Vietnam 15th best performer in Asia for digital well-being: report

Vietnam scored an average of 0.5 on a scale of 1 and is ahead of many Southeast Asian neighbors like Thailand (63rd), the Philippines (66th) and Indonesia (71st), according to a report released by Surfshark, a virtual private network service based in the British Virgin Islands.

In Southeast Asia, Vietnam lies behind Singapore (12) and Malaysia (41).

The report ranked 85 countries and territories based on five fundamental pillars that define the digital quality of life: internet quality, affordability, e-security, online government services and e-infrastructure.

Vietnam ranked high in terms of internet affordability as it only takes 62 seconds to access the cheapest mobile internet and 184 minutes to access the cheapest broadband internet, the report stated.

Meanwhile, internet quality stood at 54 out of 85 surveyed economies, losing out to neighbors like Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore.

For mobile networks, the download speed was 25.67 Mbps while the average broadband download speed was only 7.02 megabytes per second, 10 times slower than Singapore at 70.86 Mbps.

The country has not done such a good job in terms of internet infrastructure. Vietnam is placed 73rd in terms of internet usage with only 49.6 out of 100 inhabitants accessing the internet. Many rural areas in Vietnam are not covered by online services.

Vietnam also ranked 59th in terms of electronic security as data protection laws in Vietnam are "very low," the report said.

Meanwhile, e-government development in Vietnam also ranked low at 58th, with the country needing to improve its online services.

A government program to turn Vietnam into a digital nation approved by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc last year wants 80 percent of the population to carry out transactions digitally, and aims to provide broadband Internet and 5G connections nationwide in the next five years. Local telecom firms are chasing a head start in the 5G race as Vietnam expects to become an early adopter of the technology.

Denmark is the best performer in the world for digital well-being, followed by Sweden and Canada while poor and war-torn countries like Bangladesh, Kenya and Lebanon are in the bottom list.

The Covid-19 outbreak that hit 212 countries and territories around the world had a significant impact on internet stability. Over half the surveyed economies experienced drops in mobile speed and broadband speed due to work-from-home settings., including