The Minister of Information and Communications, Nguyen Mạnh Hung, has announced that a strategy to build the e-government will be approved within the first quarter or early in the second quarter of this year. The move is part of efforts to form a digital government by 2025.
The building and deployment of the e-government architecture and services platforms have achieved significant results over the past few years, according to a press release. For example, 100% of ministries, ministerial-level agencies, provinces, and cities had deployed local/national government service platforms (LGSP) by the end of 2020, from just 3.2% of ministries and localities in 2018.
The Deputy Minister of Information and Communications has explained that the national database on business registration also created considerable reforms. With around 700,000 firms operating in Vietnam with millions of administrative procedures handled per day, the system helped save time and money.
By the end of 2020, all ministries and localities had portals to provide online public services. More than 55% of public services were provided online at level 3 or level 4, allowing citizens to submit documents and pay online. The percentage of public services at level 4 increased from 1.42% in 2016 to 30.86% in 2020.
Most ministries and localities implemented the electronic single-window system to computerise the administrative procedure handling process, which also helped improve efficiency and transparency. According to Hung, for the e-government, a stable budget of about 1% of the annual budget of ministries and localities -the average level of the world- is required.
The strategy to build an e-government means that all administrative management agencies will operate in the digital environment. It is expected to lead the process of the national digital transformation and consequently will promote the growth of digital technology companies.
The e-government will be completed by 2021. Hung said the strategy would focus on completing the legal framework for digital transformation and developing digital infrastructure, platforms, and databases. It will also ensure national network security. Big tech firms said that they were willing to contribute to the development of e-government and accelerate the national digital transformation.
The government recently debuted two national database systems on population and citizen identification card issuance and management. The systems were developed and implemented by the Ministry of Public Security and reflect the government’s determination to shift from paper-based to electronic document management.
As OpenGov Asia reported earlier, the national database on population is the most important system among the six national databases to help develop e-government. The project on citizen identification card production, issuance, and management was approved by the government last September. The Ministry of Public expects to issue chip-based ID cards to 50 million citizens by 1 July this year. Under the Law on Citizen Identification, citizens that are 14 years of age can obtain an ID card, which is then renewed when they turn 25, 40, and 60 years old. More than 29,000 citizens have obtained new ID cards to date, including 1,369 delegates to the 13th National Party Congress.