In Vietnam, although the term egovernment is often cited in conferences, seminars, and scientific research reports, at the moment, there is no specific and clear definition. At the same time this term has not been codified in legal documents. However, in research and practical activities, the term egovernment is now being adopted to a certain extent. Thus, there is frequently a difference in the connotations of the term egovernment.

However, egovernment can be understood in a simple way.

- Egovernment is the application of information and communication technology by government agencies to innovate, work more effectively, efficiently, and transparently, to provide better information and services to people, businesses, and organizations. At the same time, it has the ability to create more favorable conditions for people to exercise their democratic rights which also include state management.

- Egovernment includes the use of information technology, and especially the internet, to improve the delivery of government services to citizens, businesses, and between government agencies.

- Egovernment allows citizens to interact and receive services from a central or local government 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In short, egovernment is a government that operates more effectively and efficiently, providing timely service on the basis of the application of information and communication technology.

The collective goal of egovernment is to improve working processes in government agencies through eadministration, improving relations with people through ecitizen portals, and building a knowledgebased society built on information technology. From this common goal, the specific objectives of egovernment are: (1) to improve the administrative competency of government agencies at all levels by facilitating exchange of electronic documents, collection of accurate information, resulting in timely decisions, and organized electronic briefings; (2) to provide people and businesses with public services that are easily accessed from anywhere; (3) to encourage people to become actively involved in policy making and contribute to the lawmaking process and the operation of government (4) to reduce costs of the government operation; (5) to establish a modern, efficient, and transparent government.

Egovernment creates a new leadership style, a new way of providing services to citizens, and improvements in the competence of whole country management. Therefore, in recent years, countries around the world have begun investing in building egovernment. For Vietnam, building egovernment is an urgent requirement, an important part in the process of modifying the public administration system, and working towards a digital government.

The development of egovernment goes through a number of stages. In the process its complexity increases dependency on its timely implementation and maintenance. The values brought to people and businesses also increases, including the benefits for the government via the possibility of increased revenue.

The benefits of egovernment includes meeting all the needs of citizens by improving the performance of central and local government. Egovernment brings convenience and effective and timely provision of public services to people and businesses. For citizens, egovernment means the simplification of procedures and increased efficiency of the work process. Egovernment helps strengthen the relationship between agencies within the state to ensure accurate and timely decisions.

2. Citizen involvement in egovernment in Vietnam

The involvement of the Vietnamese people in the basic activities of the state defines the existence of the state itself. The absence or missing voice of the people causes the state to lose its legitimacy and raison d’être.(2) The involvement of the people is involvement in the process of the social governance chain in which the state is the subject that initiates and directly operates.

With egovernment, in order for people to be involved in the state process and activity, the country must meet minimum conditions based on important processes such as budget accountability, access to public information, property records, and finally citizen involvement. The requirements for the involvement of the people are set to a high standard. Accordingly, the government’s assurance that these criteria are met is a challenge for countries in general and Vietnam in particular.

There are many ways the public of the countries of the world form agreements with their governments. They often include forming a coalition with non-governmental organizations to achieve common goals. The government in return creates digital tools to interact with the public. People are able to engage in a discussion of pressing issues. Many governments in turn establish a center with experts and dedicated resources to support the common goal of citizen involvement. This results in citizen involvement to monitor the core competency of government officials. These processes generate guidelines for public participation in the development of legislation while creating public policy. One of the most important benefits is that citizens can assess government institutions and identify priorities for reform laws to create a stable environment for the people and social organizations.

In fact, the construction of egovernment in Vietnam has only just passed Phase 1 – using information technology and expanded communication and oneway interaction from the government to the people. Tasks of Phase 2 and Phase 3 are currently being implemented – increasing people’s involvement in the activities of state agencies and perfecting the comprehensive interaction between the government, people, and business. Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has created complications. In order to implement social distancing, limit mass contact, and reduce the risk of disease transmission, people have initially improvised their work and service methods. Most of the urgent notices, recommendations, and instructions of the government, including the ministries, sectors, down to the local level are being delivered to people via the Internet and OTT messages. Instead of face-to-face contact, many agencies and organizations are running their units using online meetings. They are also handling professional activities online. The entire education system has implemented online teaching and learning. People are using online public services to actively seek health information, stay informed through websites, and use applications of agencies and organizations.

According to a survey during the period 2015-2019 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Viet Nam Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index (PAPI)(3) saw significant annual changes. Initially, this confirms that people feel the government has moved in a positive direction. This improvement is reflected in most of the content that makes up the PAPI index over the past 5 years. Of these indicators “participation at local levels,” “transparency,” “vertical accountability,” “control of corruption,” and “public service delivery” have all improved remarkably. Through an in-depth analysis of governance and public administration performance over nearly a decade, the 2019 report shows a positive trend in the whole country in the past 5 years with 5 out of 6 initial governance areas measured by the PAPI indices showing improvement. The average provincial score of 6 governance areas increased from 34 points in 2015 to 37.4 points in 2019, highlighting the improvement in provincial efficiency of government during the current government term (2016-2021).(4) With these statistics in mind, we will analyze some indicators found in PAPI regarding people’s participation in egovernment today.

First, the index of “control of corruption” was assessed by experts as making progress, increasing from a rating of 5.8 in 2016 to 6.15 in 2017.(5) The 2019 PAPI report shows a clear impact by the anticorruption campaign on people’s perception of corruption. This sector improved the most in 2019 at the national and commune levels, with the percentage of people that perceived a reduction in corruption at these two levels showing an increase of 5% compared to those reporting in 2018.(6)

Experts attributed this improvement to the marked progress in the level of local corruption control, leading to a decrease in bribery at the local level. In addition, it is due to spillover effects witnessed in the nationwide anti- corruption campaign in recent years, when a number of corruption cases were publicly brought to trial, resulting in severe sentences.

Second, the index of “vertical accountability” measures the level of interaction between the government and the people and the actual performance of institutions working democratically at local levels, including the People’s Inspection Committee and the Community Investment Supervision Board. This index begins with the historical content of the component of “interaction with local authorities” measured prior to 2013 – an index measuring the effectiveness of citizen voter contact at all levels of government according to the provisions of the Reception of Citizen Law of 2013. From 2018 onward, the content of “vertical accountability” has added two more adjusted and supplemental components of “local government’s response to citizens’ appeals” and “access to justice services.” Indicators on the initiative of citizens and local authorities to complaints and disagreements and settlement of these issues helped authorities at all levels assess the effectiveness of the implementation of the Law on Complaints in 2011 and the Law on Denunciations in 2011. Since 2018, this content index has been supplemented with the component “access to justice services” to assess the level of trust in the performance of local judicial authorities and the people’s access to local courts, or a local mediator, when people needed to settle civil disputes.