From efforts taken by the government and people, digital transformation in Da Nang has till date achieved many positive results, moving closer to the goal of building a typical digital transformation city model.
‘Sweet fruit’ of digital transformation

Youth Union members of Thanh Khe Dong Ward, Thanh Khe District guide people to create electronic identification accounts. Photo: M.Q

On October 7, Da Nang continued to be honoured in the ‘Excellent State Agency for Digital Transformation’ category at the Viet Nam Digital Awards (VDA) 2023, making the fourth consecutive year that Da Nang had won VDA (2020-2023). Besides, Da Nang has ranked first in the provincial digital transformation index (DTI) and the Viet Nam Smart City Ward for three consecutive years from 2020 to 2022.

The city was honoured with the award in the category of ‘Top typical organisations/localities actively implementing Industry 4.0 and digital transformation” as announced at the award ceremony of the ‘I4.0 Awards’ 2023 in the capital city of Ha Noi in May.

Outstandingly, in September 2023, Da Nang was honoured with the Human Centricity Prize at the Seoul Smart City Prize ceremony which was part of a series of the World Cities Summit Mayors Forum 2023 held in South Korea’s Seoul City.

The National Digital Transformation Committee assessed that Da Nang achieved the above –mentioned results by applying the 3-need action motto.

Firstly, it requires exemplary and active participation of the entire political system, and the highest determination of all levels, Party committees, heads of agencies, pioneering roles of each cadre, civil servant, public employee, Youth Union member and a community digital technology group. Secondly, it is necessary to develop a comprehensive strategy and communication plan on digital transformation for consistent implementation throughout the city. Thirdly, it is necessary for concise and approachable media content.

It can be seen that a series of documents on promoting digital transformation have been issued by the Da Nang administration. To date, 100% of the wards and communes across the city have established community digital technology groups in each village and residential group with nearly 2,500 groups and 13,000 members, including Youth Union members and digital technology enterprises’ employees living locally.

The Da Nang Department of Information and Communications has issued documents guiding the implementation of community digital technology group activities, nominated a list of contacts and provided guidance documents.

By mid-August 2023, the city had exceeded online public service targets and started using digital data in directing, operating and providing public services in the direction of digital services. 91% of the services generated online records, 1.7 times higher than the national average. The rate of online applications reached 3%, 1.3 times higher than the national average, exceeding the target of 50% in the 2022 action plan of the National Committee on Digital Transformation bringing one-stop external services and public service services to online level 4, the highest level in Viet Nam’s online public service system, on the Da Nang Public Service Portal.

The city has used digital data to simplify administrative procedures, replacing paper documents when performing administrative procedures.

The city has deployed many applications and utilities for people and businesses to use and interact with the government.  The Da Nang Smart City multi-service and utility integration platform has 1.2 million downloads. The MyPortal digital citizen platform has more than 260,000 people with digital citizen accounts. The city has a digital data warehouse on the e-government system. The proportion of digital economy in Da Nang's GRDP in 2022  was 19.76%, higher than the national target in 2023 at 16%.

The city's digital transformation goals continue to be linked to three pillars: digital economy, digital government and digital society. EM&AI Joint Stock Company introduces digital products to customers. Photo: M.Q

Effectively utilise resources

As reported by Mr. Tran Ngoc Thach, the Deputy Director of the Da Nang Department of Information and Communications, the department and related units are focusing on completing targets according to Plan No. 56/KH-UBND dated March 4, 2023 of the municipal government on implementing digital transformation tasks in the city in 2023. Digital transformation goals continue to be associated with 3 pillars: digital economy, digital government and digital society.

These pillars are built by developing digital platforms, digital data, digital infrastructure, institutions and policies. The coordination of people, businesses and the government is an extremely important factor to accelerate the digital transformation roadmap.

In an effort to contribute to the city's digital transformation, Mr. Pham Kim Son, the Chairman of the Da Nang Software Business Association, informed that the Association has just entered a new term (2023-2028). One of the important tasks of the association is to contribute to the digital transformation roadmap and the overall development of the city's information technology (IT) industry.

Accordingly, the association will mobilise funding for research and development projects related to IT, software and digital transformation to serve the people and the city's businesses in remaining areas, paying special attention to projects for weaker areas, strengthening the role in connecting association members with training organisations to cooperate in the fields of digital transformation, smart cities and data science, promoting the association's advantage of having members in many fields such as business, production, training and state agencies, organising many training courses and seminars on digital transformation and application of new technology.

The association will always accompany the city to raise awareness of digital transformation for locals and businesses. With the pioneering and pioneering role of youth, the Da Nang Youth Union has been coordinating to organise many programmes to support people in accessing digital transformation such as digitising ‘red addresses’, historical and cultural relics across the city, along with youth festivals.

Secretary of the City Youth Union Nguyen Manh Dung said that in the coming time, the Da Nang Youth Union will continue to organise a digital skills training programme for community digital technology groups to introduce and support people to use digital services, how to use the Da Nang Public Service Portal, introduce and guide products on e-commerce platforms deploying many models and activities to spread the digital spirit in the community and with the government system to better meet people's needs.

Reporting by MAI QUE - Translating by A.THU