoang Hai, head of the MoIT’s Vietnam eCommerce and Digital Economy Agency (VECITA). As it has been moving so fast and had enormous impacts, many countries have started to draw up strategies for the development of the digital economy, though they had never thought about it before, he explained.
“The development needs of the society, market and economy are making us promptly adopt a direction and strategy for the growth of the digital economy in Vietnam,” Hai noted.
According to him, though the country has issued policies to facilitate the development of the digital economy, they are separate and disconnected. There is a lack of a direction and a national strategy for this matter, he said. “Our job is to connect these policies in a way to create a big picture for the growth of the digital economy in Vietnam,” he added.
Sharing experiences in building digital economy which the World Economic Forum (WEF) learned from Demark, Kelly Ommundsen, WEF’s Community Lead, Digital Economy and Society System Initiative suggested that investment into digital transformation in Vietnam should not only come from businesses but society.
The development of the digital economy should not be implemented in each country but the region. For example, Vietnam should be put into the digital economy development trend of the ASEAN region to build effective strategies.
However, she said, the most important thing to build a successful digital economy in Vietnam was to connect ministries and sectors in the overall system.
According to the MoIT, up to 53 percent of the Vietnamese population has access to the internet. Revenue from e-commerce expanded 25 percent annually, up from 4.07 billion USD in 2015 to 6.2 billion USD last year, and is expected to reach 10 billion USD in 2020.-VNA
VNA
