Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc: Building an e-Government must go hand in hand with restructuring the apparatus.

On the morning of February 12, under the chairmanship of comrades: Nguyen Xuan Phuc - Member of the Politburo, Prime Minister, Chairman of the National Committee on e-Government; Vu Duc Dam - Member of the Party Central Committee, Deputy Prime Minister; Nguyen Manh Hung - Member of the Party Central Committee, Minister of Information and Communications, the National Committee on e-Government held an online conference with steering committees for building e-Government, e-Government of ministries, departments, branches and localities.

At Nghe An bridge, comrade Le Ngoc Hoa - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee chaired; representatives of leaders of departments, branches and sectors also attended. Photo by Thanh Le

E-government is closely linked with administrative reform.

Regarding the implementation of Resolution No. 17/NQ-CP in 2019, Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung said that the rate of online public services at level 4 has more than doubled (from 4.5% to more than 10%); 100% of ministries, branches and localities have connected to the National document interconnection axis; 86.5% of electronic documents have been exchanged online; the platform for integrating and sharing data at the ministry and provincial levels has increased 9 times...

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc speaks at the conference.

Comrade Nguyen Manh Hung also said that for the first time, the procedures for issuing birth certificates at the commune level and health insurance cards at the district level have been connected; the Vmap map and the National Public Service Portal have been launched...

The report of the Minister of Information and Communications also pointed out the shortcomings and limitations such as: Not yet built a number of important national databases on population and land; more than 70% of ministries, branches and localities do not have an integrated platform for data sharing and electronic payment for public services; the rate of level 4 public services is still low...

In Nghe An, the online public service portal and electronic single window have been operational since January 10, 2017. Currently, 20 departments, branches, and 21 districts, cities, and towns participate.

Up to now, nearly 1,800 online public services have been provided on the system, including over 1,100 level 2 public services; nearly 600 level 3 online public services; 50 level 4 online public services... Connecting from the Provincial People's Committee Office to the Government Office. The total number of declared user accounts as of December 31, 2019 is 12,626.

At the conference, ministries, branches and localities exchanged results of applying information technology towards e-Government and digital Government as well as difficulties and obstacles in implementation.

Department of Finance staff apply budget management software. Photo: Thanh Le

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam said that e-Government must be closely linked with administrative reform, information technology cannot be separated from administrative reform. Only then can the business environment and national competitiveness be improved.

The Deputy Prime Minister emphasized that building an e-Government will be a big step forward in administrative reform and transparency of the State apparatus.

"To build an e-Government, it is first necessary to complete and remove obstacles in legal procedures; promote electronic payments; connect data; ensure information security; synchronously deploy from the central to local levels, and mobilize all resources to deploy online public services" ...Comrade Vu Duc Dam emphasized.

Associated with organizational arrangement

Speaking at the conference, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc affirmed: Building an e-Government is a major task for the nation. Therefore, it is necessary to summarize and evaluate the good practices in the past to replicate them; recognize the difficulties and obstacles to remove them, and mobilize the entire government system and people to participate.

According to the Prime Minister, despite many advances, our country's ranking in e-Government development is still low compared to the world and the region. Specifically, we rank 88/193 in the world, 6/11 ASEAN countries. We must face the truth to find solutions.

Thanh Duc mountainous commune (Thanh Chuong) applies IT in management and operation. Photo: Thanh Le

Orienting key tasks in 2020, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc proposed focusing all resources to complete the goals set out in Resolution No. 17/NQ-CP, especially completing 30% of level 4 online public services.

Continue to build a strategy for building e-Government for the period 2021 - 2025, with a vision to 2030. Perfecting institutions because this is an important step, always having to go first to create a legal corridor. Along with that, it is necessary to perfect the foundations of e-Government; ensuring financial and human resources for building e-Government.

The Prime Minister requested that heads of ministries, branches and localities need to promote their roles and responsibilities in implementing Resolution No. 17 of the Government and building an e-Government, contributing to improving the effectiveness of administrative reform, saving costs and improving labor productivity.

To do that, leaders must understand and actively apply IT in their agencies and units.

"Building an e-Government must go hand in hand with administrative reform, restructuring the apparatus, streamlining the payroll, and improving the capacity and efficiency of the apparatus of State administrative agencies" - Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc emphasized.

With the vision, 2020 is the first year of transition to digital government and digital administration. The National Committee on e-Government has set the following goals: Complete the targets set for 2020 in Resolution No. 17, especially the target of 30% of online public services at level 4.

The rate of state agencies publicly disclosing people's satisfaction with online public services increased from 50% to 100%. 100% of ministries, branches and localities have integrated and shared data platforms...