IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Blockchain technology will play an important role in building the digital economy and the fourth industrial revolution. The Vietnam E-commece and Information Technology Agency (VECITA) under the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Viet Nam E-commerce Association (VECOM) co-organised the Vietnam Blockchain Summit 2018 in Hanoi on Friday.

Up to 10 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP) will be saved by blockchain technology by 2025, it was heard at the summit.

HCM City plans to speed up digital transformation to achieve its goals of becoming a digital government and smart city this year.

City leaders have pointed out three major areas of focus: governing the city in the new situation (after the pandemic), building databases and linking all databases related to governance and reforming governance and finding new driving forces for future growth.

Ho Chi Minh City has identified promoting all-round digital transformation as one of the important tasks to recover and develop the local economy this year.

The city’s digital transformation programme, issued in July 2020, sets a target that the digital economy will make up 25 percent of its gross regional domestic product (GRDP) by 2025 and 40 percent by 2030. It gives priority to 10 sectors, namely health care, education, transport, finance - banking, tourism, agriculture, logistics, environment, energy, and human resources training.

The biggest event of the Vietnam information and communication industry this year attracted not only operators in this field, but also many officials and experts from other sectors. They came here to search for information, solutions and to get a better understanding of the ability to improve competitiveness for all sectors and all areas by information technology.

Driven by strong performance in 2021 from digital transformation, Vietnamese technology giants are betting on strong investment on the back of strong policy support to gain higher growth in 2022.

The Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) last week discussed the amendments to the Law on Telecommunications and the building of the Law on Digital Technology Industry in a move to further accelerate national digital transformation.

Fifty cities were analysed across a variety of metrics, including their sustainability ranking, pollution score, air quality and number of B corporations.

Vienna, recently ranked the most liveable city, has also been crowned top for eco-conscious business with high levels of sustainable development, extensive cycle routes and an air quality index score of 84.6.

Stockholm, Copenhagen, Edinburgh and Munich round out the top five cities in the ranking.

"The European Union’s Digital Agenda – one of the flagship initiatives of the Europe 2020 Strategy – firmly recognises the revolutionary potential that information and communication technology (ICT) offers to boost growth, increase productivity and improve the welfare of citizens and consumers.

The evidence that supports greater use of ICT and advances in the Digital Single Market are convincing: even in times of recession and sluggish growth prospects, the Internet contributed on average 3.8% to the EU’s gross domestic product in 2010 and it is forecasted to grow exponentially in coming years. In the leading Internet economies, including the United Kingdom, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands, the Internet accounted for as much as 7.2%, 6.6%, 5.8% and 4.3% of GDP in 2009, respectively.

The Eastern European country of Serbia is trying to make the difficult transition into the digital economy model of the 21st Century. After decades under communism, the nation has struggled to expand its economy through traditional goods and services. Now, it wishes to take on the digital marketplace, seeing that as a way to quickly grow in a modern world.

The World Bank has announced that it is ready to help Serbia make that transition. In its annual development report, the World Bank noted, "countries who invest more into digital technologies achieve bigger growth." As a result, Tony Verheijen, World Bank Country Manager for Serbia announced Thursday that he was pleased the World Bank would be able to assist Serbia to step into this new marketplace.

The World Bank Country Office in Tashkent hosted a workshop in the context of the preparatory work for launching the Digital Central Asia – South Asia (CASA) project in Uzbekistan. The project will contribute to digital infrastructure, e-government and digital economy development in the country, the World Bank said.

The Digital CASA Program is being implemented by the World Bank Group and is designed to improve broadband connectivity in the landlocked countries of Central Asia and parts of South Asia.

Speaking at the National Integrated ICT Policy Colloquium in Midrand on Thursday, Pule said the outcome of the ICT policy development process had to be aligned with government's top priorities of fighting crime and corruption, rural development, improving health and education, and creating sustainable jobs.

The final policy needed to also address issues such as increasing the number of female executives and attracting younger women in ICT sector, the minister added.

The aim is to formulate a white paper on an integrated national ICT policy.

"We needed to have this policy review to overhaul all the legislation in our sector so it reflects the work the government does and helps this country and industry to benefit from sustainable ICT development and services for the next 20 years," Pule said.

The Zambia Digital Economy Diagnostic, a new report developed by the World Bank, finds that Zambia is making significant strides towards the use of digital tools to achieve the social and economic transformation goals set forth in its Vision 2030.

The report commends Zambia’s rapid expansion of mobile network access and the progress made in digitizing government services through SMART Zambia.

EM: Analysts say your ministry tops all in terms of performance, what makes you tick?

NC: Not so sure about that but thank you for being kind and generous. Proverbs 3v5 says, in everything you do, put God first, and he will direct you and crown your efforts with success. Excellence is second nature to us. We are enemies to mediocrity. The government works as a team. In the ministry, excellence is standard conversation and common practice.

ICTs have the potential to empower communities and in the context of achieving wholesome connectivity or universal access increase local participation in the development process. New and creative enterprises can make rural areas more profitable, affordable and sustainable and served in a way to meet national development objectives.

It has become an essential condition for countries and regions to meaningfully integrate into the global economy and reap the benefits from it.

As a result of globalisation, activities and transactions are increasingly being conducted using the internet.

ICT applications, like e-Government, e-Commerce, e-Education, e-Health and e-Environment, are seen as enablers for development, because they provide an efficient channel to deliver a wide range of basic services even to remote and rural areas.

Developed societies have taken advantage of advances in ITCs by gaining broad access to modern digital networks and significant economic as well as social spin-offs for their communication and business sectors.

But their counterparts in developing countries including Zimbabwe are yet to achieve satisfactory levels of connectivity.

As well as modernizing the country's financial system, the government is also laying the foundations for Zimbabwe to become a digital society by 2015.

While this may sound ambitious for a developing country, the information technology and communications landscape has changed exponentially since 2008; the cellphone telephony penetration rate skyrocketed from 13 percent to 72 percent in 2011, while Internet penetration jumped from 1.3 percent in 2008 to 24 percent last year, amounting to some 1.42 million users.