Digital economy is the future for Vietnam Nhan Dan newspaper talked to some Vietnamese experts about the advantages of the digital economy in the course of applying the fourth industrial revolution. Nguyen Ba An, secretary general of the National Council for Sustainable Development and Competitiveness Improvement    At present many countries in the region have carried out their digital strategy including Viet Nam. But China and Singapore are the two leading nations. In our country, an e-Government system was launched several years ago, but the national system still needs further improvements.  More recently, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc signed a decree on advancing the campaign to bring Industry 4.0 to life. But I’m sorry to say there remain many things to be done. When we talk about the digital economy, for many Vietnamese, that economy seems alien. But in real life, the internet of things has penetrated all corners of our socio-economic life. The foundation for digital transformation is the data, but I have to admit our current data system is still weak. Electronic data of Government agencies at present simply focus on the State management performance of each agency, not on sharing information. This leads to waste of finances and human resources. It is time for us to improve the operational quality of all public agencies. To achieve this goal, we need to change our current thinking and adopt a suitable management method. That means we need to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of online public services for people and enterprises. Last but not least, the application of technology must go hand in hand with administrative reform and the development of online public services. Dang Kim Son, agricultural expert   In my opinion, the most important thing in the course of digitalisation is the effectiveness of information sharing. To my knowledge, a digital economy is closely associated with informatics, automation and cloud computing, the internet and others. In the field of agriculture, digitalisation is used in remote control or automation. That’s why when we want to apply digitalisation in our agriculture industry we should start from need assessments. But, in my opinion, it is too early for us to talk about the application of digitalisation in agriculture with a very simple reason: we have not completed the mechanisation revolution while we have abundant labourers in the field of agriculture. It is indisputable that we need a very good foundation for information technology in an advanced agriculture coupled by the farmers’ strong knowledge and skills. But, I’m sorry to say that at present we’re facing a lot of difficulties in our basic infrastructure. So, in my opinion, the most challenging area that Viet Nam faces is digitalisation in our primary industry – agriculture. No doubt, when Industry 4.0 is applied to agriculture, it means manual work will be replaced by machines. As a result many people will be out of work. This is a big challenge for Viet Nam. And Viet Nam has to change its growth model. Agriculture must be then closely associated with industry, as is the countryside and towns and cities. What’s more important is the change of the cluster growth model toward the goal of harmonisation and opportunities for everyone. Lai Viet Anh, deputy director of the Department of E-Commerce and Digital Economy, under the Ministry of Industry and Trade      E-commerce is based on technology and the internet. Many new models of e-commerce have appeared with the participation of people from all walks of life. These new models have required a change in the management ideology and the current management mechanisms. In addition, e-commerce and the digital economy have required the creation of new national financial payment systems – e-payment and others. In this course of change, in my opinion, the State should give support to enterprises to help them become digital enterprises or adopt new business models which are all based on the new technology. Nguyen Thi Cuc, chairwoman of the Tax Consultation Association    It is indisputable that e-commerce is very transparent and all payment settlement must go through banks and middle agencies. That’s why, if we want to check or monitor the tax collection activities, the first thing we have to do is to review all the web sites, particularly big web sites to see their transactions. Through these e-transactions we’ll have the information we want between the sellers and buyers. In addition, the cost of e-business transactions is much cheaper that the traditional methods. For example, HCM City has recently saved some VNĐ9 billion (US$398,000) from taxes through e-transactions. It is indisputable: in the digital era, producers and business people have all acknowledged the novel importance of e-commerce.­  VNS