Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Vietnam had the highestrate of new digital service consumers in the Southeast Asia region last year, itwas reported at the recent World Mobile Broadband & ICT 2021 conference in Hanoi.

The event is an important forum fortelecommunications managers and experts to promote the development of servicesin the Vietnamese market. The theme of this year is developing 5G and broadbandinfrastructure to enhance the digital transformation process in Vietnam.

The report "e-Conomy SEA 2020”, which isconducted by Google, Temasek and Bain & Company, showed that Vietnam'sdigital economy reached a total value of 14 billion USD last year, 2 billionUSD higher than that of the same period of the previous year.

Out of the total number of digital service usersin Vietnam, new users account for 41 percent. This turned Vietnam into acountry with the highest rate of new digital service consumers in the region.

Statistics from the General Statistics Office saidthat Vietnam was one of the three Asian countries with positive growth with thesize of the economy is more than 343 billion USD. Singapore reached 337.5billion USD and Malaysia 336.3. billion USD.

The Vietnamese Government has defined one of thepillars of the digital economy as the telecommunications infrastructure,including both mobile and fixed broadband infrastructure.

The development of broadband infrastructure haspaved the way for all other economic sectors to grow within the past two tothree years.

The total number of fixed broadband subscribers inVietnam exceeded 17.2 million, and the total number of mobile broadbandsubscribers reached nearly 69.5 million by the end of last month, reported theVietnam Telecommunications Authority.

However, in order to contribute to the realisationof the national digital transformation project by 2030 and further promote thedigital economy, telecommunication investment and exploitation activities in Vietnam,it still needs a lot of innovation.

Assessing the development of Vietnam'stelecommunications market, Tran Duc Lai, chairman of the Radio and ElectronicsAssociation of Vietnam, said this year, operators have deployed 5G and achievedvery positive results.

The country will test 5G on a large scale and evenwith Make- in-Vietnam devices from this year.

A study by the National Institute of Informationand Communications Strategy said that the contribution of 5G to the nationalGDP growth is forecast to reach 7.34 percent by 2025.

The socio-economic development strategies for the 2021-2025and 2021-2030 periods have repeatedly mentioned digital transformation,telecommunications, digital technology, digital government, and digital skills.

Science, technology, innovation and digitaltransformation are some of the strategic breakthroughs of the next 10 years tohelp Vietnam develop and be among the top middle-income countries by 2030 andhigh-income industrial countries in 2045./.