Despite much trouble caused by Covid-19 pandemic in the first half of 2020, the information-communications industry has tried its best to observe all directions from the Central Party and the Government. It has fulfilled all missions regarding institution construction, inter-disciplinary coordination, and manufacturing in the six state management aspects of post, telecommunications, IT application, cyber security, ICT industry, and media.
Vietnam Post so far has successfully delivered 377 million parcels to receivers, especially during the ‘social distance’ period (an increase of 40 percent compared to this time last year).
Vietnam Telecommunications has precisely delivered 15 billion messages to receivers, along with 2.6 million messages to financially support the needy (with the total value of over VND152 billion – US$6.56 million). It has increased the data capacity and double the bandwidth without rising subscription rates. It has also offered free data use for distance learning among more than 30,000 schools.
As to IT application, Vietnam has launched the largest ever practice on pandemic prevention and control during the sensitive time of Covid-19, attracting the participation of nearly 1,000 engineers to create over 20 pieces of software.
Particularly, Vietnam is the only nation in the world that a comprehensive navigation solution for isolation tasks, from network providers to Base Transceiver Stations (BTS), GPS satellites, and 2-meter monitoring via Bluetooth. 12 platforms and hundreds of applications to serve the public to observe social distance rules were launched.
The rate of online level-3 and level-4 public services has witnessed an impressive growth. In particular, the Ministry of Information & Communications and the Ministry of Health now can offer all level-4 public services online. As a result, the number of Internet-based documents for level-3 and level-4 public services has doubled compared to 2019.
The good news is despite this busy state on the virtual environment, the quantity of cyber attacks has decreased by 26 percent compared to the end of 2019. In addition, the revenue from cyber security services in the first half of 2020 developed to 67.8 percent compared to this time last year, with a significant growth to 50.8 percent in the gap between domestic products and international counterparts.
The ICT industry has a milestone when Vietnam actively researches and manufactures equipment and terminals for 5G technology. The first 5G call using domestic devices has been successful, making way for a promising future of commercializing Vietnamese 5G equipment at the end of 2020.
The Vietnamese media has so far become one of the key forces to effectively fight against Covid-19 pandemic in the nation. Domestic papers have published nearly 600,000 articles about this dangerous disease, with an average of 700 to 1,000 news pieces per day to attract the view of 20 – 30 million people. More importantly, information from these articles are reliable to help the public correctly prevent the spread of the disease.
Furthermore, the media has been able to introduce the positive image of a responsible, efficient, unite, and humane nation in the fierce fight against one of the deadliest viruses. The media is also a channel for experience sharing among domestic and international medical staff.
The loudspeaker systems located in neighborhoods throughout the country as well as 9,637 audio stations in wards and communes have actively delivered updates to the community.
It is the first time that the national book festival has been held online at the address Book365.vn, attracting over 10 million visits.
In this summary conference, Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung expressed his appreciation to all achievements of the industry, especially in the combat against Covid-19 pandemic.
He added that in such a hard time, it is easy to make a major decision, and that the social distance period has conveniently led to a comprehensive digital transformation process in socio-economic fields and state works, trading activities of businesses, and daily activities of the whole society.
Minister Hung also commented that it is only in this troublesome time that people realize the importance of an autonomous economy. Despite the common globalization tendency, the authorities need to consider possible economic isolation times.
Thanks to strong domestic IT companies and the large workforce as well as lucrative market of around 100 million people, Vietnam can boost the digital transformation process, apply new management and business models and promote innovation in order to raise its status globally.
“The pandemic has woken up core Vietnamese cultural values and displayed the advantages of the institution. These are the inner power that helps Vietnam increase its position in the world. More than ever, the yearning to become more powerful and prosperous has been successfully featured in the media”, said Minister Hung.
6 MAJOR DIRECTIONS OF THE INFORMATION-COMMUNICATIONS IN THE UPCOMING TIME:
1. The Post must become a strong foundation to ensure the smooth flow of goods besides the strong data flow.
2. Telecommunications must apply digital infrastructure, including broadband facilities and cloud computing infrastructure.
3. IT application must serve the digital transformation tasks
4. Information safety must be prioritized to develop an ecosystem of cyber security products
5. The ICT industry must continue its mission of following the motto ‘Make In Vietnam’
6. The media must perform its mission of waking up the aspiration for a prosperous and powerful Vietnam.
