As digital transformation has become a "survival" issue of the economies, the finance sector has been actively transforming for the construction of a digital finance sector.

Online supervision at Binh Duong Customs Department. Photo: Đăng Nguyễn

Ready for the digital transformation of the Finance sector

Resolution No. 52-NQ/TW on policies to participate in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, promulgated by the Politburo, has set a goal of striving to finish the construction of Digital Government by 2030 and digital economy. In particular, reaching about 30% of GDP and ranking among the top 50 countries in the world, and ranking in third of ASEAN in terms of e-government and digital economy. Many stated that achieving this goal was feasible if looking at the achievements of the economy in the past time. The transformation of the finance industry has been clearly shown.

According to Nguyen Viet Hung, Deputy Director of the Financial Informatics and Statistics Department, the Ministry of Finance, over the past time, the finance sector has prepared for the legal corridor as well as infrastructure for the digital transformation of the sector. Regarding the legal corridor, many documents related to digital transformation of the Finance sector have been issued by the Ministry of Finance. Along with that, infrastructure for digital transformation including connection infrastructure, equipment infrastructure, data infrastructure, application infrastructure, technology development infrastructure has also been fully prepared.

A digital transformation roadmap has also been developed. The goal is to build electronic finance - digital finance based on data and open data in 2021 - 2025. The vision of this phase is to continue perfecting the construction of e-government in the Finance sector towards the Digital Ministry of Finance, serving people and businesses as the center and improving the efficiency of operations through digital government and digital tools.

In 2026 - 2030, the Finance industry sets a goal to establish a fully digitalised financial system and smart finance. The vision of this phase is to continue to improve the information systems serving the construction of paperless offices; building a digital finance platform based on data and open data; establish a digital finance ecosystem, in which the Government creates and connects with parties through the opening, sharing of data and digital platforms to enable multiple parties to create smart financial services.

Acknowledge the successes in reforming and applying computerisation and digitisation of the Finance sector, Prof. Dr. Hoang Van Cuong, Member of the Finance and Budget Committee of the National Assembly, especially emphasised that two outstanding areas of the Finance sector were tax and Customs that had made great strides. “Those advances had made fundamental changes, moving from a paper-based, direct-communication public service management method to a modern management method, based on the application of information technology, using modernised equipment for digitisation. With the application of information technology connecting to the bank and providing 24/7 service, the tax declaration and payment procedures were carried out extremely quick, helping to save the wasted time counting by hours and days in the past. It helps businesses and people to save a lot of costs, minimise negatives, and create a favorable business environment for businesses,” Prof. Dr. Cuong said.

Regarding the Customs sector, up to 99% of clearance procedures were now electronicisation. Prof. Cuong said: “According to the World Bank's calculations, the reduction of time thanks to electronic clearance has saved $200 million per year. With the achieved results, I believed that the Finance sector would successfully implement, step by step achieve the set goal of establishing an open finance system by 2025; achieve the goal of transforming to a fully financial system by 2030,” Prof. Dr. Hoang Van Cuong affirmed.

Leading in the digital revolution

The application of the achievements of the Fourth Industrial Revolution into the industry's activities has been highly valued by the Ministry of Finance. This has helped the Ministry of Finance lead the rankings for IT application readiness for many years in among ministries and sectors. According to the Ministry of Finance, consecutively leading the Vietnam ICT Index has confirmed the efforts of the Ministry of Finance in organising and implementing information technology applications over the years. The Ministry of Finance has determined promoting online public service provision is a top priority in the process of building e-Government and digital government, to facilitate and further reduce costs for the people and businesses to promote socio-economic development.

To date, 100% of administrative procedures of the Ministry of Finance are provided with online public services. As of June 30, the total number of administrative procedures and online public services of the Ministry of Finance is 895 services. The Ministry of Finance has completed connecting and integrating 285 out of 521 online public services at level 3 and level 4 on the National Public Service Portal, reaching a rate of 54.8%, 20% higher than the requirement in the Resolution. No. 01/NQ-CP dated January 1, 2020 and Resolution No. 17/NQ-CP dated March 7, 2019 of the Government.

The General Department of Taxation connects and integrates 150 online public services, the General Department of Vietnam Customs connects and integrates 72 online public services, the State Treasury connects and integrates seven online public services, the Ministry of Finance connects and integrates 56 online public services. In addition, online public services of the Ministry of Finance have provided more and more utilities, helping to reduce time and costs, and bring satisfaction to organisations, individuals and businesses when carrying out transactions with the Ministry of Finance. Therefore, the online public services of the Ministry of Finance are always highly appreciated by people, organisations and businesses.

Assessing the digital transformation work of ministries and sectors, Vu Tien Loc, member of the National Assembly's Economic Committee, said it was good news that among state agencies, the Ministry of Finance, especially Tax, Customs, Treasury, and Insurance were leading agencies in building databases for operations in the context of the financial industry actively shifting to operate on digital technology platforms.

“The finance industry had been a pioneer in institutional transformation, in administrative reform, in cutting off sublicenses, and now, the finance industry was also leading in the digital revolution of Vietnam Government’s agencies and this effort of the finance sector had been highly appreciated by the business community,” Loc said.