【kqbd số】Hue City: Towards a synchronized ecosystem in digital transformation

Mr. Nguyen Xuan Son, Director of the Department of Information and Communication.

Could youpleasehighlight some special points of this year's DT Week?

Taking place on November 16 and 17, the event encompasses diverse activities, including a plenary session and three in-depth seminars, alongside an Exhibition & VIP Tour introducing platforms, solutions, and digital infrastructure. It also facilitates investment connections, bilateral meetings with provincial leaders, departments, sectors, businesses, and the signing of DT cooperation agreements.

With the theme “Generating Digital Data - Accelerating Regional Connectivity”, the plenary session focused on the Government's orientation on data, results and achievements in data mining while expanding regional data connectivity, as well as solutions for provinces and cities to collaborate and promote data value in the digital era.

The specialized seminars cover topics such as Digital Data Exploitation and Management - Breakthrough in Economic and Social Development - towards becoming a centrally-governed municipality by 2025; Promoting DT in enterprises and the special subject of Digital Competence - Breakthrough opportunity for young Vietnamese. The three seminars aim to clarify data types, platforms, and methods of data exploitation to contribute and promote the process of turning Thua Thien Hue into a centrally-governed municipality.

This year's DT Week also feature a Presentation Round, Final Selection, and the Future Innovation Awards ceremony (VietFuture Award). In addition, pre-event activities include a province-wide Digital Communications Workshop, a Practical network security incident response exercise, and Exhibition of exemplary platform products and digital technology solutions hosted by VINASA (Vietnam Software Association) …

The event series is expected to attract the participation of more than 50 speakers, nearly 2,000 delegates attending conference sessions, 30 exhibition booths, and around 3,000 visitors to the exhibition.

After two editions, what goals and changes does this DT Week aim to achieve?

Hue's DT Week aims to further define the value of digital data, enabling different government departments and sectors to plan for themselves better policies in building, developing, and data mining.

Delegates being introduced to various digital solutions and applications at Hue Digital Transformation Week in 2022

Currently, data development requires certain criteria: Policy inputs and data mining platforms must ensure that data is always “live”. ‘Live data’ is meant when they are communicated throughout. In other words, data used across various sectors and fields will multiply in value many times compared to independent use at each level or in each sector. Additionally, independent data creation will result in duplication, inaccuracy, and "junk" data, posing risks in the process of mining data.

In Thua Thien Hue, how is the current situation regarding data linkage and sharing, sir?

Data linkage and sharing have been oriented and directed by the province from an early stage and implemented by various departments and sectors for many years. However, the current state of linkage and sharing has not met expectations. While there have been some linkage and goals achieved, there is a need for evaluation and adjustment to yield more meaningful results.

Through practical experience, data linkage and sharing have presented several challenging issues that require investment and a scientific evaluation of data-related activities for improvement.

Thua Thien Hue has been recognized as a "brightspot" of the country in implementing e-government and smart urban services. Could you please share more about these results?

To date, the infrastructure for e-government has basically met the criteria, with broad connectivity from the provincial level down to the communal level. Platforms for guidance and management have been restructured into a unified platform. The awareness of officials and civil servants in operating digital platforms to server e-government, digital government, and the execution of state management tasks through digital environment has been improved, resulting in better public services. These activities up to now have been in order, generating a large amount of data that provides enough foundation for analysis and development of further solutions.

Regarding smart urban development, the province has achieved relatively impressive results with the Hue-S platform. We continue to be regarded as having a unique and relatively specific direction, producing significant outcomes. Notably, after over four years of implementation, the Hue-S platform has had over 900,000 logins and users, with over 765,000 accounts belonging to residents of Hue. Surprisingly, after reviewing the data, we also found users from the remaining 62 provinces and cities, as well as from 15 countries around the world.

These achievements are attributed to the province's determined efforts in building e-government, smart urban development, and the DT program. The selection of suitable content and solutions tailored to the local context has significantly propelled Hue make strong progress in digital transformation.

Digital transformation for businesses is also a hot topic at this year's forum. What is your assessment of this activity?

After a period of implementing digital transformation in businesses, with the support of various departments such as Planning and Investment, Information and Communication, Science and Technology, and the provincial Business Association, there has generally been positive progress in business digital transformation. Many businesses have proactively sought information, utilized digital platforms in cyberspace, and participated in government-initiated movements such as digital signatures, electronic maps, and electronic contracts…

However, in practical operation, transitioning from traditional methods to digital spaces has left many businesses feeling uncertain. They are struggling to find suitable approaches and lack of ability to fully leverage the available digital platforms.

In this workshop to promote business digital transformation, we will provide support for platforms, helping businesses offer products on e-commerce platforms without paying fees multiple times. We are also coordinating with the Department of Planning and Investment to assist businesses with information, address queries when selecting appropriate digital transformation platforms, and provide better orientation for digital transformation in businesses.

In your opinion, what solutions are needed for effective digital transformation activities in the coming time?

Let's not rush into technology; the core issue in promoting digital transformation lies in the awareness of leaders and the skills of people. Awareness must accompany both understanding and action. Simultaneously, enhancing the digital skills of the population in the digital age is crucial.

However, there are still many challenges in getting the digital transformation get into reality. While our digital government is relatively stable with many implementation experiences, the pressure on businesses and citizens in digital social and economic development activities requires appropriate methods that are adaptable to reality and align with the national digital transformation viewpoint, in which the state is the creator, businesses are the driving force, and citizens are the center. Resolving this relationship to create a comprehensive ecosystem for digital transformation is a significant task in the coming time.

Thank youvery much!