To provide an overview of IT application in the finance sector, Vietnam Business Forum interviewed Mr Pham Cong Minh, deputy director of the Department of Financial Informatics and Statistics (DFIS) under the Ministry of Finance.
What are the development milestones for information technology (ICT) application in the financial sector? Could you provide an overview of the development history?
After 15 years, the financial information technology sector experienced the following phases:
Environment setup (1989 – 1995): During this period, the initial foundations for information technology development for the financial services were built, including organisational methods, equipment investment, personnel training and software application development for terminal machines. Notable projects during this period comprised the Ministry of Finance’s project to build the State tax collection information system based on the use of electronic machines, and the State Budget tax information system project built on the use of electronic machines.
Deployment (1996 – 2000): IT development during this period focused on the construction and deployment of LAN-based software applications to solve urgent works of the financial sector (i.e. state budget management programme, code provision programme, administrative accounting programme, tax registration and tax code provision programme, tax management programme and others.) Typical projects were the project to build a consistent and unified financial communication infrastructure, the project to build the national financial and budgetary database, the project to develop information technology for the tax sector until 2000 and the project to modernise the budgetary information system in 1999-2002.
System integration (2000-now): This period only focuses on unified financial communication infrastructure for the financial sector; financial information system security; the national budgetary and financial database; public financial management modernisation and state budgetary information system modernisation; tax sector modernisation, customs modernisation, national reserve information system modernisation, securities information system modernisation and others. The integration system period will last until 2010.
How have IT applications in the electronics, customs and tax management been implemented so far? Does Vietnam’s IT application in these fields match regional countries?
IT application to implement administrative reform and operational simplification in the tax and customs sectors was put forward five or six years ago. Many issues needed to be carried out, including tax and customs registration, the organisation of tax, import tax and export tax self-declaration system, the introduction of IT applications to assist management and ordination activities, and several professional works such as tax and customs declaration data collection and processing. The e-clearance system experimentation enabled automatic information processing and clearance. This received great support and appreciation from enterprises. Vietnam also carried out several commitments with regional countries. For example, it allowed clearance and transit, tax calculation and double-tax avoidance among ASEAN countries.
We have tried our best to carry out these activities. However, we were still unable to resolve several issues. In the ASEAN bloc, Vietnam should not be compared with Singapore or Malaysia. They are at a higher level and they are even at higher levels than many countries in the world.
To meet the renovation and modernisation demand, the Ministry of Finance is carrying out three big projects, including the modernisation of customs and the modernisation of taxation funded by the World Bank, which is expected to bring Vietnam to regional and international levels in the next five years.
Department of Financial Informatics & Statistics (DFIS) under Ministry of Finance and IDG Vietnam annually hold conferences and trade fairs on “Vietnam ICT in Finance”. Could you please say a few words about this year’s programme?
The conference, themed “ICT for Financial Services”, will provide an overview picture on the ICT applications in finance: finance challenges, solutions and technology of IT groups etc. Especially, leaders of Ministry of Finance will give out latest news on policies and trend for the development of financial services for the next year. Programmes for this conference are well designed with the consultancy of the programme building board and are made deeper by speeches delivered by experts of every sector.
This conference focuses on six major subjects, namely Application for reform requirements and enhancement in E-taxation management; Databases and Storage for Finance – Budget; Pots-WTO entrance: ICT Application for Vietnam customs; Security for finance sector; IT Application in managing and supervising securities market; Development trends for loan markets in Vietnam.
Accordingly, the conference program will be expanded, with sessions running simultaneously. Reports in each session will be presented by the top executive of international & domestic enterprises and experts in Taxations – Customs – Stock Exchange - Banking and ICT sectors.
Nguyen Thoa
Vietnamese
