What proportion of GDP does the digital economy account for?

The proportion of added value of the digital economy in 2022 is 12.67%

Speaking at the workshop on measurement methods and results of compiling indicators on the proportion of added value of the digital economy in GDP and GRDP in Vietnam on December 4, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Tran Duy Dong said that the digital economy has been focused on by the Party and the State, and the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress has set that by 2025, the digital economy must reach about 20% of GDP.

In addition, the Politburo also issued Resolution No. 52-NQ/TW on "Some policies and strategies to proactively participate in the fourth industrial revolution", setting the target that by 2030, the digital economy will account for about 30% of GDP.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Huong, Deputy Director of the Department of National Accounts System (General Statistics Office) informed that the proportion of digital economic added value in GDP on average in the period of 2020-2022 will reach about 12.75% and in 2022 it will be 12.67%, of which the core digital economy sector contributes 7.77% (accounting for 61.29%), digitalization of other sectors contributes 4.91% (accounting for 38.71%).

By economic sector, the digital economy contribution of the service sector to GDP is the highest, with an average of 6.59% in the 2020-2022 period; the industry and construction sector is 6.11%; digitalization in the agriculture, forestry and fishery sector has the lowest proportion among the three sectors, with an average of only about 0.05% in the 2020-2022 period to GDP.

Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Tran Duy Dong chaired a workshop on measurement methods and results of compiling indicators on the proportion of added value of the digital economy in GDP and GRDP in Vietnam on December 4.

In the period of 2020-2022, the scale of the digital economy tends to increase, demonstrating the Government's efforts in promoting the development of information and communication technology, and the digitalization of economic sectors is increasingly enhanced. In particular, the service sectors tend to be increasingly digitalized, helping the contribution of the added value of the service sector to GDP increase from 6.54% in 2020 to 6.61% in 2022.

Some localities have a high proportion of added value of the digital economy in GRDP in 2022, mainly due to the contribution of the electronics, computer and optical product manufacturing industry such as: Bac Ninh (46.75%), Thai Nguyen (34.24%), Bac Giang (32.42%), Hai Phong (27.22%), Vinh Phuc (24.67%)...

These are localities that attract a lot of foreign direct investment (FDI) for core digital economic activities, so the added value of the core digital economy accounts for about 87% - 96% of the total added value of the digital economy in these provinces.

The proportion of digital economy in Hanoi is 15.41% (core digital economy accounts for about 75%) and in Ho Chi Minh City is 13.51% (core digital economy accounts for about 69%).

Will be officially announced on December 29

Contributing his opinion at the conference, Mr. Dau Ngoc Hung, Director of the Hanoi Statistics Office, said that according to the plan, Hanoi set a target of 30% of the digital economy by 2025. However, according to the GSO's calculations, the figure will reach 15.41% in 2022, a long way from the target.

“However, Hanoi still has some progress in the proportion of the digital economy. Hanoi's proportion of 15.41% is also high because Hanoi's economic scale is very large, currently 1.2 million billion GRDP at current prices, which is a very large number. Although the proportion of 15.41% is lower than 30%, if we talk about absolute value, it is high,” said Mr. Hung.

The leader of Hanoi's statistics agency said that currently, this indicator has been calculated by many agencies and researched. For example, the Ministry of Information and Communications estimates that the proportion of Hanoi's digital economy is 17.5% (in 2022); a study by the National Economics University in collaboration with the city shows that in 2021, Hanoi's digital economy will reach 23.5%; however, the core economy is only over 10%.

Therefore, Mr. Hung hopes that in the coming time, the assessment of the implementation of digital economic indicators for the whole country and provinces and cities, including Hanoi, will have a more authentic assessment.

The representative of the Ho Chi Minh City Statistics Office said that the way to calculate the proportion of digital economy compared to GDP, GRDP, the calculation method and the data approach are not the same. For the whole country, it is based on the inter-sectoral balance sheet according to the supply-demand approach. For provinces and cities, it is based on the digital value on the cost of information technology applied to create product value of the industries. If a common coefficient is applied for the whole country, it will also affect the calculation results of each city in the digital economy section.

Agreeing with the approach of the General Statistics Office, Ms. Mai Thi Thanh Binh, research expert of the Information Technology Department, Institute of Information and Communications Strategy under the Ministry of Information and Communications, said that it is currently very difficult to measure the three rounds as initially defined: core digital economy, digital economy in platforms and digital economy in industries and fields.

“We are also approaching the same method as the General Statistics Office, which is to measure the digital economy with 2 rounds: the core ICT digital economy and the pervasive digital economy in industries and fields. Hopefully, in the coming time, the General Statistics Office and the Ministry of Information and Communications will unify the industry codes for the ICT digital economy. Because, currently, the Department of Information and Communications of localities also want to provide them with a list of industry codes so that they can manage their businesses to promote in the coming time,” said Ms. Binh.

Ms. Binh hopes that the research team of the General Statistics Office will soon complete the research for official announcement so that localities can promptly report to the Government on official data.

Director General of the General Statistics Office Nguyen Thi Huong affirmed that the results researched and announced by the General Statistics Office on the index of the proportion of added value of the digital economy in GDP and GRDP are based on recognized theories and calculation methods, ensuring international comparability as well as taking into account the suitability with the general situation of the whole country.

The General Statistics Office said that the results of calculating the added value index of the digital economy in Vietnam's GDP and GRDP are expected to be officially announced on December 29.