Vietnam’s e-security index improved by 54% since last year, according to the 2021 Digital Quality of Life Index (DQL) conducted by a cybersecurity company. The report has placed Vietnam 73rd among 110 countries. Covering 90% of the global population, the study evaluates countries based on five fundamental digital wellbeing pillars. Six out of the ten countries with the highest scores are located in Europe, with Denmark topping the list for the second year in a row and is closely followed by the Republic of Korea.
Vietnam ranked 51st for Internet affordability. It placed 86th for Internet quality, 75th for e-government, 71st for e-security, and 67th for e-infrastructure. As per a press release by the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC), Vietnamese people have to work one minute 45 seconds to afford the cheapest mobile Internet and two minutes 53 seconds to access the cheapest broadband Internet. Despite a 62% year-on-year decrease, the country has more affordable Internet access compared to the global average (10 minutes for 1GB of mobile Internet). Vietnam’s performance in e-security showed significant improvement thanks to the development and implementation of data protection laws, the release noted.
According to a report by Google, e-Conomy SEA 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to an acceleration of digital consumption as users tried new digital services for the first time. Among users of digital services in Vietnam, new users accounted for 41%, higher than Southeast Asia’s average. Notably, 94% of them intend to continue with the service post-pandemic. Before the pandemic, citizens spent an average of 3.1 hours per day online. During the lockdown, the figure rose to 4.2 hours per day, which is expected to stay at 3.5 hours daily post-pandemic.
Vietnam is among the countries with the fastest-growing digital economies in Southeast Asia. By 2025, the Vietnam digital economy’s compound annual growth rate is forecast to reach 29%, followed by Thailand at 25%, and Malaysia and Singapore at 21%. Experts have noted that laptops and tablets in Vietnam hold the potential of strong growth thanks to the work-from-home trend and online schooling till the end of the first academic year. They added that the mobile phone market will rebound in the fourth quarter thanks to the re-opening of retail outlets nationwide, pent-up demand following lockdown, and the launch of new products during peak season. The demand for laptops in August also doubled annually.
OpenGov Asia reported recently that online transactions in Vietnam for the first four months of this year jumped 66% compared with the same period last year, which has been accelerated enormously by the pandemic. There’s also been a huge increase in the use of e-wallets, payments via smartphones and QR codes, and high demand for ‘instant credit’ solutions such as buy-now-pay-later, particularly among those segments of the population that remain unbanked or underbanked. Vietnam’s consumers are demanding digital financial solutions, and the industry is rising to the challenge by using cutting-edge digital banking solutions, gaining attention around the world.
Furthermore, domestic tech powers and innovative start-ups in Vietnam are also accelerating their investment in emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, blockchain, and the Internet of things (IoT). In fact, a leading information technology service company in Vietnam recently announced that it would spend VNĐ300 billion (US$13.16 million) on AI research and development over the next five years.