The e-government project has been framed as part of the state administration modernisation, or 112, programme. Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development official, Trinh Duc Huy, said: “E-government is a policy of the Communist Party and forms a small part of state modernisation. It does not cover all social and economic issues.”
Without a holistic approach, he warned, the programme could follow in the footsteps of other failed programmes such as the 1972 attempt to apply mathematics and computers in accounting and the computer technology initiative of 1976, when the focus was solely on technical terms.
Meanwhile, the administrative reform process has also been a focus of criticism for its lack of a single clear controlling authority.
Pham Van Hoan, head of the 112 programme in Hai Duong province, said the province had faced difficulties in implementing the programme for the past seven years.
“In the late 1990s, after the IT steering committee and the Ministry of Post and Telematics were set up, they had control over the programme in provinces,” he said.
“This has caused confusion ever since among local authorities about their respective roles in the programme.”
Furthermore, Hoan said, both the Party and state agencies have made investments in the installation of local area networks (LANs), adding to the confusion surrounding who is in charge.
Another key problem is the need for English-language skills in e-governance. While the majority of software is written in English, most local government authorities do not speak or read the language and attracting IT graduates to the provinces has proved difficult.
An official from the Lao Cai People’s Committee said that although the province had found two IT students to manage its IT programmes, things were still difficult.
Hewlett-Packard regional business development director, Barney Yiu, said Vietnam should initiate research and exchange information with other governments in the region in order to find ways to install e-government.
He said the country had to consider many things like infrastructure and the readiness and ability of the population to use the service.
Quelle: Vietnam Economic Times, 17.12.2003
