Ensuring inclusive digital transformation access for people in remote and isolated areas

On the afternoon of November 6, the National Assembly continued to discuss the Draft Law on Digital Transformation. National Assembly deputies agreed on the need to soon promulgate the Law, and at the same time suggested carefully reviewing related laws to ensure consistency in the legal system and adding regulations to ensure the inclusiveness of digital transformation.

Avoid overlapping

The first issue raised by National Assembly delegates is the scope of regulation and the risk of overlap with specialized laws that have been and are about to be issued.

Delegate Pham Hung Thang (National Assembly delegation of Ninh Binh province) said that the content of the draft Law is related to many other laws. Therefore, determining the position of the law is "an extremely important issue" to avoid creating inadequacies, overlaps, difficulties and obstacles in the application process.

Delegate Pham Hung Thang (National Assembly delegation of Ninh Binh province) gave comments on the Draft Law on Digital Transformation

Sharing the same view, delegate Nguyen Minh Tam (National Assembly delegation of Quang Tri province) suggested that the Drafting Committee should clarify the boundary between the Law on Digital Transformation and current laws such as the Law on Information Technology, Law on Network Information Security, Law on Electronic Transactions (amended), to avoid overlap and ensure consistency in the legal system.

Regarding the method of law-making, delegate Pham Hung Thang (National Assembly delegation of Ninh Binh province) proposed to innovate legislative thinking, accordingly, the Law should only regulate framework issues and principles, while specific and detailed issues on intermediary services or platforms in the digital economy should be assigned to the Government to regulate.

Infrastructure and data bottlenecks

Delegate Hoang Duc Thang (National Assembly delegation of Quang Tri province) commented: "The current legal framework is scattered across many specialized laws and lacks a "conductor" to coordinate the overall institutional, infrastructure, data, technology and human resources pillars of national digital transformation."

In particular, the issue of connecting and sharing data was pointed out by delegate Hoang Duc Thang as one of the biggest bottlenecks: "The current situation is that each ministry, branch, and locality develops separate databases, leading to a situation of information 'segregation' and the system not being connected... This lack of connection forces people and businesses to provide information repeatedly, and digital records still require manual paperwork."

Delegate Hoang Duc Thang (Quang Tri) gave his opinion on the Draft Law on Digital Transformation.

Delegate Hoang Duc Thang suggested that the Drafting Committee add a separate chapter or section on data connection and sharing, clearly stipulate the principle requiring agencies to connect national databases and assign the Government to issue details of the Decree on mandatory data sharing procedures.

In addition, regarding infrastructure regulations for digital transformation, delegate Hoang Duc Thang also commented on the quantitative nature of legal documents, when descriptive phrases such as "super large capacity, super wide bandwidth" are considered "emotional descriptions, without clear quantitative standards".

Inclusive digital transformation, leaving no one behind

Two other important issues proposed by National Assembly deputies are the inclusiveness of digital transformation and controlling the negative impacts of technology.

Expressing concern about the digital divide, delegate Hoang Duc Thang (National Assembly delegation of Quang Tri province) said that people in remote, mountainous, island areas and ethnic minorities often have difficulty accessing digital services due to limitations in infrastructure and equipment. As a result, a segment of rural and mountainous people are "left behind" when the government deploys online public services.

This delegate suggested that the draft Law on Digital Transformation should add regulations on ensuring conditions for inclusive digital transformation, including: The State prioritizes investment in broadband Internet coverage to all villages and hamlets and has a policy of subsidizing equipment and Internet packages for poor households, along with a program to popularize digital skills for the people.

Also related to inclusiveness, delegate Nguyen Minh Tam (National Assembly delegation of Quang Tri province) proposed adding specific mechanisms, resources and incentives for small and medium enterprises, business households and the agricultural sector in the digital transformation process.

Delegate Nguyen Minh Tam (Quang Tri) contributed comments to the Draft Law on Digital Transformation

In particular, to control the negative side of digital technology, delegate Nguyen Minh Tam proposed adding prohibited acts to artificial intelligence (AI), which prohibits "building, deploying or using algorithms and artificial intelligence systems that have the ability or purpose to lead to discrimination based on race, religion, gender...", as well as prohibiting "taking advantage of digital transformation activities to cause division and discrimination in cyberspace".

Source: https://phunuvietnam.vn/bao-dam-tiep-can-chuyen-doi-so-bao-trum-cho-nguoi-dan-vung-sau-vung-xa-20251106174814405.htm