| For the first time, Vietnam has a master plan for information and communication infrastructure, with the orientation of developing into a new generation infrastructure, synchronizing components, creating harmonious and sustainable development between regions and localities. From there, creating new development space for the country, creating favorable conditions for the development of digital government, digital economy, and digital society. Considering the national master plan, the implementation of information and communication infrastructure planning is considered to play an important role in the overall socio-economic development of Vietnam. VietNamNet would like to send to our readers an article about the picture of information and communication infrastructure in the digital era. Lesson 1: Information and communication infrastructure planning will promote national digital transformation Lesson 2: Vietnam aims to be in the top 10 leading countries in Asia in terms of domain names Lesson 3: Information and communication infrastructure planning focuses on digital infrastructure development |

Expand to serve both e-commerce and logistics

Information and communication infrastructure in general and the postal network in particular play an increasingly important role in the country's socio-economic development strategy. The development of digital technology has been creating many major changes related to information and communication infrastructure, in which the postal network participates more and more deeply in the field of e-commerce and logistics.

Meanwhile, although a nationwide system of postal service points has been established, with over 21,600 points by the end of 2020, with a service radius higher than the world average, one of the limitations of Vietnam's postal network is that it is not optimal for serving e-commerce and logistics. Postal and delivery businesses are spontaneously developing separate network infrastructure to serve their business problems.

The picture of the postal market in the period up to 2020 also shows that there is still no connection and synchronization of the public postal network with the general postal network of all postal businesses. With Vietnam's logistics network, the connection only stops at the level of business cooperation, linking with outsourced transportation businesses to minimize costs, without a systematic connection orientation.

Planned in the direction of solving the existing problems of the previous development of Vietnam's postal network, the new phase of the postal network plays an important role in ensuring the stability and seamlessness of the flow of goods; designed with an expansion orientation to serve both e-commerce and logistics, gradually becoming an important infrastructure of the digital economy.

According to the drafting unit of the Information and Communications Infrastructure Planning, the core idea is to develop the postal network in a synchronous and modern way to link the real world and the digital space, becoming one of the essential infrastructures of the country and the digital economy. Postal network planning includes redundancy to ensure an intact, uninterrupted supply chain in any emergency.

Talking to VietNamNet reporters, Vietnam Post representative commented: The approval of the Information and Communications Infrastructure Planning for the period 2021-2030, which includes the postal network planning content, is a step forward. This not only has the significance of orienting to upgrade and promote the effectiveness of the public postal network, but also helps the postal industry have more favorable conditions to catch up with development trends in the new technology era. At the same time, it also affirms the indispensable role of the postal network in information and communications infrastructure, ensuring material flow, determining the final mile results of the digital economy in the ecosystem of building digital life, digital society, and digital nation.

People can use quality services at reasonable prices

Not only does it have a close connection with other components of the information and communications infrastructure, the new phase postal network also maintains the smoothness of physical flows in addition to data flows thanks to close links with transportation infrastructure and logistic infrastructure.

Built to ensure synchronization with the Postal Development Strategy to 2025 and orientation to 2030, the Information and Communications Infrastructure Planning sets high goals for postal network development, including the KT1 postal network and the public postal network.

Stating that the basis for setting goals and scenarios for developing the postal network is from surveying and analyzing data on the current status of the postal network and forecasting the domestic and foreign context, the representative of the Institute of Information and Communication Strategy (Ministry of Information and Communications) also emphasized: The goals and requirements for developing the postal network aim to expand the service ecosystem, opening up new operating space. In particular, ensuring that all people across the country have the right to access and use stable, quality postal services at reasonable prices.

Realizing that for the planning to come to life, the proposed contents must ensure high feasibility, the drafting agency in the process of developing content on the postal network has always coordinated closely with the Central Postal Department and key postal enterprises such as VietNamPost, Viettel Post... "Each content of the draft planning, each goal and development plan is reviewed and considered", said a representative of the Institute of Information and Communications Strategy.

In addition to specific proposals to ministries, branches and localities, at the event announcing the Information and Communication Infrastructure Planning on February 23, Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Phan Tam directed large postal enterprises to focus resources on deploying widespread postal infrastructure to serve e-commerce, with modern technology, large scale, optimal connection, and increased sharing to reduce logistics costs and improve national competitiveness.

In addition to the important role of Vietnam Post, the unit assigned to operate the public postal network, other businesses are also responsible for participating in investing in postal infrastructure and developing national digital postal platforms. At the same time, develop and apply advanced technologies to the postal network such as loading and unloading technology, lifting, storing postal items, automatic sorting and sorting, IoT equipment system... to make the most of resources and reduce logistics costs.

| Requirements for developing the postal network by 2025 include total exploitation and serving capacity of 93,000 tons of postal items/day, inter-provincial and international delivery time (processing between centers) of maximum 5 days, and intra-regional delivery time of maximum 2 days. Along with that, there will be 3 regional postal centers with an average capacity of more than 11,000 tons of postal items/day, an average service range of 350 km; 14 regional postal centers have an average exploitation capacity of over 4,500 tons of postal items/day and an average service range of 115 km. |