Rural industrial establishments in Nghe An proactively transform digitally

Digital transformation to "understand correctly, do correctly"

Digital transformation in enterprises can be understood as the process of changing old models, traditional models to digital enterprises, based on new technology applications to change the management methods, working processes and labor culture in enterprises. Thereby, improving management capacity, timely and accurate information transparency, saving management and operating human resources, saving costs; increasing the speed of information access, market access, promoting products and services globally, promoting revenue growth, increasing labor productivity.

Producing spoons for export to the Korean market at Hong Son Production and Trade Company Limited (Do Lang Industrial Park, Nghi Lam, Nghi Loc) solves the problem of many idle agricultural workers in rural areas. Photo: Thu Huyen

Currently, the Party and the State have issued many policies and decisions on digitalization in all fields; in September 2019, the Politburo issued Resolution No. 52-NQ/TW on a number of policies and strategies to proactively participate in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. For Nghe An, on June 22, 2022, the Provincial People's Committee issued Plan No. 586/KH-UBND on digital transformation of Nghe An province by 2025...

Recognizing the importance of digital transformation for production and business activities of enterprises, many rural industrial production establishments have proactively implemented it. At Nghe An Seafood Joint Stock Company, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hung - Director of the Company said: As a small and medium-sized enterprise, we always perceive digital transformation as an inevitable process related to our long-term development. Currently, in management and operation, the Company has applied the management software system before 2000, applied the management standards set according to ISO 9001:2000 since 2005 and upgraded to ISO:22000 in 2018. In product quality management, the quality manual has been applied and barcodes have been applied since 1998; QR Code application has been deployed since 2015.

Implementing the policy of digital transformation in rural industrial enterprises, Duc Phong Company Limited was selected as one of the pilot units of the province. This is an enterprise specializing in the production and trading of rattan and bamboo products and handicrafts for export, with a rather unique production model. For a long time, the Company has organized production according to the chain, implemented green economy and circular economy very early; from supporting forest planting, linking with people to create raw material areas, organizing preliminary processing, processing raw materials to vocational training, finding export markets are carried out according to a closed model.

Duc Phong Company Limited produces in a chain, from growing raw materials to processing and consuming products. Photo: Thu Huyen

Mr. Thai Dai Phong - Director of Duc Phong Company Limited said: In addition to the production force concentrated at the factory, we also use local idle agricultural labor, in craft villages (organizing production at home) with more than 1,000 people. The main products are interior decoration products, 90% are exported, the main market is Europe. The number of products is diverse, many types, designs change regularly and continuously. In the process of implementing digital transformation, the State has policies and incentives to support part of the costs. The majority of officers and employees have accessed and used information technology in management and production. The basic infrastructure meets the needs of digital transformation.

Timely removal of difficulties

In reality, most businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, are facing difficulties because most of their staff members do not have much experience in applying and exploiting technology. Digital transformation projects initially cost a lot of investment capital, while the financial capacity of businesses is generally limited. Many businesses believe that currently, Vietnam has not yet formed agencies and organizations that act as an independent channel to objectively evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of technical and legal support solutions (or services) after applying digital technology, thereby helping businesses have enough information to make appropriate choices. Many businesses also wonder, after converting to digital applications, if problems arise... how to handle them?

The Director of Nghe An Seafood Joint Stock Company shared the difficulties in digital transformation for current seafood processing facilities at the workshop Promoting digital transformation for rural industrial facilities organized by the Department of Local Industry and Trade, Ministry of Industry and Trade recently. Photo: Thu Huyen

Director of Nghe An Seafood Joint Stock Company - Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hung said that seafood processing enterprises are associated with many enterprises belonging to different industry groups and diverse labor groups such as: exploitation, seaport services, transportation services, salt workers, technical workers, manual workers, etc. Therefore, the connection and interaction process is quite diverse, leading to the integration of digital data being a difficult problem.

Therefore, it is recommended that the Government continue to direct the implementation of specialized consulting programs and projects to support businesses in understanding and choosing digital transformation tools suitable for the industry and scale in which they operate. Support capital for small and medium-sized enterprises to facilitate access and application of better digital transformation tools.

It is necessary to form agencies and organizations that act as an independent channel to objectively evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of solutions after applying digital technology, thereby helping businesses have enough information to make appropriate choices, especially technical and legal support during the operation process, converting digital applications when encountering problems.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hung - Director of Nghe An Seafood Joint Stock Company

Handicraft production mainly uses rural labor, so the application of digital technology in production stages is facing difficulties. Photo: Thu Huyen

Mr. Thai Dai Phong - Director of Duc Phong Company Limited said that as a pilot enterprise, all issues are new and difficult. Therefore, it is recommended that there be more attention and closer support for small and medium enterprises. It is necessary to classify business models and specifically survey how prepared the enterprise is, thereby guiding the enterprise to complete each part. Choose a consulting unit with the function of understanding the enterprise, having the skills to think and build software to support the enterprise to implement and operate well. Synchronize administrative reform so that the digital transformation of enterprises operates in a compatible manner.

Sharing the difficulties of enterprises, recently, at the workshop Promoting digital transformation for rural industrial establishments organized by the Department of Industry and Trade of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Mr. Nguyen Van Thinh - Deputy Director of the Department of Industry and Trade of the locality said that to support rural industrial establishments to build and implement a suitable digital transformation roadmap, there needs to be synchronous coordination of all levels and sectors, from state management agencies to consulting units, experts and rural industrial establishments.

Typical rural industrial products of Nghe An province are increasingly rich and of high quality. Photo: Thu Huyen

Nghe An Department of Industry and Trade needs to continue to promote propaganda and popularize policies on digital transformation for rural industrial establishments; direct the Industrial Promotion Center to develop a support program from the local budget. On the side of the local Department of Industry and Trade, it will advise the leaders of the Ministry of Industry and Trade to arrange the budget from the national industrial promotion fund in the following years for the content of supporting digital transformation for rural industrial establishments...

Faced with the difficulties of digital transformation, it is recommended that relevant authorities strengthen e-commerce and digital transformation application solutions for rural industrial establishments; digital transformation application trends and introduce some solutions for small and medium enterprises in Vietnam;… Enterprises need to be provided with multi-dimensional information and knowledge about digital transformation to "understand correctly, do correctly", and proactively respond.

It is necessary to focus on consulting, providing a simple digital transformation roadmap for businesses and introducing highly applicable, easy-to-implement solutions to help rural industrial establishments immediately embark on digital transformation. State management agencies also need to have policies to encourage and support rural industrial establishments in a reasonable and effective manner.