The city’s digitaltransformation programme, issued in July 2020, sets a target that the digital economywill make up 25 percent of its gross regional domestic product (GRDP) by 2025and 40 percent by 2030. It gives priority to 10 sectors, namely health care,education, transport, finance - banking, tourism, agriculture, logistics,environment, energy, and human resources training.
HCM City also looks to raise thedigital economy’s proportion in GRDP to 15 percent in 2022.
Speaking at a seminar onMarch 25, Director of the municipal Department of Information andCommunications Lam Dinh Thang said while the COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t beenover, HCM City’s economy is still facing an array of considerable difficultiesand challenges.
Some experts suggested thatin terms of digital infrastructure, HCM City should complete general and specialiseddatabases in its smart city project, boost the building of information securitymechanisms to encourage enterprises to do business on digital platforms, andpay due attention to cybersecurity.
Regarding digital business,they recommended the city survey companies’ demand and devise differentprogrammes supporting firms to innovate, apply technology, and shift to digitalbusiness models.
Pham Binh An, Deputy Directorof the HCM City Institute for Development Studies, held that local authoritiesshould improve their capacity to assist digital technology startups, facilitatedigital business and e-commerce activities, and increase connecting e-commercefirms with manufacturers./.