Vietnam moves to end fragmented software and data systems

Vietnam’s digital government still has a basic problem to solve: officials often have to work across too many separate software systems, while data remains scattered. At a conference reviewing the first year of the three-tier administration model on July 1, General Secretary and President To Lam demanded urgent action to standardize, integrate, share and exploit data.

Nguyen Thanh Tung of the Institute of State and Law said the key issue was not adding more software. The question, he said, was whether existing systems could actually connect and share information. He identified three priorities: standardizing data, linking systems and minimizing the need for residents to resubmit information that government agencies already hold and are legally allowed to use.

“The ultimate goal of digital transformation is very simple: officials enter less data, government agencies resolve cases faster, and people make fewer trips and deal with less paperwork,” Tung said.

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The ultimate goal of digital transformation is very simple: officials enter less data, government agencies resolve cases faster, and people make fewer trips and deal with less paperwork.

Ta Van Ha, deputy head of the National Assembly’s Culture and Social Affairs Committee, also called for resources to focus on connecting existing databases. He said Vietnam urgently needed a legal framework and unified data standards so information could move between central agencies, provinces, communes and wards under the principle that data should be created once and used many times.

The Central Steering Committee for Science and Technology Development, Innovation and National Digital Transformation has issued a 100-day plan covering 50 tasks in 10 areas, including institutions, digital infrastructure, data, platforms and online public services. Some tasks directly address duplicated, isolated and non-interoperable data. The stated goals are to reduce manual work, paperwork, processing time and costs for agencies, officials, residents and businesses. Hanoi has separately adopted a 100-day plan with 19 tasks, including a review of its software and information systems and proposals to retain, integrate, discontinue, merge or replace them with shared platforms.

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The urgent task is to establish a legal framework and unified data standards to connect data channels vertically and horizontally from the central level to communes and wards, under the principle that data is created once and used many times.