Developing Digital Human Resources to Meet the Requirements of Digital Government in Vietnam

Abstract

Digital government is a developing trend in many countries, based on digital technology, digital data, and operating in a digital environment. With the emergence of digital government, the activities of state agencies are shifting from the physical to the digital environment, creating a demand for the development of digital human resources to operate the digital government. Digital human resources here refer to the entities participating in state governance processes in the digital environment, including both civil servants and citizens. Therefore, developing digital human resources to meet the requirements of digital government means developing digital capabilities for civil servants and citizens to form digital civil servants and digital citizens. This study constructs a theoretical framework to analyze the impact of the development of digital civil servants and digital citizens on digital government. The author surveyed 270 local leaders at the commune level from three provinces in three regions of Vietnam: Bac Ninh province (Northern), Quang Tri province (Central), and Tay Ninh province (Southern). The survey results provide further evidence that civil servants possess basic digital knowledge and skills necessary for working in a digital environment, but these still need improvement; citizens are disseminated and updated with digital knowledge and skills to conduct transactions in the digital environment when participating in state administration, but their digital competence is assessed as low, requiring appropriate solutions to develop digital human resources to meet the requirements of digital government in Vietnam.