Digital transformation: fast, drastic action is needed

​The coming time, Dong Nai will conduct an assessment on effectiveness of the Smart Operation Centers in Bien Hoa City and Long Khanh City to have the benchmark for deployment throughout the province. (Photo: Staff of Bien Hoa City Smart Operation Center during working hours). Photo by H.Giang

Therefore, the facilitating of the digital transformation process requires all levels, sectors and localities to act fast, with fierce movement.

IT human resources should be further invested

According to the report on readiness index for IT development and application - Communication Vietnam (Vietnam ICT Index), ranking on the IT human resources infrastructure index of Dong Nai in 2020 was 48/63 (3 levels down compared to 2019 and 32 levels compared to 2018).

This reflects the difficult reality that Dong Nai has been facing in the process of digital transformation and building e-government. In fact, attracting IT human resources in the State agency sector is difficult, but the biggest barrier is that the income can’t be competitive with the private business sector.

Mr. Ho Huu Hieu, Director of the Provincial Information Technology Center, said that the Provincial Information Technology Center was assigned the task of managing the Provincial Data Integration Center. To manage and operate the Data Integration Center, the Provincial Information Technology Center assigns two affiliated departments which are the Infrastructure Department and the Research and Development Department. Manpower needed to work in the Data Integration Center is 30 people, but now there are only 20 people.

Due to the lack of human resources, the Center was forced to arrange staff and employees to take turns working 24/7. However, the enjoyment of overtime is unreasonable (it is only calculated up to 200 hours). Along with that, the province has not yet issued a unit price for public services in the field of Information Technology, so the Center has no basis to exploit the service.

Mr. Le Hoang Ngoc, Director of the Department of Information and Communications also shared that he had to accept resignation letters from some employees who had worked with the Center for many years. These are all highly qualified staff, but the income at the Center is much lower than the "outside" salary, so the Center cannot keep them stay in the center longer for working.

Not only the Information Technology Center, but also many other units in the province have found it is difficult to recruit highly specialized human resources. Because people who have that competency criterion can easily find new jobs with much higher salaries at enterprises. In addition to the shortage of human resources, many departments and sectors have not yet been interested in applying IT. This is the reason why the units have not proactively proposed and developed the IT application plan. This leads to the development of the plan still has been general and has no specific targets, so it is difficult to review and evaluate effectiveness, etc.

Over the previous years, Dong Nai has promoted the construction of e-government, in which the administrative reform is prominent. Accordingly, online public services at the third and fourth levels have been deployed, but the electronic process has not been standardized, so it is not really convenient for people to exploit and use, etc. It can be said that the picture of the application of IT in Dong Nai is only at an outline level.

Quick and decisive actions should be needed

As the person assigned to directly support Bien Hoa City in anti-epidemic work, Mr. Huynh Thanh Binh, Member of the Standing Committee, Chairman of the Inspection Commission of the Provincial Party Committee clearly saw the effectiveness of the IT application in the public sector epidemic prevention and control. In which, the role of Smart Operation Center in Bien Hoa City must be mentioned.

Smart Operation Center of Bien Hoa City is exploiting 9 modules. In the current period, the Center is focusing on exploiting and using the medical module to serve the prevention and control of the Covid-19 epidemic, etc. In particular, the Smart Operation Center of Bien Hoa City has developed a system monitor and monitored F0, F1 at home. If during the mandatory isolation period, the subject leaves the house and goes to another place, the system will redraw the route of movement, which is convenient for tracing and zoning if there is an outbreak. However, this system has only been piloted and has no regulations. Therefore, it is necessary for the health sector to come up with the specific procedures and regulations.

Although we are delighted at the obvious effect of Information Technology application at the Smart Operation Center in Bien Hoa City, according to Mr. Binh, the implementation of digital transformation in Dong Nai still has many restrictions and weaknesses; the willingness to apply Information Technology is still slow.

First of all, it's about building and sharing databases. Not only statistics and updates are not completed, but the building of data reporting forms of departments, branches and units is also diverse, each workplace has one type, which makes data integration difficult. On the other hand, when it comes to using datas, departments, branches and localities also meet barriers. Because there are no specific and clear regulations, many units are not willing to share data, even to handle it according to the "asking – giving mechanism".

Mr. Binh suggested: “The units must be interconnected together when building the database; there must be legal restrictions that force units to share datas. Any units or individuals that violate the information security shall bear responsibilities. The Department of Information and Communications should also recommend participating in the Provincial Planning Council to contribute to the construction of the infrastructure network planning, especially the Information Technology Infrastructure to "prepare" for Long Thanh Airport in the near future.

Mr. Le Hoang Ngoc, the Director of the Department of Information and Communications, said that Dong Nai would start piloting the Smart Operating Centers since 2020. However, they may include 2 centers at Bien Hoa City and Long Khanh City, provided by two technology units, VNPT Group and Viettel Group.

According to the criteria of the Ministry of Information and Communications, the Smart Operation Center must meet all 12 basic functions. After the pilot phase, the province will evaluate and select in order to carry out throughout the province. However, in the past, due to the focus on fighting the Covid-19 epidemic, it has not been done yet.

Mr. Nguyen Cao Cuong, the Deputy Head of the Provincial Party Committee's Propaganda commented: "In my opinion, the Department of Information and Communications should soon advise to evaluate the actual effectiveness of the Smart Operation Centers at Bien Hoa City and Long Khanh City, serve as a benchmark for localities to deploy Smart Operation Centers as well as accompanying applications to provide information to people. In addition, these applications should integrate the promotion of images and products of Dong Nai to spread to the domestic and international community.

Hoang Giang