Mrs. Nguyen Thi Le, Chairwoman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Council, has called on the HCMC People’s Committee to prioritize training and developing a digital workforce, emphasizing professional skill enhancement for public officials and civil servants, while expanding support for residents and businesses.
Enhancing government transparency
On the morning of November 15, the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Council held an explanatory session during a meeting of its Standing Committee, focusing on advancing digital transformation to better serve the city’s residents and businesses.
In her closing remarks, Mrs. Nguyen Thi Le, Deputy Secretary of the HCMC Party Committee and Chairwoman of the People’s Council, highlighted that digital transformation is a strategic and urgent priority. It plays a crucial role in enhancing government transparency, improving management efficiency, and generating significant momentum for socio-economic development.
According to Mrs. Nguyen Thi Le, HCMC has been actively implementing its digital transformation agenda across multiple sectors, including digital government, economic modernization, and the creation of a digital society. The city has achieved significant progress so far, establishing a shared data integration platform, streamlining online administrative procedures, and utilizing technology applications in areas such as transportation, healthcare, and education. These advancements have greatly improved quality of life for residents and enhanced the competitiveness of local businesses.
However, the city’s digital transformation efforts still face significant challenges, such as the slow implementation of some IT projects due to complex and lengthy procedures, and limited data connectivity and sharing between agencies, which fails to meet the required standards for interconnection and synchronization.
Additionally, the supply of skilled human resources in the digital technology sector is insufficient to keep up with the city's rapid development. Some areas, including information security, resource management, environmental protection, and the application of artificial intelligence, continue to face implementation difficulties.
The Chairwoman of the HCMC People’s Council urged the HCMC People's Committee to urgently implement solutions, focusing particularly on resolving issues related to procedures, processes, and resources for digital transformation. She stressed the importance of enhanced coordination between departments to optimize data sharing and interconnectivity. Furthermore, she called for prioritizing the training and development of digital talent, with a focus on improving the professional skills of civil servants and offering increased support to citizens and businesses.
She also recommended accelerating the use of AI and IoT technologies in key sectors such as environmental management, transportation, healthcare, education, and public safety. Additionally, efforts should be made to raise awareness of digital transformation within the community and encourage greater participation from citizens and businesses in the digitization process.
Mrs. Nguyen Thi Le emphasized that the HCMC People’s Council would continue to closely monitor the progress of digital transformation programs to ensure that the set goals are achieved on time and effectively.
Attracting IT human resources
At the explanation session, Vice Chairwoman Tran Thi Dieu Thuy of the HCMC People's Committee shared that HCMC has been implementing the digital transformation program for several years, with increased investment planned for 2024. The city is also a leader in collecting and managing population data. To date, HCMC has issued over 12 million chip-based citizen identification cards, launched electronic health records, and introduced legal history certificates through VNeID.
Ms. Tran Thi Dieu Thuy emphasized that these accomplishments reflect HCMC's significant efforts in digital transformation. Furthermore, the HCMC People's Committee has been actively promoting awareness and guiding citizens on updating their information for digital transformation, while also providing training for civil servants and officials on digitalization.
Ms. Tran Thi Dieu Thuy acknowledged that the city is facing challenges in attracting IT talent. The HCMC People's Council had passed a resolution to facilitate the recruitment of IT professionals into the public sector, but the results have been below expectations. She noted that while the city, departments, and districts have a sufficient IT workforce, the situation at the commune level is more challenging, as staff there are often assigned multiple roles, which impacts their professional expertise.
She also pointed out that while there are many IT training programs, the private sector's demand for IT talent is very high, creating competition for the public sector. With salaries in both sectors being similar, the public sector struggles to attract qualified professionals. The HCMC People's Committee has instructed relevant departments to research and propose policies to help attract more IT talent.
Mr. Lam Dinh Thang, Director of HCMC's Department of Information and Communications, shared that the city's digital transformation program has achieved notable success, with HCMC consistently ranking among the top five cities in terms of digital transformation index. The city is the only one to receive the ASOCIO award for outstanding digital government in 2023 in South Korea.
HCMC has introduced initiatives to raise digital awareness and skills among its residents, through 2,620 digital technology community groups with over 11,000 members. The city has also focused on applying technology across various departments, districts, and communes, while enhancing information security.
The city's broadband infrastructure, including MetroNet and fiber optic networks, now covers all communes and wards, ensuring 100 percent broadband Internet and 3G/4G coverage throughout the city. Additionally, HCMC has implemented a data integration and sharing system, creating a shared database for local government agencies.
