The Prime Minister of Vietnam has declared 2023 as the ‘year of digital data creation and exploitation to create new value’. This initiative comes after a major push by the Vietnam government in recent years to advance the development of its digital economy and the supporting infrastructure. The theme of ‘digital data creation and exploitation’ is well chosen as it addresses a major gap in Vietnam’s digital infrastructure.
Professor Paul Cheung was invited to give the keynote address at the international conference on Data Ecosystem Management, Data Governance, and Data Stewardship organized by the Government of Vietnam on 16th August 2023 in Hanoi. At the conference, presentations were made on Vietnam’s overall data connection and sharing policy, the education data systems, its national population database, and its taxation data architecture. There has been impressive progress in bringing these systems online. Prof Cheung also had the opportunity to meet the management team of the National Digital Transformation Authority to discuss its policy initiatives.
In his keynote, Prof Cheung discussed the evolution of data ecosystems within the government around the world, and the value they can bring to government decision-making. He stressed the importance of data-sharing as the core of value creation and used Singapore’s Public Sector Act 2018 as an example to illustrate the need for a legal mandate to facilitate data sharing within the government.
Establishing sound digital infrastructure and practices is a marathon, not a short sprint. Prof Cheung hopes Vietnam will sustain its efforts in digital data creation in the years to come.