Promoting digital transformation seen as "vaccine" for economic recovery

Coming off the back of 2021, a tumultuous year that has seen both bright spots and disruption for the national economy,, agriculture and exports are contributory factors to creating momentum for economic recovery.

It must therefore be affirmed that digital transformation of all types can be viewed as a practical and effective solution to the situation, thereby contributing the most to this joint effort.

Since the end of 2020, the first year affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the People's Committee of District 3 in Ho Chi Minh City has prioritised the processing of handling documents via an online platform, thus making it possible for all grassroots staff to effectively carry out the process this year.

Dealing with administrative procedures, particularly those based on information technology and in general those relating to digital platforms is part of the digital transformation process for production and business activities.

Livestream-based sales serves as a practical example that affirms the usefulness of digital transformation for trading activities over the past two years, especially during the fourth pandemic wave.

This represents a form of product promotion, connecting buying-selling demand, and performing goods transactions based on e-commerce platforms, one of the fields that has significantly contributed to spurring economic growth.

Similarly, digital transformation has made an important and prominent impression on an array of activities in most fields and industries, ranging from central to local levels in various forms such as online diplomacy, online meetings, online export promotion, online education, and remote medical examination.

Nguyen Thi Huong, general director of the General Statistics Office (GSO) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment, said in learning from previous experiences, the Government and localities have remained more active in responding to the pandemic. In areas which are free from the pandemic, normal production and daily life activities can take place without the risk of lockdown as was seen in 2020.

This comes amid Vietnamese businesses becoming increasingly flexible in applying information technology and boosting the use of electronic trading floors, thereby helping to ensure smooth trade exchanges amid the COVID-19 pandemic as a means of boosting economic growth.

Over the past two years, with unpredictable developments being recorded in terms of the fourth pandemic wave, digital transformation activities have been widely conducted in all three aspects as expected by the Government, including digital government, digital society, and the digital economy, Huong said.

A survey conducted by the GSO indicates that, more than 30% out of 152,000 Vietnamese enterprises have invested in technology, especially digital technology, thereby transforming the way they operate production and business activities at different levels. This marks a hugely positive sign, according to economist Dr. Vo Tri Thanh.

Dr. Le Duy Binh, director of the Economica Vietnam Center for Economic Research, believes COVID-19 is a 100-year push for the entire economy to realise the superiority of digital transformation, meaning greater efforts should be made for this process.

Furthermore, digital transformation should be considered as a “vaccine” to support socio-economic recovery and acceleration, especially in the post-pandemic period, he emphasized.

“However, in order to become a country with strong digital industry transformation, difficulties, advantages or catalysts which have impacted the economy during the pandemic in the past time, are initial signs. We still have a lot of work to do,” said Dr. Binh.

Concurring with this viewpoint, Nguyen Dinh Thang, vice chairman of the Vietnam Informatics Association, believes that the prerequisite goals and tasks determined by the Party and Government moving forward can effectively contain the pandemic and create a strong foundation for economic recovery.

Seeing digital transformation as a “vaccine” for economic recovery and growth has become a popular consensus. The effectiveness of digital transformation with economic growth over the past two years of suffering from the impact of COVID-19, especially this year, has been shown very clearly.

However, as judged by experts, in order to cover the digital transformation of the whole economy, increase resilience and create growth momentum for the next economic periods, there remains plenty of work to be done.

This is therefore the responsibility, not only of the Party, Government, competent agencies, and technology enterprises, but also the responsibility of every citizen, businessman, and enterprise covering multiple of fields and industries in joint efforts to embark on digital transformation in the new normal.