In response to the “Digital Literacy” Campaign launched by the Prime Minister, the Central Military Commission (CMC) and the Ministry of National Defence (MND) have initiated the “Digital Literacy” Movement across the whole Military, aimed at popularising digital knowledge and skills among cadres and soldiers, laying the foundation for “digital soldiers”, “digital units”, and a “digital Military”, promoting digital transformation within the nation and the Military, and building a modern Military.

Grasping and implementing Resolution 57-NQ/TW, dated 22 December 2024, by the Politburo on breakthroughs in science - technology development, innovation, and national digital transformation, along with other resolutions and plans by the Party Central Committee and the CMC on applying science and technology in the defence - military field, on 23 April 2025, Steering Board 3488 issued Plan 3760-KH/BCĐ on executing the “Digital Literacy” Movement in the Vietnam People’s Army (VPA). This is a policy of strategic significance, aimed at promoting the synergy of all offices, units, and organisations in the VPA, encouraging military staff’s self-study, self-improvement, dedication, and creativity in learning and mastering digital knowledge and skills, realising the motto of “leaving no one behind” in digital transformation, and enabling the VPA to take the lead in the process of national digital transformation.

Sr. Lt. Gen. Le Huy Vinh inspects digital transformation work at Brigade 249

After a period of implementation, the VPA has achieved important results in the “Digital Literacy” Movement. Leadership, direction, and guidance work has been carried out in a close, serious, uniform manner. Propagation work has been strengthened; awareness and a sense of responsibility among party committees, commands, cadres, and soldiers towards the Movement and digital transformation have been raised. Many creative, effective models have been developed and multiplied. The MND has organised refresher courses on digital skills for over 26,000 key cadres, launching a “Digital Literacy” platform on the Internet and military data transmission network, creating and providing hundreds of thousands of learning accounts for units and individuals. A Digital Skill Framework for five groups of learners has been developed as a basis for study and assessment. “Digital Ambassador” networks and “Advisory Teams for Digital Skills” have been established and are operating effectively in offices and units across the VPA. Offices and units have applied document and workflow management software using digital signatures, while developing other specialised software applications for managing personnel, party members, finance, accounting, and social insurance, thus shortening their processing time, improving their management, command, and operation efficiency and synergy.

However, the “Digital Literacy” Movement still has some shortcomings that need to be addressed promptly. Awareness of digital transformation among some party committees, commands, and key cadres remains incomplete and inconsistent; the number of specialised personnel is limited; technical infrastructure and equipment in several units are insufficient and unsynchronised. Some applications have poor connectivity and data-sharing capacity; network quality for learning activities has yet to be good enough; network congestion happens sometimes. A section of military staff members, especially in grass-roots units and remote areas, show reluctance to innovation, maintain their manual working habits, and possess poor technological skills.

At present, historic opportunities and major challenges are being created for the cause of national development and the building of a modern VPA. In order to promote science, technology, innovation, and digital transformation as the top driving force, the “Digital Literacy” Movement should be enhanced to widely disseminate digital knowledge and skills among all cadres and soldiers. To that end, it is vital to synchronously, vigorously implement the following key tasks and solutions.

First, strengthening the leadership and direction of all-level party committees and commands, raising awareness and responsibility among all cadres and soldiers towards the “Digital Literacy” Movement. This is a decisive solution aimed at promoting the combined strength of organisations and forces to ensure that the Movement will be carried out synchronously and in the right direction. Bringing into play the recorded results, party committees, political commissars, commands, and political agencies at all levels should continue grasping resolutions and directives by the Party, Government, CMC, and MND, particularly Plan 3760-KH/BCĐ, dated 13 April 2025, by the Steering Board. Based on those documents, they should adjust and supplement goals, targets, content, and measures in their resolutions and work programs appropriate to the characteristics, tasks, and educational level of each group of personnel.

