The digital economy which is being seen worldwide has been a challenge but also good opportunity for Viet Nam to resolve big issues in its economic development in general and restructuring the industry and trade in particular, said Cao Quoc Hung, deputy minister of Industry and Trade.

Hung told the workshop on orientation for development of Viet Nam’s digital economy held in Ha Noi on Thursday that the digital economy could help the sector catch up with development trends in trade and commerce. This could also help improve production and business models toward maximise input resource, accelerating industrialisation and modernisation process for sustainable development.

He said digital economy had been defined as one of vital pillars and playing an important role for economic growth, creating breakthroughs for each country as the world is entering the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Many technology solutions in all sectors were built, bringing huge benefits which were not achieved in previous periods.

“In Viet Nam, the digitalisation trend or digital transformation has been seen in all sectors from trade, payment to healthcare, education, tourism and transport. The digital economy based on digital technology foundation and integrating smart technologies to maximise process and production models, especially internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain have basically changed the world’s production,” he added.

The deputy minister said the digital economy was forecast to bring big affects and changes in the global supply chain as well as supply and demand operation in the world. It can be said that together with the Fourth Industrial Revolution, digital economy had created new trends and demands.

“It was the reason that Viet Nam should take advantages and maximise benefits while well preparing for necessary changes to build the digital economy in the upcoming time,” he said.

Sharing experiences in building digital economy which the World Economic Forum (WEF) learned from Demark, Kelly Ommundsen, WEF’s Community Lead, Digital Economy and Society System Initiative suggested that the investment into digital transformation in Viet Nam should not only come from businesses but the entire society.

The development of digital economy should not be implemented in each country but the region. For example, Viet Nam should be put into the digital economy development trend of the ASEAN region to build their effective strategies.

However, she said, the most important thing to build a successful digital economy in Viet Nam was to connect ministries and sectors in the overall system. — VNS