The IT industry must transform itself first.

New revenue structure will determine sustainable development

On the afternoon of April 15, Minister Nguyen Manh Hung chaired a conference on state management work in the first quarter of 2024 of the Ministry of Information and Communications with management subjects.

Taking place in a combination of direct and online formats with 4 connecting points, the conference was attended by Deputy Ministers Pham Duc Long, Nguyen Huy Dung and representatives of enterprises, associations, press agencies, and publishers in the field of information and communication.

Minister Nguyen Manh Hung assessed that the work of receiving and responding to petitions of the Ministry of Information and Communications has made much progress. Photo: Le Anh Dung

According to the Office of the Ministry of Information and Communications, in the first quarter of 2024, the online petition receiving and processing system of the Information and Communications sector received 50 petitions from businesses, public service units, press and publishing agencies. As of 2:00 p.m. on April 15, all of these petitions had been responded to by units under the Ministry.

After carefully reviewing the recommendations and responses to the recommendations sent to the Ministry of Information and Communications in the first quarter of 2024, Minister Nguyen Manh Hung commented that the Ministry's reception and response to recommendations in the recent past has made significant progress. The quality of the units' questions is good, and the answers of the departments and divisions are also better than before. "I hope that the units in the industry will increase their in-depth inquiries and increase their efforts to the end. Thereby, it will help the Ministry's state management to be more 'hands-on'," the Minister suggested.

The Minister also reminded agencies and units in both the press and digital technology sectors about the need to have a new direction and diversify revenue sources. The Minister analyzed that traditional revenue sources are being eroded, and units need to have new revenue sources. On the other hand, new technology is changing industries, thus also creating new revenue sources.

“The new revenue structure will determine the sustainable development of an enterprise or a public service unit. Therefore, both public service units and enterprises need to pay attention that the revenue structure determines the future and must proactively restructure the revenue source,” the Minister emphasized.

Pointing out that the entire IT&T industry must first digitally transform itself, then be the core to digitally transform other industries, localities and businesses, the head of the IT&T industry also suggested the simplest and most effective way to apply existing digital applications.

According to the Minister's note to units, the narrower the AI ​​application, the more effective, easy to do and easy to deploy. Illustration photo: Trong Dat

Regarding the application of AI in daily work, the Minister noted that the narrower the application of AI, the more effective, easy to do and easy to deploy; the narrower the AI, the smarter it is. Narrow AI is a virtual assistant AI for each department, bureau, enterprise, and press agency. Departments, bureaus, enterprises, and press agencies will provide data and training to have their own virtual assistants, based on the LLM platform developed by technology enterprises.

Emphasizing the importance of the research and development department for the proper development of an organization, the Minister said: To develop based on science, technology and innovation, every unit in the information and communication industry needs this department. Setting the right problem and issue is the first and most important thing in research and development, which can account for over 50%.

The Minister also pointed out to the departments and offices in the Ministry ways to support the development of domestic digital technology enterprises. That is, it is necessary to set up management problems for enterprises to develop software, develop applications, test and set goals, and organize procurement. Citing the fact that the Department of Information Security recently set up a number of problems for enterprises, the Minister said that by solving these problems, enterprises will grow.

Commercializing 5G but 4G network must also be better

At the conference, many encouraging signs about the development of Vietnam's digital infrastructure were shared by leaders of units and enterprises. According to General Director of VNPT IT Duong Thanh Long, VNPT is focusing on developing broadband infrastructure, enhancing international connectivity, developing data centers, cloud computing infrastructure, IoT, and at the same time, combining with domestic and foreign units to develop digital platforms.

Regarding Viettel, Viettel Telecom General Director Cao Anh Son said that since 2020, the company has had many campaigns to convert 2G subscribers to 4G. As a result, the number of 2G subscribers on the Viettel network has decreased sharply.

Viettel will continue to take action to reduce the 2G subscriber rate to below 5% of the total network subscribers by September 2024. To do that, Viettel plans to deploy about 20,000 more BTS stations, increasing 4G coverage equivalent to 2G.

Minister Nguyen Manh Hung granted licenses to establish networks and provide terrestrial mobile information services using 5G technology to Viettel and VNPT. Photo: Le Anh Dung.

A notable highlight of Vietnam's digital infrastructure recently is the successful auction of frequency usage rights for two frequency bands, B1 (2500 - 2600 MHz) and C2 (3700 - 3800 MHz).

With Viettel and VNPT's successful auctions, the Ministry of Information and Communications has granted licenses to establish networks and provide terrestrial mobile information services using 5G technology from April 11, 2024. At the conference on April 15, Minister Nguyen Manh Hung granted licenses to operate terrestrial mobile telecommunications services using 5G technology to two enterprises that won ownership of the two frequency bands B1 and C2.

The Ministry of Information and Communications granted 5G service business licenses to Viettel and VNPT. Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung has granted licenses to establish networks and provide terrestrial mobile information services using 5G technology to Viettel and VNPT.

