Research on E-Government and Digital Capacity of Vietnamese Civil Servants and Citizens

Abstract

Current state administration is strongly influenced by the trends of digital social development after the fourth industrial revolution (revolution 4.0) was initiated. Accordingly, state agencies at all levels have changed their management methods based on the application of digital technology, forming and developing e-government in countries. The basic characteristics of e-government are operations in the digital environment, based on digital technology and digital data, posing digital capacity requirements for civil servants and citizens when participating in state administration processes: Civil servants perform public duties and interact with citizens in the digital environment; citizens participate in giving opinions and criticism of policies, requesting administrative records and interacting with the government in the digital environment. When civil servants and citizens have basic and necessary digital capacity, transactions, interactions and performance of public duties in the digital environment will be effective, helping to save time and costs for both the government and the people. This study focuses on analyzing the characteristics of e-government and the requirements for digital capacity of civil servants and citizens to identify and explain the significance of developing digital civil servants and digital citizens to meet the requirements of e-government development. Based on the theoretical framework, the author surveyed 200 commune-level civil servants of 20 selected communes in Da Nang city. The survey results show that the digital capacity of citizens is assessed at a low level; in addition, the digital capacity of civil servants still needs to be improved to operate e-government effectively. From the conclusion of that study, the author discusses appropriate policy solutions to develop digital civil servants and population in the context of Vietnam.