Hanoi authorities have announced a new postal telecommunications infrastructure development plan for 2025 with a vision for 2030. It aims to serve the city’s digital transformation programme. It defines postal infrastructure as an important factor of the digital economy, which contributes to promoting the development of digital government and digital society.
Under the plan, the city targets 100% of communes to establish a post office with staff; all households register digital addresses; 4G/5G services and smartphones universalised, and fibre-optic broadband covering 80% of local households and every commune. Meanwhile, 80% of local industrial parks, high-tech parks and higher education facilities, hospitals, and public departments will be covered by 5G services. Also, about 95% of total households in Hanoi are expected to own and use at least one smartphone by 2025.
According to a recent news report, the city will prioritise high-quality broadband telecommunication infrastructure in high-tech parks, concentrated IT parks, industrial parks, export processing zones, R&D and innovation centres, schools, state agencies, hospitals, and tourism sites. Hanoi will also develop free WiFi networks in all tourist sites across the city. Apart from this, the city will speed up activities to promote the universalisation of smartphones and help local residents to access digital services easily. To this end, the municipal People’s Committee is encouraging economic sectors to build postal and telecommunication infrastructure systems and diversify telecommunication services.
A recent study showed that Vietnam’s digital economy reached a total value of US$14 billion last year, US$2 billion higher than that of the same period of the previous year. Out of the total number of digital service users in Vietnam, new users account for 41%. Vietnam has the highest rate of new digital service consumers in the region. Moreover, data from the General Statistics Office show that the country is one of the three Asian countries with positive growth with the size of the economy is more than US$ 343 billion. Singapore recorded US$338 billion and Malaysia US$336 billion.
The Vietnamese government has defined one of the pillars of the digital economy as telecommunications infrastructure, including both mobile and fixed broadband. The development of technology has paved the way for all other economic sectors to grow over the last few years. The total number of fixed broadband subscribers in Vietnam exceeded 17.2 million, and the total number of mobile broadband subscribers reached nearly 69.5 million by the end of last month, according to the Vietnam Telecommunications Authority.
Further, the country will test 5G on a large scale with indigenously-developed devices from this year. A study by the National Institute of Information and Communications Strategy said that the contribution of 5G to the national GDP growth is forecast to reach 7.34% by 2025. The government’s socio-economic development strategies for the 2021-2025 and 2021-2030 periods have repeatedly mentioned digital transformation, telecommunications, digital technology, digital government, and digital skills. Over the next decade, science, technology, innovation, and digital transformation are some of the strategic breakthroughs that will help Vietnam develop and be among the top middle-income countries by 2030 and high-income industrial countries in 2045.