‘Creating new ways of doing things using digital technology to bring breakthrough value’

Speaking at the Vietnam Digital National Forum 2026 (Vietnam Digital Summit 2026) taking place on June 5 in Ninh Binh, Deputy Minister Bui Hoang Phuong emphasized the current way of digital transformation. He believes that it is necessary to focus on substance, starting from practical problems of people, businesses and state agencies to find new ways to do things based on technology.

He assessed that in the past few years, digital transformation in Vietnam has made important progress, the legal corridor was built with the promulgation of the Digital Transformation Law, Digital Technology Industry Law, Data Law, AI Law… Digital infrastructure is built modernly with 5G coverage rate of over 90% of the population; Build national databases and basic platforms such as VNeID.

However, the Deputy Minister acknowledged that “there is still a gap between institutions and implementation, between investment infrastructure and created value, between the digital expectations and trust of people and businesses”. Therefore, “a constant question for the leaders of the Ministry of Science and Technology and its functional units is how to truly bring digital transformation to life, creating truly great, truly groundbreaking values,” he said.

Accordingly, Deputy Minister Phuong hopes that the Forum will engage in policy dialogue to remove national digital transformation bottlenecks, promote the development of digital platforms and services based on data and artificial intelligence, connect resources and spread effective models.

Mr. Tran Duy Ninh, Director of the National Digital Transformation Department, said that for digital transformation to create value, measuring effectiveness by the number of systems built, the amount of data digitized or the number of services provided online is not enough. “Value only appears when we are able to exploit those resources effectively,” he said.

The representative of the Department of Digital Transformation outlined lessons from successful cases of digital transformation in the world such as Singapore and the EU. But “Singapore doesn’t stop at building technology, it builds digital capacity for the whole society. The EU doesn’t just invest in infrastructure, it builds digital capacity frameworks.”

The Department of Digital Transformation said that Vietnam is on the right track with Resolution 57 identifying science and technology, innovation and digital transformation as new development drivers, with legal foundations, databases, shared platforms, and human resource development programs. “The task in the coming period is to connect those components into an overall national capacity,” said a representative of the Department.

With the goal of digital transformation creating competitiveness and value for the country, the Department of Digital Transformation proposes task groups including researching and building Vietnam’s National Digital Competency Framework, adding indicators to measure national digital competence, and synchronously developing the digital competence of people, businesses and the public sector.

Vietnam Digital Summit 2026 is an event to promote digital transformation, build a national digital ecosystem and enhance Vietnam’s digital competitiveness. The event was jointly organized by the National Digital Transformation Agency, the Institute for Innovation and Digital Transformation and the Ninh Binh Department of Science and Technology. This is the third year, with the theme “Developing digital platforms and digital services, moving operations to the digital environment”. The event attracted more than 1,000 delegates, hundreds of technology businesses, along with many research institutes and international organizations to participate in thematic discussion sessions on policy and technology, cooperation and investment connections.

Nam Nguyen