GSP PROJECT 2020: Digital Transformation for a Prosperous Future: Reimagining Vietnam                        

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The digital revolution has spread rapidly across the world in the last few decades, providing every nation with unprecedented opportunities to boost productivity growth, employment, and quality of life. These opportunities are particularly valuable for developing countries as digital technologies enable them not only to more effectively exploit their backwardness advantage in acquiring knowledge and technologies from frontier economies but also to take a leapfrog approach in building the long-term foundation of a prosperous future.

This Governance Study Project (GSP) focuses on Vietnam. Embracing the digital revolution has been one of the top priorities of Vietnam in pursuing its economic catch-up strategy. This GSP Project offers students exciting first-hand opportunities to learn from and contribute to the country’s efforts in this endeavour. 

In this conference, students will draw on knowledge and skills learned during the MPA programme to conduct policy analysis exercises for clients, which will be Vietnamese government agencies. The topics of the exercises will be diverse, ranging from digital governance and cutting edge tourism to smart city development and human capital upskilling. 

The outcomes include detailed policy proposals based on robust primary and secondary research and analysis, aiming to provide clients with sound strategic thinking and rigorous policy approaches to embrace digital technologies for building good governance and promoting economic development.


Abstracts overview

ABSTRACTS OVERVIEW

 

Session 1: Government as a Leading Player in Digital Transformation

 

DIGITAL GOVERNMENT – MOVING TO THE NEXT FRONTIER

Group Members: Abdullah El-Haddad, Renita Sophia Crasta, Trina Bianca Octavo Tejada, Wai Yee Krystal Khine, Wee Jin Pei Gwen

Vietnam aims to be the leading digital economy in ASEAN. It also sets aspirational goals to attain global top 20 and ASEAN top 3 for the Global Competitiveness Index by 2030. It is currently in the early stage of its digital government journey and therefore possesses great growth potential. Being in a country with 63 provinces, access to consistent, validated and integrated data remains a challenge for Vietnam. In addition, there is a pressing need for public officers to enhance their skills and knowledge, as they spearhead initiatives as part of this digital transformation journey.

Our team aims to provide practical recommendations which will deliver greater value to citizens and businesses, focusing on greater ease of access to government services. This is done at two levels; central government and provincial government. Our key stakeholders are the Ministry of Information and Communications in Hanoi and Department of Information and Communications in Ho Chi Minh City. 

Our project approach includes team research and experiences, as well as collaborations with our Vietnamese stakeholders to better understand their plans and challenges. This will ensure that our report is tailored to their needs. Where applicable, best practices from other countries such as Singapore and China will also be adapted for the Vietnam’s context. It is our hope that our team’s contributions will be value-added and bring Vietnam closer to their digital government goal.

 

SKILLING UP GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS FOR THE DIGITAL AGE         

Group Members: Ensi Tszie Jenny, Faizah Binti Ahmad Barazy, Galay Rabten, Hiraoka Shinji, Xu Ru

The Industrial Revolution 4.0 is changing how we live, work and relate to one another. It is boosted by the availability of faster and wider internet coverage. According to a study by Hootsuite in Jan 2019, Vietnam has 148% mobile subscription and 66% internet users from a total population of 96 million, one of the highest in ASEAN. Disruptive technologies like Big Data, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Internet of Things (IoT) are bringing about significant impact to the economy and governance. 

New sets of knowledge, skills and attitudes are required to meet the changing needs of the digital age. Empowering government officials in Vietnam with relevant capabilities are crucial to lead digital transformation and better serve the needs of its people. These will also help them to better deal with challenges and opportunities of new technologies. 

Hanoi University of Home Affairs (HUHA) aims to provide robust digital skills training for government officials. However, it faces several challenges like matching training needs to market demands, insufficient digital tools and lack of expertise to guide learning. 

The team analyses the current state of the supply and demand for digital skills training and takes reference from international best practices. We recommend a skills framework for different segments of government officials, formation of a coordinating unit to foster collaborations in technology across government and private sectors, and support trainers’ knowledge and skills development in new and emerging fields.

 

CROWDSOURCING IDEAS FROM VIETNAMESE EXPATS         

Group Members: Abhishek Anand, Mukul Arya, Rituraj Misra, Satinder Kumar, Shantanu Singh

This project is aimed to create opportunities and means for Vietnamese expats to contribute in the development of their motherland.

