Creating a unified legal framework for national digital transformation

Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Le Minh Hoan chaired the meeting. Photo: Ho Long

Need to review, shorten and remove duplicate content

Delegates emphasized that the draft Law has national strategic significance, creating an institutional foundation for the development of digital government, digital economy and digital society; highly appreciated the fact that the draft Law has been designed in a way that puts people and businesses at the center, affirming the role of the State in creating, leading and promoting.

Commenting on the specific content, National Assembly Deputy Thach Phuoc Binh ( Vinh Long ) said that Article 5 of the draft Law has covered most of the important groups of activities of digital transformation: from strategy building, innovation of governance models, development of digital infrastructure and platforms, to data management, digital skills training, information security, research and development (R&D), communication and support for people. These contents are consistent with the overall structure of public sector digital transformation and compatible with the international digital governance model.

National Assembly Deputy Thach Phuoc Binh (Vinh Long) speaks. Photo: Ho Long

In addition, delegate Thach Phuoc Binh also noticed that some activities stipulated in Article 5 are overlapping, especially the monitoring, statistics and evaluation of digital transformation activities mentioned in both Clause 3 and Clause 14 of this Article; research, innovation and testing of digital technology products also appear in Clause 11 and Clause 12 with almost overlapping scope.

Delegate Thach Phuoc Binh also said that Article 5 lacks focus when some clauses list too many tasks at the same time, for example clause 1 or clause 6, which could lead to a lack of basis for decentralization of implementation.

Current regulations also do not fully address new contents of the digital age such as: controlled testing framework (sandbox), technology impact assessment, data governance according to the model of data owner, data manager and data protection officer or requirements on cloud computing infrastructure and shared digital platform in the direction of cloud computing priority policy...

Delegate Thach Phuoc Binh suggested that it is necessary to review, shorten and eliminate duplicate content; restructure the entire Article 5 towards scientific task groups, institutional and strategic groups, digital infrastructure and platform groups, information security digital data groups, innovation groups, training, communication and people support groups, etc., to help the content become coherent, convenient for implementation and monitoring.

In addition, it is necessary to supplement some important activities that are lacking or newly appearing in the current digital context such as controlled testing mechanisms for new technologies, regulations on minimum requirements of digital platforms and digital infrastructure in the direction of policies prioritizing cloud computing.

Regarding the interpretation of terms, Article 3 of the draft Law introduces the concept of "digital copy" but the scope is still very broad, possibly covering both business data systems and specialized simulation models, which may lead to overlapping understanding and management responsibilities between state agencies and technology development enterprises.

National Assembly Delegate Nguyen Tam Hung (Ho Chi Minh City) speaks. Photo: Ho Long

Raising this issue, National Assembly Deputy Nguyen Tam Hung (Ho Chi Minh City) also requested the drafting agency to clarify the boundaries of "digital copy"; defining the scope as only applicable to real-time simulation models serving analysis, forecasting, and decision-making, not including information systems and conventional data documents.

"This is to avoid over-expanding the scope of regulation, causing difficulties in management, auditing and compensation responsibilities when digital copies cause risks in actual operations," said delegate Nguyen Tam Hung.

Connected, comprehensive, secure and modern towards a digital nation

Explaining and clarifying some contents of the draft Law, Minister of Science and Technology Nguyen Manh Hung stated that the draft Law is designed according to the framework law, ensuring brevity to create flexibility for the Government in the operation process. The draft Law stipulates general principles on digital transformation, digital architecture, minimum requirements for national digital transformation activities, responsibilities of participating entities, and a unified coordination mechanism to ensure that all digital transformation activities nationwide take place in a unified, safe and effective manner.

Minister of Science and Technology Nguyen Manh Hung explained and clarified some contents of the draft Law. Photo: Pham Thang

The Minister of Science and Technology said that the draft Law also aims to create links between specialized laws on digital transformation to create a unified, interconnected, comprehensive, safe and modern entity of a digital nation, without interfering with specialized laws.

The draft Law also aims to resolve common difficulties in digital transformation of ministries, branches and localities, especially financial mechanisms. Based on the comments of the delegates, the Minister of Science and Technology stated that the drafting agency will "condense" the draft Law to the framework law level and remove specialized technical details and descriptions.

The Draft Law also adds the missing "piece" of a digital nation, "taking the e-Government part of the current Law on Information Technology to design a unified framework law for all national digital transformation activities, integrating core components including: Digital Government, digital economy and digital society, ensuring no legal gaps when the Law on Information Technology is abolished.

Currently, legal regulations on digital transformation are scattered in many laws, lacking a unified framework, lacking common principles, lacking minimum requirements and especially lacking a comprehensive coordination mechanism on a national scale prescribed by law. Emphasizing this, the Minister of Science and Technology said that the draft Law was built to create a unified legal framework for national digital transformation, ensuring digital transformation in the right direction, safely and effectively, overcoming the situation of "digital separatism", "digital fragmentation", "platform division", creating a favorable environment for innovation, promoting digital government, digital economy and digital society.

The Minister of Science and Technology also said that the draft Law focuses on handling a number of main contents including:

One is to form a unified legal framework to form a digital nation. Two is to establish a legal mechanism for digital government, digital economy and digital society. Three is to establish a unified national governance structure for digital transformation. Four is , legalize mechanisms, financial resources, and digital human resources for digital transformation. Fifth , regulate periodic assessment mechanisms and publicize digital transformation indicators.

Minister of Science and Technology Nguyen Manh Hung explained and clarified some contents of the draft Law. Photo: Pham Thang

For the first time, the most important concepts of digital transformation such as digital transformation, digital infrastructure, digital data, digital platform, digital environment, digital government, digital economy, and digital society are officially defined at the legal level. The Draft Law also formalizes the promulgation of the National Digital Transformation Program, the National Digital Architecture Framework, the Data Governance Framework, the Digital Capacity Framework, and the National Digital Transformation Measurement Index.

The definition of “digital transformation” emphasizes that this is the process of transforming the way of operating, managing and providing services in a new environment different from the real environment. Digital technology, digital data, and digital platforms are just tools for implementation, and the goal of digital transformation is to create new value effectively and transparently.

Regarding the concept of digital platforms, the Minister of Science and Technology stated that the most important difference between digital transformation and previous information technology applications is the digital platform. Digital transformation does not create discrete software but develops shared digital platforms, default connections, default data sharing, creating scale efficiency, reducing costs according to the number of users, rapid deployment on a large scale and changing the way the entire system operates.

The Draft Law also defines digital design and architecture principles such as: prioritizing the use of cloud computing and shared digital platforms; designing, developing and operating digital systems in the direction of data reuse, one-time declaration as default; interconnection, data sharing as default and ensuring safety right from the design stage; prioritizing the hiring of digital services when the technical requester finds it effective.

Source: https://daibieunhandan.vn/tao-khung-phap-ly-thong-nhat-cho-chuyen-doi-so-quoc-gia-10397774.html