8 characteristic elements of Vietnam's digital society

An important piece to forming digital citizens

The workshop “The role of personal digital signatures in electronic payment transactions” was organized by the Vietnam Electronic Authentication Center (NEAC), Ministry of Information and Communications in collaboration with the Vietnam Banking Association, Vietnam Digital Signature and Electronic Transaction Club on October 17, in Hanoi.

Speaking at the opening of the workshop, Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Huy Dung said that the Party and Government of Vietnam have identified three pillars of national digital transformation, namely Digital Government, Digital Economy and Digital Society. All three pillars cannot be implemented without digital citizens.

To form digital citizens, a digital society needs 8 basic characteristics including: Each household has a broadband fiber optic cable, each person has a smartphone, an electronic identity, a digital payment account, an online public service account, a software to ensure basic network information security, basic digital skills to use services in the digital environment and finally a personal digital signature.“Personal digital signature is the final piece to complete a basic version of digital citizenship in the online environment”, the Deputy Minister emphasized.

Digital signature is a solution recognized internationally and in Vietnam for its legality, to increase the reliability of online transactions, especially electronic banking transactions. Digital signature is equivalent to handwritten signature, has identification properties, authenticates the correct origin, ensures the integrity of received data and is non-repudiation. In particular, the recent Law on Electronic Transactions 2023 has many important regulations on digital signatures, creating favorable conditions for the application of digital signatures in all activities of people online.

Once again emphasizing the urgency of popularizing personal digital signatures to all Vietnamese people, Deputy Minister Nguyen Huy Dung hopes that the sharing of speakers, especially the experiences and practical lessons from Korean experts at the workshop, will help promote personal digital signatures in Vietnam.

Sharing the same view, Vice President and General Secretary of the Vietnam Banking Association Nguyen Quoc Hung affirmed that digital transformation is a mandatory trend, with more and more businesses, organizations and individuals conducting electronic transactions. And electronic signature is one of the important factors to conduct electronic transactions.

Mr. Cho Sung Jig, Chief Representative of the Korea Internet Security Agency (KISA) in Vietnam, also hopes that in the coming time, Vietnam can take advantage of the opportunity to strengthen the safe Internet environment and a trustworthy e-commerce market, with the widespread use of personal digital signatures.

Only 5% of bank customers are using digital signatures

Within the framework of the workshop, in addition to the sharing of Korean experts on the current situation of using personal digital signatures in the banking sector, new services provided by public digital signature certification service providers (CAs) and the experience of interconnecting public CAs, Vietnamese technology and banking experts also discussed the story of applying digital signatures in Vietnam.

Introducing digital signatures and electronic signatures ensuring safety in the revised Law on Electronic Transactions, Mr. Dong Ngoc Ba, Standing Member of the National Assembly's Law Committee, said that the revised Law has added specific provisions on secure electronic signatures, measures and standards to ensure secure electronic signatures. This is the basis for applying a variety of electronic signatures, establishing secure electronic transactions, and increasing trust with users, agencies and organizations when conducting transactions in the electronic environment.

However, from the perspective of the Vietnam Banking Association, Mr. Nguyen Quoc Hung pointed out that currently, most digital signatures are only used in internal bank transactions or business transactions and have not been widely applied to individual customers - who account for the majority of banking transactions."According to preliminary reports from banks, only 5% of total customers have and are using digital signatures.", Mr. Nguyen Quoc Hung informed.

Representatives of the Vietnam Banking Association also pointed out the main reasons why only 5% of bank customers use digital signatures such as: The cost of personal digital signatures is still quite high; banks also need investment costs to integrate systems, infrastructure costs for digital signature platforms, digital signature authentication; many customers are still not familiar with digital signatures, concerned about the legal value of digital signatures...

Based on the analysis of the current situation and challenges in implementing electronic authentication solutions, Mr. Hoang Minh Tien, Head of Security Department, Department of Information Technology, State Bank said that one of the solutions of the banking industry in the coming time is to amend and supplement authentication solutions in Decision 630 of 2017 on the plan to apply security solutions in online payments and bank card payments.

“The principle of the amendment and supplement is to promote the development of non-cash payments; prevent the opening and use of fake and non-owner payment accounts for fraudulent purposes; and at the same time ensure feasibility.”, Mr. Hoang Minh Tien informed.

Lawyer Nguyen Thi Phuong, Vice President of the Legal Club, proposed that the Government and the Ministry of Information and Communications soon issue detailed regulations and guidelines for the 2023 Law on Electronic Transactions, before the Law takes effect, so as not to disrupt electronic transactions in current banking operations.

Representative of the Digital Signature and Electronic Transaction Club, an organization that is joining NEAC to promote the popularization of digital signatures, Mr. Phung Huy Tam affirmed that the remote digital signature solutions of public CAs who are members of the Club are ready to support the banking industry in promoting the use of digital signatures by individual customers.