Vietnam News Today (Jan. 3): Vietnam Records Best-ever Performance in Digital Economic Development

Illustrative image. Photo: baodautu.vn

Vietnam records best-ever performance in digital economic development

Vietnam is speeding up the development of the digital economy, considering this a "breakthrough" step to promote the country's economic growth in the context of the 4th industrial revolution.

Vietnam is viewed as a country with high potential for fast digital economic development and digital transformation trend across all fields.

It has set a target to post 31% growth in gross merchandise value (GMV) from 23 billion USD in 2022 to 49 billion USD in 2025, the highest growth in the region, according to the "e-Conomy SEA 2022" report released by Google, Temasek and Bain & Company in October.

Data from the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) showed that the ICT economy's revenue reached an estimated 148 billion USD in 2022, representing a year-on-year increase of 8.7%.

The contribution of the digital economy to national GDP in 2022 accounted for about 14.26% of the total, with 7.18% contributed by the ICT digital economy, cited VNA.

The information and communications sector has hosted a national digital transformation scheme with the dual goals of developing digital government, digital economy and digital society; and forming strong digital technology enterprises.

According to the MIC’s Department of Digital Economy and Digital Society, the scale of Vietnam's digital economy has recorded growth in ICT digital economy, platform digital economy, and sectoral digital economy.

IT services contributed the most to the digital economy, accounting for about 30% of the total value. It was followed by e-commerce (14.3%), and hardware production (12.83%). Meanwhile, the digital content field recorded the strongest growth, up nearly 104% compared to the first quarter of 2022.

In 2022, Vietnamese digital businesses made inroads into foreign markets, including developed countries such as the US and Japan.

Notably, the total revenue of Viettel Military Industry and Telecoms Group (Viettel) in foreign markets hit 3 billion USD, and the revenue of FPT Group reached 1 billion USD.

The MIC has developed a strategy for digital technology industry development to 2025 with a vision to 2030. As of March 2022, the ministry had announced 35 national digital platforms serving digital transformation and the development of digital government, digital economy, and digital society, including 21 developed by domestic digital technology enterprises such as VNPT, Viettel, CMC and FPT. These have contributed to facilitating state management and public services.

Attention has been paid to upgrading digital infrastructure, smartphones, broadband internet, and cloud computing .

According to Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung, ministries, sectors and localities have issued digital transformation programmes. As many as 500 million accounts have been registered so far for using made-in-Vietnam digital platforms - the largest-ever figure.

Diverse entertainment activities in HCM City during New Year holiday

Entertainment centres in Ho Chi Minh City have offered a range of activities, attracting crowds of local residents and tourists during the New Year holiday.

People from Ho Chi Minh City and neighbouring localities turned up in hordes at the Saigon Botanic Garden to have fun. In addition to seeing rare and precious species of animals preserved there, visitors can participate in games, lion dances and many other entertainment activities.

At Dam Sen Cultural Park, a large amusement park in the city, organisers have staged many art programmes, including singing, circus performances and magic acts. Visitors can take pictures with miniatures such as the Golden Bell Flower street, and ancient cactus garden, or watch water music performances.

Many parents have taken their children to the Jurassic Park to learn about the world of animals. Photo: VOV

“It’s very crowded here, but everything has been arranged in an orderly manner and especially food prices remain unchanged,” said Nguyen Thi Nga from Binh Duong province, a gateway to Ho Chi Minh City.

With three days off work during the 2023 New Year holiday, entertainments centres have launched peculiar programmes to attract visitors at the beginning of the year, according to VOV.

The Binh Quoi tourist area increased the capacity of restaurants and opened two buffets with more than 70 rustic dishes in the South. The Suoi Tien Amusement Park launched the ‘Suoi Tien Farm’ programme, introducing a diverse range of fruits in the world. At the Cu Chi Tunnels relic complex, in addition to the ‘Crawling tunnels’ programme, organizers hosted thrilling games for visitors.

More visitors are expected to continue to converge on the entertainment centres in Ho Chi Minh City on January 2, the last day of the three-day New Year holiday, to enjoy activities, as many people have chosen to stay in the city during the New Year break.

