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In his speech, Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Pham Duc Long shared that digital transformation is a historic opportunity as well as a national strategy and driving force for the national development as it is a door into the science-technology era where digital innovation is the foundation.
He further informed that Vietnam is one of the countries with a large proportion of weekly online shoppers (comprising over 60 percent – higher than the global average of 57.6 percent). The scale of the domestic Internet economy in 2022 reached US$23 billion, with a forecast of $49 billion in 2025. Vietnam’s online retail revenues in 2022 was $14 billion and is expected to rise to $32 billion after two more years.
However, the overall Internet infrastructure in the country is still rather limited compared to the size of Internet users and population. Vietnam now merely has 5 undersea fiber optic cable lines, while the quantity and scale of its are extremely modest as opposed to those in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia. The country’s cloud computing is basically an act of reselling services to foreign platforms. The Internet connection ecosystem here is rather simple and small compared to other developed nations in ASEAN.
Therefore, Deputy Minister Long said that the Ministry of Information and Communications has already prepared necessary legal corridors, policies, and schemes to become a driving force for innovation and development. The (amended) Law on Telecommunications is on the way to the National Assembly. When approved, it will expand the scope of data centers, cloud computing services and will upgrade telecoms infrastructure.
The planning for information and communication infrastructure, already submitted by the Ministry of Information and Communications to the Government, is expected to be greenlighted this year. It sets up a vision, direction, and suitable detailed goals for telecoms and the Internet in Vietnam until 2030, with a vision to 2050.
Meanwhile, the Information and Communications Ministry is preparing a strategy as well as plan for the growth of fiber optic cable routes for Vietnam's outbound Internet in order to ensure safe and sustainable digital infrastructure in the country.