Expats can contribute mainly in two ways: ideas or intellectual contribution or project-specific fund contribution. To catalyse and channelize this contribution, a ground campaign will be run among expats. This will be helpful not only in informing them about the new web-based platform but also in instilling a sense of patriotism. A detailed step-wise campaign program will be designed for the Embassies in foreign countries keeping in view the target expat community in collaboration with the Government of Vietnam. The campaign will include various incentives for expats - permanent visa, priority approval on capital investment and projects and tax incentives - apart from an emotional appeal to connect to their homeland.  

The team will share specifics of a technical web-based platform to channelize the contribution and a prototype website with the committee. This will matchmake expats’ resources and developmental gaps in Vietnam. It will be helpful in removing the information asymmetry between the untapped expat inputs and Vietnam’s developmental needs.

This project will also share detailed guidelines for creating a category named 'Person of Vietnamese Origin (PVO)' similar to 'Person of Indian Origin' in India. Policy-related aspects like eligibility, privilege and application process will be elaborated. PVO’s special provisions like travel relaxation, investment facilitation, educational and professional relaxations.

Overall, the project will rejuvenate the connection of Vietnam's expats to the developmental journey of Vietnam.

 


Session 2: Smart Economy - Tourism

 

UNLOCKING QUANG NINH’S TOURISM POTENTIAL          

Group Members: Elizabeth Tan Pei Ming, Fong Li Ting Jaclyn, Goh Yiyan Denise Gail, Hiroki Hashimoto, Lian Ming Wee

Quang Ninh Province has the potential to be an international tourism centre. Famous for Ha Long Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, she has set a target of 30 million visitors by 2030, of which 15 million will be foreigners. This is around triple her 2020 target of 10.5 million visitors, of which 4.5 million will be foreigners1. In addition, Quang Ninh aims to increase the average length of stay and average visitor spend.

We worked with the Quang Ninh Department of Tourism on holistic recommendations to unlock Quang Ninh’s tourism potential, especially for foreign visitors. The report contains specific recommendations to diversify and profile Quang Ninh’s unique offerings to the international tourism community, create her own branding for both mass and luxury visitor segments, bolster her visitorship during the off-peak season, and kickstart her night tourism planning. All these recommendations will leverage social media to enable Quang Ninh to take full advantage of smart tourism, and adapt to the new landscape after the internet has disrupted the traditional tour agency business model. The team has also incorporated recommendations to ensure that tourism growth is sustainable, including from the environmental angle.
 
These recommendations will hopefully enhance Quang Ning’s overall tourism development strategy, and allow Quang Ninh to become the latest “must-go” destination for the international tourism community.

1 The original target of 15-16 million visitors, of which 7 million will be foreigners, was adjusted due to the impact of COVID-19 on the tourism industry.

 



DA NANG SMART TOURISM

Group Members: Ling Xiao, Long Tien Feng, Loo Sze Ying Esther, Manisha Kinnu, Marco Dominic Montemayor De Los Reyes, Sandra Emily Wong

Da Nang City is a strategically located coastal and port city in Central Vietnam and enjoys a boost in private and public investments for infrastructure development. Da Nang aims about 25 million tourist arrivals by 2030 according to its master plan on tourism development. 

Da Nang experienced increased tourist arrivals with 7.7 million visitors in 2018. Da Nang appears to function as a stopover location for tourists transiting to other destination in Vietnam. As such, there is much potential for Da Nang to develop and grow its tourism industry to attract international tourists.

The current decline of international tourism, in the aftermath of the COVID-19 public health concern, is an opportunity to create a tourism brand and strategy that will launch Da Nang as a vibrant, dynamic, and safe destination. Da Nang’s proposed tourism brand centers on the variety of experience that travelers look and expect for in a city unlike any other – it is where the cosmopolitan and charming atmosphere intersect. A secure destination where people experience excitement and relaxation simultaneously. A smart city where tourists can create and share the unique Vietnamese culture. The tagline “Dazzling Da Nang” captures this tourism brand. 

This project proposes a process on how Da Nang can smartly manage its brand by always listening to its customers, benchmarking, packaging attractions and events, and evaluating the outcomes of the interventions introduced. Finally, this project will also suggest low-hanging ancillary policies or projects that will support the city’s tourism efforts.


SUSTAINABLE TOURISM IN HANOI

Group Members: He Juan, Jiang Jiang, Ren Hao, Surjith Karthikeyan, Zhou Tianhua Tina

Hanoi, a tourist destination with enchanting history and street-food culture has witnessed rapid increase of domestic and international tourists, and future is promising.

