The conference is the first of a series of events in response to the National Digital Transformation Day (October 10) and the Year of Digital Transformation in Son La province.

Taking people and businesses as the centre and their satisfaction as a measure of performance, the provincial Party Committee, the provincial People's Committee, and the Steering Committee have drastically directed Party committees and authorities at all levels and agencies to always create the best support conditions for the implementation of digital transformation tasks; support businesses, organizations and citizens in digital transformation to promote the development of the digital economy and digital society; and especially improve the quality of online public service provision and promulgate policies to support businesses in implementing digital transformation.

At the event, representatives of information technology companies and banks in Vietnam who are actively participating in the national digital transformation programme shared projects and products that support the promotion of digital transformation. such as digital platforms for digital transformation of small- and medium-sized enterprises, business households and cooperatives to boost digital economic development; digital signature solutions to promote digital citizenship; e-commerce platforms fostering digital economy and digital society; digital transformation for businesses and individuals in the financial sector and non-cash payments; OneSME solution of the Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT); and military-run Viettel’s e-contract solution - Vcontract.

The Department of Information and Communications and five units including VNPT Son La, Viettel Son La, BIDV Son La, MISA Joint Stock Company and Vibook Vietnam Digital Technology Group Joint Stock Company signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on promoting digital transformation of businesses in Son La province. The MoU aims to boost the use of digital signatures among people.

Speaking at the conference, Vice Chairman of the provincial People's Committee Dang Ngoc Hau asked the provincial Steering Committee for Digital Transformation to assign the Department of Information and Communications to coordinate with relevant units to continue giving advice on implementation of programmes and activities to encourage businesses, cooperatives and people to implement digital transformation. They should continue to deploy monitoring and operating systems at the provincial Smart Operation Center; increase the proportion of administrative procedures processed online; and build a shared provincial database and a specialized database.

Son La strives to have all shared databases connected throughout the province. Fiber optic broadband network infrastructure will cover over 80% of households and 100% of communes. The province will popularize high-speed mobile network (4G) services and smart mobile phones. Over 50% of the population is expected to have electronic payment accounts; while digital platforms, national databases, and specialized databases will be updated and connected to integrate and share data and information to serve the direction and management of the Government and administrations at all levels in handling administrative procedures to serve people and businesses.