Vietnam accelerates – dare we say it ? – digital transformation for a fourth industrial revolution

Prime Minister gives e-cash and e-government a hurry-up as Apple tunes in to its manufacturing smarts

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc yesterday ordered the strengthening of the National Committee on E-Government.

The Register lacks a native Vietnamese speaker so we’re working through online translate-o-tronic websites that suggest the revamped Committee wants to make sure Vietnam gets really good at StartupLand buzzwords, namely “Developing e-government towards digital government, digital transformation, digital economy and smart cities; to facilitate the implementation of the Fourth Industrial Revolution in Vietnam.”

Also yesterday, the OM ordered an acceleration of a 2016 policy to do away with cash in favor of digital payments. The earlier policy aimed at reducing cash payments to ten percent of transactions. That hasn’t happed so Phuc has given multiple agencies a hurry-up.

The Ministry of Transport has been told to sort out cashless toll payments. The Ministry of Industry and Trade gets to sort out point-of-sale payments. And the Ministry of Health has been told to “join hands with credit organizations and payment intermediary services to collect health service fees in form of non-cash payment methods.” The Ministry of Education and Training has been ordered to sort do the same for school fees.

And if international leisure travel ever resumes, Reg readers may notice another initiative: the restoration of e-visa issuance after a coronal suspension.

The extra digital initiatives come as Vietnam seeks to benefit from manufacturers’ concerns they may have placed too many eggs in the China basket. Vietnam already does a fair bit of high-tech manufacturing and Apple has reportedly picked a Vietnamese plant to crank out a million or more pairs of its AirPod wireless headphones.

By Simon Sharwood – The Register – May 28, 2020