However, constraints for the sustainable tourism development inter alia include (i) limited infrastructure capacity, (ii) lack of branding and marketing, (iii) inadequate public financial resources for upgrading tourism facilities, (iv) hygiene problem, (v) lack of qualified human resources and (vi) weak coordination between public and private sectors, and among different public departments. 

This project aims to develop Hanoi into an up-market, sustainable destination and to attract tourists to stay longer and spend more, with key focus on “responsible tourism”. The focus will be on strengthening linkages between public and private sectors in fund raising, human resource, technology and coordination. This study also attempts to make use of “out-sourcing” as a new public management tool. The balance between tourism growth pace and the risk of rent-seeking will be overall weighted and analysed.

In terms of methodology, the eight-fold path framework (Bardach & Patashnik, 2016) will be adopted; the problem-tree analysis will be utilized to present a visualized problem defining. To support the analysis with sufficient evidences, the team shall resort to Vietnam and international data authorities, and other sources from academic, media, etc. The team will tailor optimal policy alternatives to the actual situation, borrowing international practices, and propose implementation plan with timelines.


 

 

Session 3: Education, Science and Technology

 

IMPROVING TEACHING AND LEARNING PRACTICES IN VIETNAM'S PUBLIC POLICY SCHOOLS: HANOI UNIVERSITY OF HOME AFFAIRS

Group Members: Kate Elizabeth Sullivan-Walker, Mohammed Khidzairy Bin Zainal Abidin, Ng Kiat Wah, No Lida, Odusote Fatimah Abolanle

Hanoi University of Home Affairs (HUHA) in Vietnam is seeking to train the next generation of leaders for Vietnam’s public service. To help HUHA achieve its ambition, this project aims to improve teaching and the learning environment at HUHA. This project will also help HUHA to improve its reputation, essential to secure a place on the QS Top University Ranking.

Research shows three relationships are essential to support teaching and the learning environment: the relationship between teachers and students, teachers and the curriculum, and students and the curriculum. By improving the student learning environment and teacher performance through the development of each of these critical relationships, this project will help ensure that the curriculum furnishes students with skills relevant to the Vietnamese public service. This project will also provide recommendations to better connect the school with those it is seeking to serve.

The project is focused on the following outcomes: 

  • Develop teaching exercises readily adoptable by HUHA lecturers in their existing programs. These  exercises will draw on a survey and in-depth interviews with HUHA students, be readily implementable support for teachers, and act as exemplars of an innovative pedagogical method that HUHA could implement. 

  • Strengthen peer-to-peer support and learning among the faculty at HUHA. Recommendations will draw on existing community-of-practice models at world-class education institutions and private sector management techniques. 

  • Promote cooperation and synergy between HUHA and the Vietnamese public sector, regional Public Policy Schools, the business community and key industry players to enhance HUHA’s reputation and graduate employability.

 

ADVANCING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN VIETNAM

Group Members: Amit Kumar Choubey, Ayako Kubo, Chong Irene, Koh Chee Wee, Huang Shijun

Advancing science and technology (S&T) has numerous benefits for any country, especially a developing one like Vietnam. An important benefit would be the potential to boost or restructure the economy through industries moving up the value chain. For example, S&T in the 4th Industrial Revolution is expected to make 43,000 low-skilled jobs obsolete through automation and create 654,000 new jobs at mid- and higher-skilled levels by 2022 in Vietnam. This also shows that S&T can increase productivity and potentially wages, which will increase Vietnam’s chance to break out of the middle-income trap. Overall, advancements in S&T benefit consumers and society in terms of greater choice and value.

With insights from our learning journey in January 2020 to Directorate for Standards, Metrology and Quality (STAMEQ) and other S&T agencies under Ministry of Science and Technology, we have examined Vietnam’s key S&T challenges, namely:

      a) Limited technology transfer and enterprises’ adoption of S&T innovations from other enterprises and agencies such as universities and research                 institutes;

      b) Limited S&T capacity of local workforce due to various reasons such as insufficient vocational training;

      c) Need for better coordination between various government agencies which are pursing similar S&T objectives; and

      d) Need for a more robust Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) regime.

 

We aim to address these challenges and the market failure of undertaking S&T activities due to uncertainty. Supported by wider research that include S&T experiences of and learnings from South Korea, Singapore and Thailand, our recommendations are also in line with the key directions of Vietnam’s Socio-economic Development Strategy and Strategy for Science and Technology Development for the period 2011 – 2020.

