Vietnam gears up to develop a digital economy

CMC Corporation’s chair Nguyen Trung Chinh said that a digital economy involves all sectors of the economy based on the internet and internet protocol platforms.

Chinh said the implementation of a policy on a digital economy can help ASEAN countries increase their GDP by US$1 trillion in the next 10 years. 

Thus, regional countries all have taken steps to boost digital use. Malaysia hopes the digital economy will account for 17% of value of its economy.

With a population of nearly 100 million, Vietnam is among the countries in ASEAN with relatively high growth rates in the digital economy. 

The trend can be seen in many fields, including trade, payments, transport, education and healthcare. 

The e-commerce and online ad markets in Vietnam have been developing strongly. 

It is estimated that tens of millions of Vietnamese access the internet via smartphones and Vietnamese are listed among the groups of people who are fond of technology.

Le Hong Minh, CEO of VNG, said the impact of the internet on the economy is estimated at 2-3% of GDP, while the figure is expected to rise to 40-50% in the future.

To develop a digital economy, experts said Vietnam needs to create a strategy on applying information technology (IT). 

On that basis, standards for exchanging information between agencies will be promulgated to create linkages in investment and development of infrastructure.

Experts have also proposed stepping up the e-government development program in all fields, including transport and tourism. 

It is necessary to build an e-payment infrastructure with solutions to restrict cash payments, and support the development of e-commerce, e-contracts and digital signatures.

The shortage of an IT labor force is a great challenge for digital economy development in Vietnam. Vietnamworks reported that 15,000 IT workers were recruited in 2016 and that the industry will lack 70,000 workers by the end of 2018.

Thieu Phuong Nam from Qualcomm urged the government and businesses to think of solutions to prepare for the deployment of 5G services to catch up with the global trend. 

It is expected that 5G smartphones will be available globally in the first half of 2019.

Experts and businesses all agree that the development of Vietnam’s digital economy depends on an internet management policy. 

If the policy is unreasonable, the national economy and Vietnamese businesses will be at a disadvantage in the competition with foreign businesses and other economies.