SEA Games 31 leaves strong imprints among foreign friends

The successful hosting of the 31st Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games 31), the biggest sporting event in the region in 2022, affirmed the position of Vietnam on the regional sport map and its readiness as well as great efforts to welcome back foreign tourists.

With the engagement of the whole political system, the right, flexible and drastic measures taken by the Government, ministries, sectors, and localities, the Covid-19 pandemic has been effectively controlled, helping people calmly return to their normal life after the two-year fight against the health crisis.

By the end of 2021, when the pandemic was basically controlled in Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries, the date for SEA Games was fixed.

The biennial regional sporting event, featuring 40 sports, took place in Hanoi and 11 nearby localities from May 12 to 23, 2022, reported VNA.

SEA Games 31 not only spreads the sports spirit, solidarity and friendship to more than 600 million people of 11 countries in the region, but also gave proof of Southeast Asia’s strength after two years of combating the pandemic.

There was a fear of a SEA Games with no-audience due to Covid-19. The fear was really removed when the Vietnamese Government decided to fully re-opened borders to tourists from March 15, which means that foreign tourists, sports lovers and fans can come to Vietnam to enjoy the atmosphere of the largest sporting event in the region. The decision aims to bring life back to normal, promote recovery of economic development at the same time do not miss the opportunity to organise major international events like SEA Games.

On April 28 last year, the General Department of Preventive Medicine under the Ministry of Health issued a document on the suspension of the Covid-19 health declarations in service of SEA Games 31.

This was applicable at all of Vietnam’s border gates. Therefore, all people entering Vietnam to participate in SEA Games 31 did not have to make Covid-19 health declarations.

Members of the Vietnamese Taekwondo squad celebrate first gold medal at the poomsae event on the first competition day at SEA Games 31 on May 15, 2022. Photo: VNA

On the evening of May 12, thousands of athletes and audiences at My Dinh National Stadium in Hanoi, and millions of Southeast Asian spectators together witnessed the impressive opening ceremony of SEA Games 31.

Foreign athletes and tourists had the opportunity to experience various modern competition venues, witness the socio-economic development of Vietnam and visit attractive destinations in the host country.

With hospitality and sportsmanship, Vietnamese fans also presented a beautiful image to foreign athletes and fans.

Foreign media praised Vietnam’s preparations for the Games, saying that despite the complex developments of the global health crisis, the country demonstrated responsibility in preparing thoughtfully, safely, and securely.

Vice Chairman of the World Vovinam (Vietnamese martial arts) Federation and Chairman of the African Vovinam Federation Mohammed Djouadj expressed his impression with Vietnam’s organisation of SEA Games 31, to which he was invited to serve as an international supervisor of the sport at the Games.

Commenting on the event, Chairman of the Singaporean National Assembly and also Chairman of the Singapore National Olympic Committee, Tan Chuan-Jin, who attended the opening ceremony and matches of SEA Games 31, said it was difficult to organise a huge event like SEA Games amid the lingering effects of Covid-19, not to mention many other challenges.

To be able to pull off such a feat, Vietnam has proven their top-notch level capability, he stressed, adding that it delighted him that Vietnam has hosted and organised such a successful SEA Games for the region.

Breakthrough development policies to be formulated for Ho Chi Minh City

Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong has on behalf of the Politburo signed Resolution 31 on directions and tasks for Ho Chi Minh City’s development to 2030, with a vision to 2045.

Under the resolution, HCM City will become a modern service-industrial city, a leader in digital economy, and an economic, financial, commercial, cultural, educational, scientific and technological center of the whole country.

By 2030 it aims to achieve economic growth of 8 - 8.5%/year, with the gross regional domestic product (GRDP) per capita reaching about US$14,500, and the digital economy making up 40% of its GRDP.

By 2045, HCM City will develop on par with major cities in the world, become an economic, financial and service center in Asia, and work as an attractive global destination.

HCM City aims to achieve economic growth of 8-8.5% by 2030, under a Politburo resolution signed by Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong.

To meet the goal, the Politburo requested that HCM City focus on fast and sustainable economic development on the basis of innovating the growth model, restructuring the economy, and improving productivity, quality, efficiency and international competitiveness, while mobilizing and effectively using all resources.

The Politburo also requested the city to improve the quality of urban planning, management and implementation, step up sustainable urban development and climate change adaptation, and promote the construction of synchronous and modern infrastructure.

