On the afternoon of May 4, the Steering Committee for Agricultural Digital Transformation under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development held a workshop to discuss the Draft Project on Digital Transformation of the Agriculture and Rural Development Sector in the period of 2021-2025, with orientation towards 2030. 

Chairing the meeting, Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien asked members of the Steering Committee to clarify issues relating to the current situation of the sector in the draft. He emphasized that units under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development must develop digital transformation programs and plans before reporting to the Ministry's Office for synthesis and submit to the Prime Minister in the second quarter of 2022.

In addition to the readily available and practical experience, leaders of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development also suggested the members of the Steering Committee to consult about the order and procedures for establishing the international digital transformation roadmap, especially following examples of developed countries and thereby building lessons for Vietnam.

"For the digital transformation project to soon come into practice, we need to rely on the legal basis, at the same time clarify the goals and vision of the project, highlight the supporting role to the economy of the agricultural sector in the current context," said the Deputy Minister.

Previously, on March 14, 2022, the Steering Committee for Agricultural Digital Transformation under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development advised and submitted to Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien on the establishment of a drafting team to develop the project. On April 7, Minister Le Minh Hoan sent Document No. 2133/BNN-VP to the Chairman of the Provincial and Cities People's Committees, requesting cooperation in implementing digital transformation in the sector of agriculture and rural development.

On April 29, 62/63 Department of Agriculture and Rural Development sent consultations to develop the project; 40/63 provinces and cities provided survey information, serving project development.

It is expected that in May 2022, the Drafting Team will complete collecting local opinions on the draft. In June, the team will consult with relevant ministries, departments, branches and committees of the National Assembly, before finalizing the report and explanatory report on the project to submit to the Prime Minister.

Based on three main contents of digital transformation, namely digital government, digital economy, and digital society, the project sets out a number of key goals by 2025. Regarding digital government development: 80% of procedural documents administrative procedures are handled entirely online; 90% of people and businesses are satisfied with administrative procedures; 100% of the direction, operation and internal management of agricultural agencies are carried out on an overall unified basis; 100% of records are created, kept and shared electronically according to regulations; 50% of supervision and inspection activities are carried out in the digital environment and the information system belonging to management agencies.

Regarding digital economy development: Put the agricultural sector in the top 10 leading industry groups in terms of competitiveness index. Regarding digital society development: over 50% of farmers are supported with access to technology, as well as the digital agricultural ecosystem; Over 70% of traditional craft villages, 70% of businesses, cooperatives and household businesses are trained and supported.

The project's goal by 2030 is to achieve 100% of online public services at level 4; the rate of dossiers settled by online public services reaching 90%; integrate at least 70% of online public services with the national public service portal; 100% of people and businesses are satisfied with administrative procedures; the average proportion of the digital economy in agriculture is at least 20%.

At the meeting on the afternoon of May 4, 17 opinions were voiced. In which, the majority raised that the agricultural sector has available potentials in terms of agricultural digital transformation such as planting area codes, farming area codes, value chains, forecasting work on pests and forests fires... or links along the value chain with cooperatives and businesses.

However, members of the Steering Committee also pointed out the problems and overlapping issues in statistics, direction and administration between specialized units. 

Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien asked members of the Steering Committee to focus on building a database system, network security and privacy. In addition, he emphasized that the digital transformation process must start from infrastructure, development of raw materials, before moving non to processing, logictics. "Digital transformation of the agricultural sector has specific characteristics. That means it requires a fundamental, methodical approach, in small steps and closely following the framework of the scheme", the Deputy Minister expressed.

Translated by Nguyen Hai Long