Digitalisation spreading in various areas and industries

The education and training sector is urgently taking advantage of opportunities from the current industrial revolution to renew itself with the focus on digital transformation in educational management, teaching, learning, testing, evaluating, and scientific research.

A number of smart educational models are being developed based on the application of information technology platforms. Thus, access to the huge knowledge base on the Internet will be quick and easy while the interaction between family, school, teachers, and students almost immediate.

The whole education sector has implemented digitalisation to build a shared database between the education ministry and dozens of departments of education and training, hundreds of offices of education and training and tens of thousands of educational institutions.

The sector has digitalised and identified the data of more than 53,000 schools, more than one million teachers and 23 million students, contributing effectively to the enrollment, statistics and reports from the sector.

All teachers are being mobilised to contribute and share learning materials on the digital data storage of the sector which has also contributed nearly 5,000 quality e-learning lessons to the Vietnamese Knowledge System and more than 30,000 questions to the bank of multiple-choice questions, helping build a learning society and promoting the lifelong learning movement.

Dinh Thi Thuy, Director of Misa JSC, a digital technology developer in the education and training sector said that Misa’s foundation has unified all education management operations into one system currently being used in more than 18,000 schools, 248 education and training offices, and 48 education and training departments.

The health sector is also among the priority sectors under the National Programme on Digital Transformation issued by the Government in June 2020. So far, 100% of documents in the health sector have been electronically processed while 100% of all administrative procedures of the Health Ministry have been carried out online at level 4 and are gradually being connected to the national public service portal.

The Ministry of Health is also promoting remote health examination and treatment activities, including providing medical consultation, image diagnosis, surgical consultation, technical transfer training, and others.

In particular, the health sector has made public the prices of 62,438 types of medicine (retail prices in pharmacies), 17,066 medical equipment and supplies, and 93,253 medical bidding results.

In addition, a large number of hospitals have applied electronic medical records to replace outdated paper ones and used the picture archiving and communication system (PACS) without film printing. The Ministry of Health is ranked 4th on the overall IT application level among ministries and ministerial agencies.

Digital transformation has not only promoted its efficiency in the education and health sectors but in many other areas. In the business sector, digital transformation has become an indispensable trend to help enterprises overcome difficulties and enhance their competitiveness, especially amid the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the area of natural resources and environment, digital transformation has contributed to building a comprehensive information system and large database to effectively manage the field, such as the national land and geographic database and data on monitoring natural resources and the environment, biodiversity, waste sources, sea ​​and islands, climate change, meteorology – hydrology, geology - minerals, natural disaster early warning, and others.

According to the Ministry of Information and Communications, there were 38 made-in-Vietnam digital platforms being used by organisations and enterprises by the end of 2020.

Troubleshooting to rise up

Despite initially positive results, digital transformation in many areas still faces challenges. The first issue is the quality of human resources in the field of information security. That is the top priority in ensuring digital transformation and network security and safety.

Regarding the education and training sector, more investment is needed in network infrastructure, IT equipment, transmission lines, and Internet services for schools, especially in remote and isolated areas to avoid inequality in learning opportunities and equal access to knowledge among students between regions and schools.

The building up of digital data such as e-books, e-libraries, multiple choice question banks, electronic lectures, e-learning software, and simulation application software has yet to be implemented in a planned manner, causing difficulties with the control of learning quality and content.

Regarding the health sector, comprehensive digital transformation remains a long way ahead. Electronic health records have been implemented but the Health Ministry has yet to work closely with the health insurance agency to effectively perform related procedures.

In addition, both the legal framework and the financial mechanism must be revised to promote digital transformation in the health sector as medical equipment with IT application is not considered as medical equipment which suffers from depreciation.

IT experts say it is necessary to immediately deploy a number of solutions to be able to master digital infrastructure, digital platforms and national cyberspace towards developing a safe, healthy, humane national cyberspace as well as mastering the “Make in Vietnam” production technology.

In addition, it is also necessary to ensure IT system safety to make Vietnamese application platforms more popular. Deputy Minister of Information and Communication Nguyen Huy Dung said that digital technology and digital services must be universal with reasonable prices, as well as easy to use and convenient for everyone.

If the aforementioned solutions are brought forward methodically and fundamentally, Vietnam will have the conditions necessary to form an IT industry with a high concentration of gray matter and successful digital transformation, contributing to the modernisation of the country.