SMES in Ninh Thuan told to go digital

Government to support transformation efforts

HANOI: As the central coastal province of Ninh Thuan shifted to more service industries, most of its 4,000 small businesses have been told to go digital.

Most recently, the Planning and Investment Ministry (MPI) coordinated with the People’s Committee of Ninh Thuan and the United States Agency for International Development to organise a conference, aiming to raise awareness of the importance of digital transformation in doing business in the province.

MPI’S representative said that with the increasingly developing digital economy in the country and abroad, organisations, businesses and traditional models needed to make drastic changes to continue to exist and develop, especially during the pandemic.

To a province with mostly agricultural production like Ninh Thuan, digital transformation was still relatively new and at the end of March, the provincial People’s Committee has issued a support programme for the digital transformation of enterprises in the province from 2022 to 2025.

The province has about 4,000 businesses, of which about 97% are small and medium enterprises (SMES), and the pandemic in the past two years had severely affected them.

A province representative said that in the area of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, Ninh Thuan had made important achievements in many fields in the last 30 years.

“From a province with a low starting point of socio-economic development, the economy has undergone drastic changes and has grown continuously for many years. From a poor low-income province, it has risen to become a middle-income province,” he said.

He added that Ninh Thuan had improved its investment and business environment, enhanced provincial competitiveness and proactively removed difficulties for people and businesses.

As a result, Ninh Thuan has recently been evaluated as one of the leading localities in encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship, facilitating the formation of large-scale and high-tech enterprises.

Nguyen Hoang Son, deputy director of the Department of Planning and Investment of Ninh Thuan Province, said: “The province is determined to carry out digital transformation for SMES to change all aspects of socio-economic activities.”

To turn the goal of being in the group of 15 leading provinces by 2025 into reality, Ninh Thuan needed the development of digital government at the provincial level, said experts.

According to the province leaders, at that time, the digital economy should account for 20% of gross regional domestic product (GRDP).

As planned, by 2030, Ninh Thuan should be among the 10 leading provinces in the country in terms of government development, and the digital economy accounts for 30% of GRDP.

To achieve these objectives, leaders of the province expect the enterprises to play a decisive and central role.

A recent survey by the Enterprise Development Department said limitations on investment costs, changes in workers’ habits and practices and the lack of human resources to implement digital transformation were the main problems.

The MPI has worked with experts from VNPT, Cloudify, Amazon Global Selling and Freshdi to support businesses in digital transformation and shared their opinions, knowledge and practical experience to solve specific business issues. — Viet Nam NEWS/ANN

“The province is determined to carry out digital transformation for SMES to change all aspects of socio-economic activities.” Nguyen Hoang Son