HCMC saves thousands by e-governing

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Ho Chi Minh City's various government departments once sent paper notifications that took up to two weeks to arrive. 

A recent switch to emails and text messages saved the city $8,000 in two months.

On Wednesday, city spokesman Vo Sy said that HCMC stopped printing interdepartmental appointment notifications in the middle of July.

In the past two months, Sy claimed the city saved VND183.5 million ($8,200) in postal costs and VND2 million ($90) in print and paper. Half that money would have been wasted in appointment cancellation notices.

At the current rate of savings, that translates to around $50,000, every year.

Tran Vinh Tuyen, vice chairman of the city government, said using email and texts also saves time and lowers the number of delivery vehicles on the roads.

Tuyen said some print documents took two weeks to get from one agency to another.

He said the city will put an end to all print documents in the near future and provide greater public access to services through the internet.

Red tape remains one of the biggest problems for Vietnam’s government, prompting authorities to pledge to develop e-government solutions.

Vietnam first got online in 1997. Now nearly 49 million people are online, roughly half the country's population. The nation's high internet penetration rate has raised questions about why Vietnam’s most modern city only began emailing out official notices now.

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