Developing Digital Civil Servants and Digital Citizens to Meet Digital Government Requirements in Vietnam

Abstract

Digital government is an operating model of state agencies designed based on digital technology and digital data; the performance of public duties by civil servants and the transactions and participation of citizens in the policy process are carried out in a digital environment. This requires digital capacity for both civil servants and citizens to become digital civil servants and digital citizens - a necessary condition for building and operating a digital government. This study builds a theoretical framework on digital government, digital civil servants, digital citizens and builds a theoretical model to assess the impact of digital civil servants and citizens on the development of digital government. The author surveyed with a sample size of N = 300 local civil servants at the commune level and N = 300 local people of 30 selected communes in 3 provinces of Vietnam, including Thai Nguyen province (North), Ha Tinh province (Central), An Giang province (South). The research results show that people are limited in digital capacity and need to be trained and disseminated with basic digital knowledge and skills necessary to transact and participate in the policy process in the digital environment, becoming digital citizens to operate and develop digital government together with digital civil servants. From there, this research discusses solutions to develop digital citizens to meet the requirements of digital society and digital government in Vietnam.