Achieving many significant accomplishments
In recent years, the Party committees and local authorities in Quang Tri Province have focused on promoting digital transformation across various sectors, with strong participation from the people. As a result, this has helped change societal mindsets and practices, increase labor productivity, enhance transparency, and reduce bureaucracy and corruption in the public sector.
The Department of Information and Communications of Quang Tri Province has launched the Provincial Shared Database at the link: https://datamine.quangtri.gov.vn. (Photo: Thien Dat)
Mrs. Nguyen Thi Huyen, Deputy Director of the Department of Information and Communications of Quang Tri Province, stated that the Department, in its advisory role, has supported the Provincial Party Committee, the Provincial People's Committee, and the Provincial People's Council in drafting resolutions, plans, proposals, and projects, as well as guiding sectors and localities to promote the application of digital technology in activities. This includes the implementation of Resolution 02-NQ/TU dated November 4, 2021, of the Provincial Party Committee, which advised the issuance of Decision 1982/QD-UBND on approving the digital transformation plan for Quang Tri Province by 2025, with a vision toward 2030.
Accordingly, the sectors proactively build their own databases, integrating them into the province's Intelligent Operations Center (IOC) to provide information for provincial leaders to give timely directions, monitor the activities of departments, sectors, and localities, while also supplying necessary information to the public and enterprises.
Currently, the IOC Center has integrated several databases, such as: monitoring public security, traffic safety, the Public Service Portal, healthcare, education, socio-economic reports, media monitoring, and social networks. Notably, it integrates the Field Feedback Portal, which receives opinions from the public and enterprises, creating an interactive channel between citizens, enterprises, and the government to report negative issues in society for quick resolution. The outcomes of these resolutions are publicly disclosed, allowing citizens and enterprises to monitor and measure satisfaction.
According to Ms. Huyen, with a systematic approach, strategic planning, and leveraging central government guidance on digital transformation, along with maximizing societal resources combined with the provincial government's resources, Quang Tri has achieved many accomplishments for the entire society. This includes playing an important role in supporting enterprises, such as: enhancing information transparency, providing high-level public services (full-process), helping citizens and enterprises save time and avoid bureaucracy and corruption from civil servants, and developing numerous digital tools to monitor the performance and service attitude of public agencies, thereby improving citizen and enterprises satisfaction.
Resolving administrative procedures for citizens at the "one-stop" section of the Dong Ha City People's Committee (Photo: Nhu Quynh)
According to the Digital Transformation Steering Committee of Quang Tri Province, with the active involvement of all levels, sectors, and society, the digital transformation process in the province has achieved notable results in various areas: digital awareness, digital institutions, digital infrastructure, digital data, digital workforce, digital government, digital economy, digital society, and cybersecurity. As a result, the digital transformation index of Quang Tri Province has improved, with significant increases in component scores for digital awareness, digital institutions, and digital infrastructure.
Regarding digital infrastructure, as of now, 92.7% of households have at least one member with a smartphone; the internet usage rate has reached 107.349%; and 156 government administrative agencies at all levels are connected to a dedicated data transmission network (100% coverage).
Some digital platforms implemented and maintained in the province include: the provincial-level data integration and sharing platform; the intelligent operations monitoring platform; the virtual assistant platform with the AI hotline 1900868674; the network security monitoring platform; the media and social media monitoring platform; and the electronic identification platform.
Regarding the digital workforce, 100% of departments, agencies, and localities have assigned dedicated or part-time staff to advise on digital transformation and information security. The province has established 115 community digital technology teams at the commune level and 715 community digital technology teams at the village level, with a total of 4,327 members. In 2024, the Department of Information and Communications will conduct 19 training courses on digital transformation and information security for provincial officials.
Regarding digital government, the provincial e-portal and the provincial administrative procedure resolution information system have been connected to the National Digital Government Monitoring Center and have been upgraded to IPv6 technology. The entire province has provided 1,197 full-process online public services (DVCTT) and 562 partial online public services on the provincial administrative procedure resolution system; 777 full-process online public services and 207 partial services on the National Public Service Portal. Quang Tri has also established a Zalo channel to provide information and online public services directly to citizens and enterprises.
On July 10, 2024, the Ministry of Information and Communications issued document No. 2710/BTTTT-CĐSQG announcing the quality of the administrative procedure resolution information systems at the ministerial and provincial levels. Accordingly, the administrative procedure resolution information system of Quang Tri Province achieved level C and ranked 4th nationwide (only after Binh Duong, Ba Ria - Vung Tau, and Nghe An).
Regarding the digital economy, the province has 829 digital technology enterprises. To date, 100% of businesses in the province have implemented electronic invoicing platforms. Additionally, 100% of healthcare facilities and educational institutions have met the necessary conditions to accept tuition, fees, and charges through cashless payment methods.
According to the leadership of the Quang Tri Customs Department, to facilitate import and export activities in the area, the sector focuses on improving the quality of human resources responsible for customs clearance procedures at border gates. They also promote public awareness, provide support, legal advice, and guidance on tax, fee, and charge policies for businesses. In addition, efforts continue to proactively upgrade information technology management systems to ensure effective customs management, while creating favorable conditions for citizens and businesses. This approach is aimed at developing a digital customs model, helping businesses reduce clearance time and costs.
However, challenges remain...
Currently, the deep and widespread implementation of digital transformation in Quang Tri Province still faces many difficulties and challenges, such as the lack of a significant number of digital technology enterprises, especially those providing digital platforms, making it hard to develop the digital economy. Additionally, the province lacks higher education institutions, including colleges, universities, and graduate schools, with specialized programs in information technology (IT) and digital transformation, which poses challenges in developing a skilled workforce to drive digital transformation.
In July 2024, Quang Tri Province organized the program "Quang Tri - Digital Transformation to Evolve and Reach the World" (Photo: VGP/Minh Trang).
In addition, the awareness of all levels, sectors, and society about the role of information technology (IT) and digital transformation is still not fully developed. Resources (financial, human, and infrastructure) for implementing digital transformation at the district and commune levels remain insufficient and weak.
Professor Ha Ton Vinh, Director of the Leadership Training Program at California Miramar University (USA), believes that Quang Tri Province should focus on digital transformation for the tourism industry. The province needs to develop strategies and apply digital transformation tactics, transforming the entire system from public administration to tourism support. This includes investing in and improving infrastructure for digital transformation, building databases, and using technology to connect with and serve customers, as well as manage business and operations on digital platforms. The province should also strengthen national and international connections, promote mobile applications and tourism websites, enhance tourism promotion through social media, provide more information in English, and apply AI, automation, and virtual tourism technologies, such as Virtual Tours and Interactive Tours, which are popular with tourists worldwide (360 videos, panoramic images, drone footage, etc.).
According to Mrs. Nguyen Thi Huyen, Deputy Director of the Department of Information and Communications of Quang Tri Province, digital transformation requires a high-quality workforce to master new technologies. Therefore, raising awareness, spreading skills, and developing human resources for digital transformation is extremely important. This helps unify the understanding of digital transformation across the entire political system, the business community, and the public, while also creating a skilled workforce to implement digital transformation comprehensively and widely across all levels, sectors, and fields.
In the near future, Quang Tri will strengthen training and skill development programs to improve basic digital skills for provincial officials, civil servants, and public employees. The province will continue to develop e-commerce, support small and medium-sized enterprises in accessing and regularly using digital transformation platforms, and increase the proportion of the digital economy in the provincial GRDP.
