Illustrative image (Photo: Business Times) Singapore (VNA) –Singapore’s daily Business Times said on November 2 that Vietnam’s digitaltransformation efforts haveyielded the biggest improvement among regional economies.
According to an industry study of 11 Asia-Pacific marketscarried out by the GSMA Intelligence, Vietnam saw the highest increase inscores between 2016 and 2019.
Itslatest rating stood at 49 points for 2019, up by 12 points from three yearsbefore, which GSMA Intelligence attributed to notable improvements in theconnectivity component of the index, following the launch and rapid expansionof 4G networks.
Itwas also driven by improvements to the digital identity, digital citizenship anddigital lifestyle components, added the report.
GSMA Intelligence noted that Vietnam is pursuing a nationalIndustry 4.0 strategy that includes infrastructure and human resources, as wellas e-government and innovation.
However, there are still challenges that need to be addressedto make further progress, particularly in the digital commerce component andwith regard to policies to support innovative startups, the reportadded. The 5G mobile technology is expected to make up 5 percent of wirelessconnections in Vietnam by 2025, well below the Asia-Pacific average of 23percent.
Indeed, Vietnam ranked just eighth overall, among of the 11markets surveyed. The rankings were topped by four “advanced” economies,with the Republic of Korea (RoK) in pole position at 78 points. Next up were Singapore,Australia and Japan.
The report classed Vietnam, India, Indonesia, Thailand andMalaysia as “transition” countries, while Pakistan and Bangladesh are“emerging”.
It said the gap remains significant. This underscores theneed for countries in the emerging category to do more to accelerateprogress.
The study was based on input from government andindustry organisations in the markets of Australia, Bangladesh, India,Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, the RoK, Thailand andVietnam./.
