Participants at the forum
Mr. Nguyen Anh Duong announced this at the Vietnam - Japan research forum on digital economic partnership within the Indo-Pacific economic framework organized by the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM) on December 5, one of a series of the official events commemorating the anniversary of 50 years of establishing diplomatic relations between Vietnam and Japan (from 1973 to 2023).
Mr. Nguyen Anh Duong said that Vietnam has made important efforts to promote digital economic development and digital economic cooperation; however, 48 percent of Vietnamese businesses presently suspended their digital transformation plans in the post-Covid-19 era.
The country still needs a lot of effort because the current legal framework does not support new digital business models; plus, the present legal framework lacks regulations to protect users in addition to inadequate digital technology infrastructure and limited human resources. Above all, entrepreneurs are not eager to make innovations.
Forum participants pointed out that Japan and Vietnam have much potential to promote cooperation in the digital economy. For instance, Professor Takashi Terada from Japan’s Doshisha University recommended that Vietnam join the WTO Joint Statement Initiative (JSI) on e-commerce which is currently under negotiation and the Southeast Asian nation will gradually harmonize rules on digital commerce value.
This expert also emphasized the importance of digital technology application in governmental agencies as he said that digital technology is an important solution to the upcoming population aging trend in Asia, including Japan and Vietnam.
With the same opinion, Professor Mie Oba from Japan’s Kanagawa University proposed that Vietnam actively participate in the process of establishing rules in cross-border economic activities in the Asia/Indo-Pacific region including digital economy, cooperation promotion with Japan on the digital economy in various mechanisms to provide digital public goods in the form of software, data sets, AI models, standards or content that are generally free cultural works and contribute to sustainable national and international digital development in the digital economy.