 

SMART AGRICULTURE           

Group Members: Ofir Marer, Pongsarun Assawachaisophon, Priya Dharshini Pillay, Priyank Chaturvedi, Qin Lang

Vietnam has a thriving agricultural sector.  As the employer of approximately 40% of the country’s labour force, it seeks to improve its use of agricultural technology to enhance output, improve productivity and unify standards so as to remain internationally competitive.
  
Working with the Institute for Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development (IPSARD) and the Directorate for Standards, Metrology and Quality (STAMEQ), we will identify the key opportunities and challenges of adopting digital technology in the agricultural sector in Vietnam.  While suggesting appropriate policies to increase productivity and standards through the sector in the country as a whole, we will be focusing on how to ensure that the small and mid-sized farmers can either individually or through the existing co-operatives, harness technology to increase productivity and profitability, stay competitive, resilient and sustainable.  We will also be addressing how gaps in the understanding and access to technology can be addressed and how standards in quality can be implemented, particularly with respect to agricultural products that are for export. Finally, we will offer a framework for the Vietnamese government to establish and implement a governing strategy towards the goals at hand.

In addressing the above, we will be looking to the examples of other countries, to illustrate the measures that have been implemented to cope with and address structural and cyclical problems whilst at the same time creating a sustainable ecosystem in the agricultural sector.  We are cognisant that our recommendations for Vietnam, must be for the long term and not stop-gap measures.



 

Session 4: Smart City Development

 

TECHNOLOGY-ASSISTED MANAGEMENT TO MODERATE PRIVATE VEHICLE USAGE IN HO CHI MINH CITY

Group Members: Ang Cheng Leng, Carrie Tan Huimin, Chen Yi, Chen Yinghui Cherie, Guo Zhihong Ethan

Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) is one of most rapidly-growing cities in Vietnam. Strong economic growth and job opportunities attract people to relocate from the rural areas, with many more traveling to the densely-populated city every day. Yet, these economic opportunities and growth that the city offers put a strain on the city’s infrastructure and public transportation, resulting in severe traffic congestion. Today, commuters rely on their own private vehicles, particularly motorcycles, to weave through already-congested roads. To sustain the rate of economic growth and improve the city’s liveability, it is imperative to act on the traffic congestion situation.

To this end, HCMC has been investing in the development of its transport infrastructure and enhancing the efficiency in surveillance, coordination and service delivery through its smart city vision. To advance HCMC’s current phase of development and aspirations, more efforts will be needed to moderate the uptake of private vehicles through enablers such as technology. Referencing international practices, we suggest adopting a two-pronged approach, (1) to influence commuters to move away from using their motor vehicles through enhanced regulation on private vehicles, like automating enforcement on traffic violation and city vehicle quota management, and (2) to draw them towards using public transport or other greener options through awareness and incentives. This project provides holistic recommendations on technology adoption to moderate private vehicle usage with possible implementation roadmaps that are in line with the city’s longer-term plans.


IMPROVING PUBLIC TRANSPORT IN HO CHI MINH CITY (HCMC) : CONNECTING BUS SERVICES TO THE PEOPLE

Group Members: Shiroi Lily Shaiza, Sho Tanaka, Sivaranjani Suresh, Tan Ngiap Joon Anthony, Tommy Des Mulianta

With a population of 9 million people, Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) is the most populous city in Vietnam. In 2019, the US-based Fortune 500 company JLL ranked HCMC as having the second strongest short-term economic and real estate market momentum in Southeast Asia, behind Hanoi. 

HCMC’s traffic woes, however, are a threat to its development, impacting economic competitiveness, quality of life, and the environment. Experts estimate that the city loses around $820 million to $1.2billion every year due to traffic congestion. With more than 1 private car or motorcycle per capita, the city’s transport infrastructure is heavily burdened by the high and rapidly growing population of private vehicles. Most people travel via private vehicles, especially motorcycles, while only 9.5% of travel is made by bus, possibly due to poor service quality, inconvenience, inadequate routing and low service reliability. 

Our group studied immediate to long-term solutions in other cities, especially Singapore, Jakarta and Tokyo, and recommend the focus to be on the following aspects: (i) policies that will curb the ownership and/or use of private vehicles in the city; (ii) providing infrastructure that will improve bus speeds and reliability; (iii) improving reliability of public bus service; (iv) creating more public transport awareness, especially for buses; (v) promoting schemes to encourage public to shift to public transport; and (vi) advocating a long-term view of public transport utilization.