Digital transformation is regarded as the driving force to solve the existing “bottlenecks”, creating more development breakthroughs for Da Nang to build itself into a bio-urban city.

In October 2021, Da Nang launched the VR360 virtual tourism system ‘One touch to Da Nang’ at vr360.danangfantasticity.com. Just with a phone, computer or ipad, the user can access, observe and experience the entire image of destinations in Da Nang through navigation technology. Photo: PHUC AN (a screen shot)

Thematic dialogue ‘Da Nang digital transformation for development’ was held in Da Nang by the Viet Nam Economic Review (VnEconomy), in collaboration with the Da Nang Department of Information and Communications, drawing the attention and participation of the leaders of many relevant agencies and representatives of many information technology (IT) businesses across the city.

Over the past time, the Da Nang Digital Transformation Steering Committee has drastically directed competent agencies to implement detailed digital transformation plans in each industry, field and aspect.

Thereby, many new models and good practices were born with initial encouraging results achieved.

Leading position in digital transformation

At the dialogue, Standing Vice Chairman of the Da Nang People's Committee Ho Ky Minh said that, under Resolution No. 43-NQ/TW dated January 24, 2019 of the Politburo on construction and development of Da Nang, by 2030, Da Nang will turn itself into a smart city synchronously connecting with smart cities networks in Viet Nam and the ASEAN region as a whole.

According to Standing Vice Chairman Minh, as compared to the needs of the people and the city's development requirements, the smart city building and digital transformation journey has just begun and there are still many tasks to be implemented in the next 5 - 10 years.

The city's telecommunications and IT facilities are synchronously developed, forming specialised and background databases.

Till date, 100% of the online public services have been offered at level 4, the highest level in Viet Nam’s online public service system, allowing the reception and returning of results through the Public Service Portal.

Also, many smart city apps and platforms have been built up. In particular, more recently, many tech app for COVID prevention and control have been implemented with practical effectiveness.

The 22^nd Resolution adopted by the Da Nang Party Committee for the 2020 - 2025 term also identifies one of the three key breakthrough tasks, namely strongly renewing the growth model, restructuring the economy with a focus on strongly developing the high-tech industry and IT in association with startups, innovations and smart cities, and creating a foundation to promote the development of new industries and fields, especially the digital economy, digital society and digital government.

Also under the ongoing project for beefing up digital transformation in Da Nang until 2025, with a vision towards 2030, digital transformation is viewed as a new driving force to solve the existing bottlenecks, create even more breakthroughs in the city’s development, and at the same time, mobilise the participation of both the political system and the whole society to accelerate the digital transformation process.

Notably, the IT industry has recorded a high growth rate, contributing 8.2% of the city's Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP) in 2021 and is one of the main pillars of Danang's overall growth.

The above-mentioned encouraging results have helped Da Nang nationally lead Viet Nam’s Provincial Digital Transformation Index 2020 as announced by the Ministry of Information and Communications and win the Asia-Pacific Smart City Awards in 2019, the Viet Nam Smart City Award 2020-2021, the Viet Nam Digital Transformation Award 2020-2021.

Ph.D Chu Van Lam, the Editor-in-Chief of Viet Nam Economic Times and VnEconomy, said that digital transformation is now an inevitable trend and it is thriving in all city and provinces across the country.

Therefore, the fact that Da Nang was recently assessed by the Ministry of Information and Communications as the leader in digital transformation in digital government, digital economy and digital society with different deployment ways will set an example for other Vietnamese localities to follow or policy makers can find good points that the city has implemented in the digital transformation process.

Digital transformation is a long process

According to Director of the Department of Information and Communications Nguyen Quang Thanh, Vice Chairman of the Advisory Council for Digital Transformation in Da Nang, the city's digital transformation is actually a long-term process.

In 2018, the municipal administration promulgated e-Government architecture 2.0 to redefine a number of goals and architecture as the foundation for e-government development, along with policies on of e-government and digital transformation.

According to Director Thanh, with the guidelines and Resolution No. 52 of the Politburo in 2019 on a number of policies to approach the Industry 4.0, Da Nang is aware of this issue and has issued a number of internal regulations related content for digital transformation, including the issuance of Resolution 05 and the goals set for digital government, digital economy and digital society. Resolution 05 and the Digital Transformation Project in Da Nang are considered as the ‘framework’ for the city to implement digital transformation.

Ms. Le Thi Kim Phuong, Director of the Department of Industry and Trade, said that given the fact that the trade and industry sector stretches from production, distribution, circulation to commerce, there are many digital transformation activities.

Before Resolution 05 of the municipal Party Committee was issued, the municipal Department of Industry and Trade has actively solved 100% of administrative procedures for online public services as well as assisting businesses in promoting products through e-commerce platforms.

For the time being, focus is being placed on encouraging traders at wet markets in Da Nang are now able to go cashless as they can use e-wallet mobile apps under a 4.0 wet market model.

“We are building a virtual exhibition platform for the display of products made by businesses that cannot participate in offline events”, said Director Phuong said.

Reporting by THUY DIEU, NGO ANH VAN - Translating by A.THU