On e-govt, Vietnam will impress

By Jianggan Li | 21 June 2011 | Permanent link | 0 comments

I rarely need to put a headset throughout almost the entire duration of a conference, but FutureGov Forum Vietnam turned out to be one of the most meaningful events I have been to.

At the forum, I moderated three panel discussions at the forum, through the diligent (and excellent) work of our interpreters who sat in the black boxes at the back. Language did not become a barrier – I was deeply impressed by the officials’ professionalism, and their down-to-earth to tackling challenges and sharing with their peers.

To set the stage, Dr Nguyen Minh Hong, Vice Minister from the Ministry of Information and Communications, shared the country’s vision to become a leading country in e-government by 2020. Concrete plans have been made to achieve this strategic objective, including policies, procedures and a number of national databases being built. Dr Hong reminded the attending officials about a few new policies/services to be rolled out, which government departments are required to adhere to. An example of those is the digital certificate for online transactions, mandated in a recent government circular.

While giving a detailed introduction of ICT applications by his ministry, Nguyen Linh Ngoc, Vice Minister from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE), emphasised that leveraging ICT was both ‘targets and means’. His Director General for IT, Nguyen Huu Chinh, joined a panel on “managing and sharing information” in the afternoon and shared on how GIS databases were built and shared with other government departments. Almost ten years ago the government mandated that no more standalone GIS platforms were to be built, all the data had to be collected and imported onto MONRE’s platform – avoiding a key challenge that many governments across the region are now facing.

GIS aside, Phung Bao Thach, Director General of ICT centre, Ministry of Science and Technology, commented on the same panel that while in many areas policies and procedures are in place, including Government Interoperability Framework, sharing of information was still limited across the central ministries and agencies. Believing that there are more to do be done, he threw the question to other panellists and the audience.

Taking the question, Dr Nguyen Quoc Anh, Director of Centre for Population Information and Documentation at Ministry of Health’s General Office for Population & Family Planning, shared his experience in effectively collecting and updating population database, a constant process that involves working with many local authorities.

Naturally the process of standardised data collection and sharing is still a challenge for many government IT departments, but through openly identifying their problem and soliciting answers/inspirations from their peers, the officials are on the right track to achieve their objectives.

A key differentiator of FutureGov Forum series was to bring relevant international experiences to the country. Rachel McClure, Vice President for Public Services of SAP Asia Pacific & Japan, shared a whole list of projects across the world to make citizen delivery. I glanced through the hall during Rachel’s speech: people, including the Deputy Ministers present, were listening, and nodding in approval. Clearly this was what they would strive to achieve as well.

Joining Rachel to share experiences and perspectives are regional speakers from countries such as Korea, Taiwan and Singapore. K Latha, Head of Business Facilitation Division of Singapore’s Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA), shared their experience in bringing one stop e-registration service to businesses. Not only have they integrated all the government services needed for a business to be set up, the Authority also works with a number of commercial banks such that business account opening can be done through the same portal – making the service truly ‘one-stop’.

Summarising her 30 odd years of experience working for the Authority, Latha believed the most difficult challenge was still the change of registration process from manual to online – as it really fundamentally overturned the processes civil servants in the Authority had been operating on for decades. Nevertheless, despite all the challenges, the project went through and played a key part in making Singapore one of the easiest places to do business in the world. Latha said what really culminated their achievement was a comment made by a businessmen at a seminar she went to. The entrepreneur had an once-in-a-lifetime deal in front of him and he did not have a company registered to sign the contract. He said to his counterpart “wait fifteen and I will have a legal entity to take the businesses.” He then switched on the computer, went to the ACRA web site and the process was indeed completed within fifteen minutes, to the amazement of his foreign business partner. Vietnam has also, since adopting a market-oriented economy in late 1980s, strived to facilitate businesses. Tran Huu Linh, Deputy Director General, E-commerce and IT Agency of Ministry of Industry and Trade, shared a few successful projects that the ministry has undertaken to facilitate trade, including the Electronic Certificate of Origin issuance system and the Dangerous Chemicals system. Linh highlighted that although the services are well established in major cities such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City; they do not yet cover small cities and provinces very well – a priority for the Ministry over the next few years.

The event was also a chance for regional IT directors, many of whom old friends with each other, to meet and discuss. Nguyen Anh Tuan, Deputy Director of Department of Information and Communications of Ho Chi Minh City, was a good friend of Pham Kim Son, Director of Department of Information and Communications of Da Nang City in central Vietnam. The cities and provinces across the Central and Southern part of the country were eager to understand the progress Da Nang had made under a multi-million dollar World Bank funding scheme to develop comprehensive e-government infrastructure and services. Obviously every encounter was a meaningful exchange for them to bring the experience to their home province/city.

A key concern of local officials is how to extend government’s reach to all citizens, many of whom live in difficult terrain, such as those rural residents of Long An province in the Mekong Delta. Le Van Bich, Director of Department of Information & Communications of Long An Province, shared how to mobilise local resources to reach out to villagers in the province, half of which is flooded in the monsoon season.

The panellists on digital divide also listened attentively to Shan-Min Han, Deputy Director of Computer Centre from Taiwan’s Ministry of Education (MOE). The Ministry has successes rolled out 174 ‘Digital Opportunity Centres’(DOCs) in many parts of the country, empowering people, especially rural residents, to leverage the digital opportunity. What interested the Vietnamese panellists the most was how DOCs are made sustainable, through private sector involvement and government’s careful planning.

Rong-Guey Ho, Director of MOE Computer Centre, was also in Vietnam, visiting Taiwanese schools and helping them with e-learning materials. Vietnam is one of the major investment destinations of Taiwan businesses, with many Taiwanese families living there. The Ministry hopes that through these e-learning materials, the students could easily adapt Taiwan’s education system when they eventually go back.

There were indeed a lot shared at the forum, such that at the end of the day, almost 100 officials still remained in the room. While it is hard to summarise everything here, why don’t you come and join us at the next FutureGov Forum Vietnam?

And - Quý vị có câu hỏi nào không?