Priority will be given to developing synchronous and modern transport, energy and telecommunications infrastructure, completing the construction of national highways and a system of regional and inter-regional roads, and speeding up investment in construction of national key projects, including the upgrade of Tan Son international airport.

The city of Thu Duc, part of HCM City, will strive to become a new growth pole, an innovative, highly interactive city, and the nucleus of the city’s socio-economic development, cited VOV.

The Politburo also requested HCM City to develop a breakthrough mechanism to attract development investment resources and promote socialization in the fields of health, education and training, culture and sports. It permitted the city to pilot the selection of investors through the public-private partnership model to implement investment projects in the fields of culture, sports and science and technology.

The Politburo held that HCM City review the implementation of the urban government model, and at the same time continue to perfect its apparatus in a modern, effective and efficient manner.

RCEP: New opportunities with familiar partners

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a free trade agreement between ten ASEAN countries and the five partners having already signed trade pacts with ASEAN, which are China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

According to the WTO Centre under the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, RCEP, which took effect on January 1, 2022, has created a large market of 2.2 billion consumers, accounting for 30% of the world population, and a GDP of nearly 27 trillion USD, accounting for 30% of global GDP.

RCEP is the largest free trade area in the world, with commitments on market opening in goods, services and investment, customs simplification, and the rules of origin that facilitate trade.

Therefore, Vietnam’s RCEP signing marked an important milestone in its international integration process and offered more new opportunities and substantive benefits when all RCEP members are familiar partners of ASEAN in general and Vietnam in particular.

After one year of implementation, RCEP is assessed to have contributed to the creation of a new trade structure in the region, promote and facilitate trade liberalisation sustainably, and help Vietnam to access consumer markets that are twice the size of those in the CPTPP.

Vietnam has greatly benefited from the large demand for farming produce and manufactured goods in RCEP member countries. Data released by the General Department of Customs show that in the first nine months of 2022, Vietnam’s exports to the RCEP countries reached 108.48 billion USD, up 16.4% over the same period in 2021, while the figure for the CPTPP market was only 41 billion USD. With RCEP commitments, the export-import procedures are simplified, helping to reduce time and costs and increasing the profitability rates for Vietnamese enterprises, NDO reported.

Besides forming a large market, in the coming time, Vietnam and the RCEP partners will eliminate about 90% of tax lines, to create a more sustainable intra-regional free market, without unfair competition. It will ensure that Vietnamese enterprises can participate in the markets of regional countries, including trade and investment.

But for an expanding playing field, competition is an inevitable trend of international integration. All free trade agreements have both opportunities and challenges, especially for RCEP because its traditional challenges may be much greater than those of other trade pacts, since RCEP member countries have a roughly similar export structure with Vietnam, making it harder and harder to export to partner countries.

Processing durians for export. Photo: Minh Ha

From the successes and drawbacks of the RCEP implementation in the past year, Vietnamese enterprises need to utilise advantages extensively and resolve difficulties to provide a new boost for the country’s economic growth. They should always stand ready to deal with any arising risks and negative impacts of RCEP and avoid increasing competition within the bloc.

In the long run, the sustainable solution is enhancing their competitiveness so that they can not only tap into RCEP and other trade pacts but also withstand growing competition in the world.

At the same time, with the momentum from previous trade agreements, the government needs to push for further institutional reform for the long-term benefits of the domestic economy and Vietnamese enterprises.

Vietnam News Today (Dec. 31): Hanoi to Set Off Fireworks at Six Venues on New Year’s Eve Vietnam News Today (Dec. 31): Hanoi to set off fireworks at six venues on New Year’s Eve; Vietnamese women's participation in UN peacekeeping operations impressive; ...

Vietnam News Today (Jan. 1): Vietnam, Russia Hold Huge Potential for Stronger Economic Cooperation Vietnam News Today (Jan. 1): Vietnam, Russia hold huge potential for stronger economic cooperation; Vietnam makes great strides in AI usage; A dual success of ...

Vietnam News Today (Jan. 2): Vietnam Rides Through Economic Difficulties Vietnam News Today (Jan. 2): Foreign ambassadors positive on relations with Vietnam in 2023; Vietnam rides through economic difficulties; Enterprises enjoy more advantages to boost ...