The fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) will have a significant impact on all aspects of socio-economic life in all countries around the world, said Vu Thi Mai, deputy minister of finance, at a workshop on Thursday.

The workshop discussed the importance of Industry 4.0, and especially its impact on the finance sector.

Reviewing the application of information technology in the finance sector, Mai said that in the past the sector had maintained rapid and steady development and mobilised financial resources efficiently for the country’s socio-economic development.

“In order to continue these achievements, the contribution of information technology to the sector must be significant,” she said.

Until now, information technology has been applied deeply and extensively in almost all financial activities, becoming an indispensable part of key activities such as State budget management, e-payment and government bond management, implementation of e-taxation, e-customs, national and ASEAN one-stop mechanisms and public debt management. The period from now until 2030 is important for the implementation of strategic breakthroughs in the development of the digital finance sector in line with the Government’s orientation.

Mai affirmed that the sector would be the leading unit among governmental agencies in the e-Government roadmap to 2020.

The role of information technology is important, as the application of IT aims to modernise the finance sector. Systems will manage, develop and provide modern public finance products, serving people and businesses, based on the technological achievements of the industrial revolution 4.0, Mai noted. Mai also highlighted major hurdles that the finance sector must be overcome.

These include successfully developing e-finance by 2020, establishing an open finance sector by 2025, and striving to complete the goal of fully converting to digital finance by 2030. The sector, with the support of advanced technology, will also strive to meet international standards and reach the level of modernising the governmental financial sector in the leading group of countries in Southeast Asia. At the workshop, experts also said that the inevitable shift from simple digitisation (the third industrial revolution) to innovation based on technology (the fourth industrial revolution) means each sector will have to adapt.

For the financial sector, to be ready and proactive in the 4.0 industry, it is imperative to have breakthrough solutions, said experts.

According to Dang Duc Mai, director of the Department of Financial Informatics and Statistics, in the future, the Ministry of Finance should continue to step up and successfully build e-finance, an open financial database and apply data analysis tools. — VNS