Hanoi (VNA) – A national plan is scheduled to beissued this year so as to serve as a basis to engage state agencies, businessesand individuals in digital transformation – a leading factor in growthfacilitation and digital economy development.

Minister of Information and CommunicationsNguyen Manh Hung said digital transformation and digital society will be afocus of Vietnam in decades to come. Digital transformation will open up greatopportunities for the country as it will bring about comprehensive changes toorganisations and businesses.

Truong Gia Binh, Chairman of the VietnamSoftware and IT Services Association (VINASA), said digital transformation willgenerate several benefits like cutting down operating expenses, accessing morecustomers and making faster and more precise decisions, thereby improvingbusinesses’ operational efficiency and organisations’ competitiveness.

According to him, in the IT era, the growth ofbusinesses will largely depend on their digital transformation, without whichthey will lag behind and be eliminated sooner or later. That means amidst theFourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0), digital transformation not onlyhelps firms integrate and develop but also is decisive to their survival.

Minister Hung said the core of the digitaltransformation process in Vietnam is IT enterprises, noting that major telecomfirms will invest in basic IT projects and the Government will rent theirservices.

In the draft national digital transformationplan, Vietnam aims to emerge as one of the top four countries in ASEAN in termsof digitalisation by 2025 with 80,000 digital technology companies.

A 2018 survey of the IDC Group shows that 90percent of the companies interviewed had carried out digital transformation atdifferent stages, from study to implementation. More than 30 percent of theirleaders considered digital transformation as a matter of business survival.

As one of the leading IT groups in Vietnam, the FPThas taken the lead in digital transformation, its representative said, notingthat it has provided solutions for the Government to develop an e-cabinet and adigital economy and participated in building smart cities, transport, health careand education.

To help prepare infrastructure for nationaldigital transformation, the CMC Corporation recently debuted an openinfrastructure ecosystem named C.OPE2N to provide enterprises and organisationswith a platform for connecting with one another and sharing data in the digitalenvironment.

The CMC said in Industry 4.0, Vietnam needs moreopen infrastructure ecosystems like C.OPE2N to create digital hubs fororganisations and enterprises.

Apart from IT firms, companies in many otherfields such as Viettel, Vietcombank, VP Bank and EVN have also begun theirdigital transformation efforts.

This month, the Vietnam ICT Summit 2019 will beorganised by VINASA to give experts and businesses an occasion to discuss andshare experience in this work.-VNA