Vietnamese enterprises still sharing revenue from digital economy

Vietnam enterprises still had many limitations in the digital transformation development.

On July 18, the Vietnam Economic Institute held a seminar in Hanoi titled ‘Vietnamese enterprises stand on the threshold of digital transformation’.

According to the World Bank, by 2019 the number of internet users was 4.3 billion, accounting for 57% of the global population, and 5.1 billion mobile phone users, accounting for 67% of the population. Of that, 42% of the population use social networks on mobile devices.

Therefore, high technology and digitalization have spread significantly in the business community, creating an opportunity to grow.

According to Mr. Tran Dinh Thien, former Director of the Vietnam Institute of Economics, in the past 3-4 years, Vietnam’s spirit of adopting the Fourth Industrial Revolution was very high

"The overall assessment of the private sector is still ‘great quantity, low quality’.” Mr. Thien said. The goal of achieving one million businesses by 2020 is less important than ensuring that enterprises really grow and become the main driving force for the country's economic development.

Moreover, the expert indicated that Vietnamese enterprises were still in the subordinated position and "sharing" the digital economic pie.

Prof. Ho Tu Bao from the Institute of Advanced Studies in Mathematics also said that digital transformation was vital, thus, enterprises needed to change in both perception and thinking. Every organization had to rethink how they operated and how to change in terms of data as well as the corresponding technology. Every enterprise must determine the route in order to transform and build digital capacity through infrastructure, equipment, human resource and culture.

Mr. Nguyen Manh Hai, Central Institute for Economic Management, said that in order to effectively utilize the digital economy, state management needs to have mechanisms and policies for reducing risks for parties including early warnings for service providers.

The ministries and sectors should strengthen coordination, information sharing and data in operating state management; develop a mechanism of sharing information and data between ministries and sectors with authorities at all levels, enterprises and business associations.