Digital transformation has produced a far-reaching impact, covering all industries and socioeconomic aspects. It helps increase labor productivity and change innovation-based operating and business models to enhance the country's competitiveness.

Grasping this trend, Lao Cai has utilized its existing advantages to build fundamental infrastructure foundations for information technology development and application to facilitate digital transformation for better administrative reforms and better service-based administration, narrow the digital gap between urban and rural areas, and create a driving force for local socioeconomic development.

Mr. Vu Hung Dung, Director of the Lao Cai Department of Information and Communications, said that carrying out the national digital transformation program, the department drafted and submitted to the Provincial People’s Committee to issue Decision 1634/QD-UBND dated May 17, 2021 to approve the Lao Cai Provincial Digital Transformation Program to 2025, with an eye to 2030.

Accordingly, Lao Cai province’s viewpoints on digital transformation are: (1) People and businesses are the center of digital transformation, stemmed from its purpose of bringing values to people and businesses. Right from the onset of digital transformation, people, authorities, experts and businesses will join hands and solve the needs of people, businesses and the government. (2) Perception plays a decisive role in digital transformation. Each Party cadre, public employee, citizen and enterprise needs to feel, see, and be aware of the significance and importance of digital transformation before taking specific actions, with the most important being exemplary conducts of Party agencies, authorities and mass organizations. (3) Digital culture changes the way each agency and public employee works and changes the way each enterprise and household works; change the life of every citizen. Codes of conduct and ethical standards for people will be established in the digital environment. (4) Governmental agencies play a leading role and put forth emerging matters for people, authorities, experts and businesses to solve together from the beginning.

Digital transformation of Lao Cai province is based on the following pillars: Digital government, digital economy and digital society, so as to improve the effect of administration, accelerate administrative reform in the entire political system, enhance competitiveness and service for people and society, boost public satisfaction and quality of people’s life, and create motivation for social progress and economic growth. Lao Cai province is determined to be among Top 20 provinces and cities of digital transformation by 2025.

On digital government development, Lao Cai strives for 100% of administrative work to be implemented on unified digital platform; 100% of documents to be electronically exchanged and digitally signed by governmental agencies, except for confidential documents as prescribed by law; and 95% of provincial work records, 80% of district work records and 60% of commune work records to be processed in the online environment.

On digital economy development, Lao Cai strives to have a leading share of digital economy among northern mountainous provinces. 90% of enterprises will apply information technology to business. 70% will provide services to access and participate in electronic transactions in the electronic environment.

On digital society development, Lao Cai will have fiber optic broadband infrastructure covering over 80% of households and 100% of communes and universalize 4G/5G services and smartphones. Over 40% of population will have electronic payment accounts; 50% will have access to e-government services and smart city services using smart mobile devices. The province will stand among Top 10 provinces and cities in cybersecurity.

To achieve the above goals, Lao Cai province will focus on five groups of tasks and solutions including: Developing the foundation for digital transformation; building digital government; developing digital economy; developing digital society; and accelerating digital transformation in some key areas, he added.

At the same time, Lao Cai province will pay attention to digital transformation in key areas and priority localities: education and training, health, culture and tourism, agriculture and disaster prevention, natural resources and environment, construction and transport, security and order. It will develop the border gate economic zone into a smart model, expand cross-border trade with digital connectivity; pilot inclusive digital transformation in some communes, build a pilot model of smart rural residential groups.