In the context of 5G service being deployed in Vietnam, both VNPT and Viettel consider this a strategic priority. VNPT plans to upgrade the transmission system and invest in 1,000 new 5G stations in 2024. Viettel is also determined to commercialize 5G service this year to provide it to people and businesses soon.

According to Minister Nguyen Manh Hung, the frequency ratio per network operator and per capita in Vietnam is currently about 40% lower than that of ASEAN countries. This will certainly have an impact on network quality.

Minister Nguyen Manh Hung pointed out: Network operators need to invest more in 4G networks and invest in 5G to ensure quality. Illustration photo: DT

In his discussion with network operators, the Minister paid special attention to the issue of ensuring the quality of telecommunications networks. In the next few years, 4G services will still play a key role in the Vietnamese market. Therefore, network operators need to find ways to upgrade their networks, ensuring the quality of 4G networks, in parallel with the deployment of 5G.

“5G is the focus, but 4G is the core network, with large capacity and wide coverage. Network operators must invest more in 4G and new 5G networks to ensure quality,” the Minister said.

The solution to this problem, according to the head of the IT&T industry, is that network operators should consider bidding for additional low frequencies, in the 700 MHz band, to improve the quality of 4G coverage. From the perspective of the management agency, to promote the quality of the telecommunications network, the Ministry of Information and Communications will measure and publicly announce monthly.

A new approach to digital transformation, focusing on system resilience

At the conference, in addition to telecommunications and radio frequencies, through listening to the sharing and exchange of a management unit such as Nha Nam Company, Vietnam News Agency, Hanoi Radio and Television Station, Natural Resources and Environment Newspaper, VinAI Company..., Minister Nguyen Manh Hung also gave specific instructions to other areas of the industry such as post, digital transformation, network information security, digital technology industry, press, publishing, and grassroots information.

Minister Nguyen Manh Hung requested that everything managed by the National Digital Transformation Agency must be connected online with the systems of the subjects and resolutely not accept paper reports.

For example, with postal services, emphasizing the important role of this sector as well as investment in postal infrastructure, the Minister directed the Postal Department to clarify the content of postal infrastructure and guide postal enterprises in implementation and investment.

In addition to the responsibility of ensuring fair competition through clarifying criteria, monitoring the market and handling violations, the Postal Department also needs to periodically measure and announce service quality so that businesses can take measures to improve service quality. “Measuring and announcing quality is one of the effective state management tools, not only in the postal sector but also in other sectors,” the Minister requested.

Regarding digital transformation, in addition to paying attention to the important task of amending Decree 73 regulating the management of investment and application of IT using the state budget to ensure feasibility, the head of the Information and Communications sector pointed out that in the second quarter of 2024, the Ministry of Information and Communications will evaluate and announce a model province for smart urban operations centers and full-service online public services. The new way of doing things of the Ministry is to make a model, do it on-site and then announce a model province for other localities to learn from. The Minister also requested: The measurement and assessment of digital transformation must be online. Everything that the National Digital Transformation Agency manages must be connected online to the systems of the subjects and resolutely not accept paper reports.

The Minister urged agencies, businesses, and public service units to pay attention to data as the most important asset, and the more they exploit it, the more value it creates. Digital transformation must be based on data. To promote the construction of databases in ministries, branches, and localities to ensure "correctness, completeness, cleanliness, and liveness", the Ministry of Information and Communications has established a Data Department at the National Digital Transformation Agency. In the coming time, the department will provide instructions to ministries and provinces on database construction.

Recent ransomware attacks on a number of businesses have warned of the risks and the extent of damage when a unit is attacked by a cyber attack. Illustration: Duy Vu

From the recent ransomware attacks targeting corporate systems, the Minister said this is a good opportunity to review the safety level of information security systems and also an opportunity to raise awareness of information security and network security among agencies, organizations, businesses and the whole society. Recent attacks have warned of the risks and the level of damage when units are attacked by cyberattacks.

The Minister pointed out that the Prime Minister has issued a directive to comply with legal regulations and strengthen the security of information systems at all levels. Ministries, branches, localities, and businesses and units in the information and communication industry need to thoroughly understand this directive. The Information Security Department has instructions on implementing the directive, paying special attention to the resilience of the system and the ability to recover the system. "Because we will hardly avoid being attacked, the important thing is the ability to recover the system," the Minister emphasized.

Noting that investment in IT and digital transformation must always include a safety and network security component with a spending level of at least 10%, the head of the Information and Communications sector also requested the Information Security Department to quickly invest in upgrading the system for the National Cyber ​​Security Monitoring Center, with the goal of having this Center perform well both important functions of monitoring information in cyberspace and monitoring attacks, and providing support when the unit is attacked.

National digital transformation is associated with socio-economic development . According to Minister Nguyen Manh Hung, the national digital transformation program has gone through 4 years and now has met the conditions to be associated with the central task of socio-economic development.

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/nganh-tt-tt-phai-chuyen-doi-so-chinh-minh-truoc-2271304.html