WB willing to support Vietnam in building e-government

ABO/NDO - World Bank (WB) Country Director to Vietnam, Ousmane Dione, has expressed his group’s willingness in supporting Vietnam in terms of resources and signing the framework for cooperation in building e-government.

Minister - Head of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung and WB Country Director to Vietnam Ousmane Dione. (Photo: VGP)

During a meeting with Minister - Head of the Government Office, Mai Tien Dung, on August 7, the WB official praised the efforts made by the Government Office in e-government development, with positive results in promoting reform, especially in the one-stop shop mechanism, improved business environment and removing barriers to facilitate businesses.

Currently, according to the United Nations, Vietnam ranks 88th in terms of e-government, which is a positive result, but the country could do better, Ousmane Dione affirmed.

Minister Dung said that, in parallel with the implementation of the e-government, Vietnam is focusing on institutional reform and cutting cumbersome procedures to facilitate businesses.

He stated that currently there are 5,905 business conditions that need to be cut and the country has reduced 900 (accounting for 15.2%), along with more than 2,900 conditions with a cut-off deadline by mid-August. The working groups of the Prime Minister are urging the ministries and sectors concerned to reduce their business conditions by more than 60% by the deadline.

According to the minister, the reform process has brought about positive results in cutting down the informal expenses for enterprises related to import and export goods, with the customs clearance time being decreased by 3 hours (from 58 to 55 hours) and import declaration reduced by 6 hours (from 62 to 56 hours).

The head of the Government Office also expressed his wish to receive further WB's support in the work, specifying the priorities to be implemented first, such as building a national public service portal and it expanding to ministries, sectors, and then the local level.

Ousmane Dione said that supporting Vietnam to build an e-government is one of the WB’s tasks. The WB country director requested the Office and the WB to continue discussing the content in the most specific way to achieving the final results.

During the implementation process, the formulation of specific policies, technical support requirements and the identification of resources should be clearly determined to result in a specific roadmap and milestones should be achieved in building an e-government, he added.

Also at the meeting, Estonian experts said that the e-government building in Vietnam is on the right track. Estonia's related documents on the content of the e-government will be provided to Vietnam in the next few days, they said. Meanwhile, there will be experts in the specific field from the WB assigned to help Vietnam.

(Source: NDO)