To effectively plan strategies, projects, and policies for the development of Information Technology and Telecommunications (IT-TT), an objective and quantitative assessment of the capabilities and current status of the industry is necessary. This assessment can be referred to as the Vietnam ICT Index. The Vietnam Informatics Association has also begun constructing the Vietnam ICT Index since the beginning of November 2005, with completion expected around the beginning of Q1 2006. However, if issues such as objectives, indicators, and evaluation methods are not clarified, achieving accurate results will be difficult. We would like to contribute a few insights on this matter.
1. Objectives of Current Status Assessment will include two different contents that influence the construction of the indicator set and the survey method: overall content and local content.
The overall content assesses the capabilities of the entire IT-TT sector in Vietnam as a unified entity. The assessment indicators will be used for comparison with other countries, while also directly serving to summarize the effectiveness of macro policies aimed at socio-economic objectives. The annual overview report on IT from the Ho Chi Minh City Informatics Association often mentions these indicators such as total revenue from software, hardware, the number of computers, number of telephones, etc.
The local content includes indicators for localities and public sector areas, enterprises, and users. These indicators can be used for competitive scoring, comparisons among units, or to support social policies aimed at reducing the digital divide between regions and social groups.
The indicators for these two contents do not overlap. Therefore, when constructing the ICT Index, it is essential to clarify which content is included (or if both are included).
2. The Indicator Set Should Be Based on International Indicators. It is impossible to objectively assess the current status of IT and TT development in Vietnam based solely on subjective indicators that only Vietnam uses. This does not mean that we should directly copy international indicators into Vietnam, as there are many indicators that cannot currently be assessed and surveyed in Vietnam. Fortunately, important international indicators such as the Digital Access Index (DAI), Network Readiness Index (NRI), and E-Readiness Index are all calculated based on numerous indicators, which can also be broken down into various sub-indices. Thus, the best approach is to select suitable indicators from the sub-indices or indicators that already exist globally, aligned with Vietnam’s level of development for evaluation. This approach allows for the comparison of Vietnam’s development aspects with the global context. The task is to establish a formula for calculating the Vietnam IT-TT Index from the sub-indices and appropriate weights that correspond to Vietnam’s strategic development priorities at each stage. Globally, the weighting system is also continuously adjusted to align with developmental trends. Such an approach will eliminate unreasonable and subjective indicators. Evaluations of Vietnam’s IT development status may only need to rely on specific sub-indices and international assessments of Vietnam’s rank in areas related to these sub-indices.
3. Due to the High Cost of Large-Scale Surveys, it is necessary to implement local content surveys in a way that results can also be utilized to calculate overall indicators. Sampling methods in statistics can be employed to survey selected localities and regions. Even surveying a few indicators of localities can be quite challenging and requires the use of this statistical sampling method.
The basic idea of the statistical sampling method is similar to the method of calculating rice yield: First, classify the types of fields with relatively uniform productivity. Within each category, average yield should be surveyed by harvesting a statistical sample. Finally, aggregate the total area of each type of field to calculate the total yield.
Thus, there will be intensive quantities used to score local units and provincial departments, as larger units often have advantages in absolute overall metrics. Additionally, there will be extensive quantities such as population, area, total investment, and national income that will be collected through statistical surveys. The extensive quantities need to be selected for ease of survey and usefulness in extrapolating national overall indicators (and sub-indices).
Nguyễn Ai Việt, Ministry of Information and Communications