In the process, the outcome of the Movement should be seen as a criterion for evaluating the task performance of party organisations, commands, cadres, and party members. Party committees and commands at all levels should closely link propagation and education regarding the Movement with the performance of their units’ political tasks, while combining the improvement of their leadership and command capacity with the promotion of the exemplary role, responsibility, and pioneering spirit among key cadres. Heads of offices and units should serve as role models in learning and applying digital technologies to their leadership and command process, thereby spreading the spirit of “self-learning and self-improvement” across their offices and units.

Leaders of the MND visits Command 86's exhibition booth (photo: qdnd.vn)

Political and competent offices at all levels should proactively give advice and guidance, inspect and supervise the implementation process, and regularly conduct preliminary and final reviews to draw lessons and adjust the content and methods of propagation and education properly. It is essential to enhance inspection and supervision to promptly detect and address emerging ideological issues among troops; due attention should be paid to commending units and individuals with creative, effective models and methods in executing the Movement. It is vital to resolutely combat complacency, formalism, and the lowering of standards in the implementation of the Movement.

Second, perfecting mechanisms and policies, removing institutional obstacles, creating a favourable legal framework for promoting the “Digital Literacy” Movement within the VPA. This is an urgent, decisive requirement for realising the Movement’s goals in the context of ongoing intensive and extensive national digital transformation. To that end, competent offices of the MND, the General Department of Politics, and the General Staff, particularly the Department of Military Science, the Department of Military Training and Schools, and Command 86, should comprehensively assess current legal documents, regulations, and procedures relating to information technology as well as the training and development of digital skills across the VPA as the basis for proposing amendments and supplements to ensure uniformity, feasibility, and relevance to the VPA’s organisational characteristics and tasks.

Besides, it is necessary to promulgate mechanisms to motivate collectives and individuals to take part in the Movement; coordination mechanisms for data sharing among offices and units and frameworks for information security and cybersecurity investment, management, and assurance in the digital transformation process should be developed. It is essential to integrate digital skill criteria into the evaluation systems for cadres, party members, and defence employees and consider these as the key indicators for assessing task performance, leadership, and command capacity. Great value should be attached to completing the “Digital Skill Framework” for groups of troops, holding “Army-wide Digital Learning Day”, providing guidance on digital platform usage, and organising digital classes at offices and units to enable all cadres and soldiers to access, study, and practise digital skills in a substantive, effective manner. Doing so will help gradually form a digitalised work environment, foster innovation in management and command, and sustainably develop the “Digital Literacy” Movement across the VPA.

Third, concentrating resources and developing synchronised digital infrastructures and platforms to ensure the effectiveness of the Movement across the VPA. For the substantive, sustainable development of the “Digital Literacy” Movement, it is essential to mobilise the combined strength of all forces, concentrate resources, and develop information technology infrastructures, digital platforms, digital services, and digital learning tools within the VPA as the foundation for building a unified, safe, efficient digital learning environment, facilitating troops’ daily use of digital technology, fostering a digital learning and working environment.

To that end, competent agencies, particularly Command 86, Signal Corps, and Viettel Military Industry and Telecoms Group, should continue reviewing the needs for digital technology infrastructure and platform development and advising the MND on resource allocation in an economical, effective, practical fashion to synchronously execute the Movement across all offices and units. Emphasis should be placed on expanding connectivity and raising the quality of the military data transmission network to meet the needs of applying information technology and artificial intelligence (AI) in management, learning, propagation, and digital skill training. Software systems should be upgraded and integrated with AI; free data capacity should be provided to support learning, propagation, and digital skill training across the VPA. The online “Digital Literacy” platform should be expanded to disseminate digital knowledge among all service members. Mobile applications, such as QiMe and MND Digital Transformation Portal, should be developed to widely share information, materials, effective models, and valuable experiences.

It is necessary to continue upgrading the “Digital Literacy” platform to assist troops in their study and testing. Doing so will lay a solid technical foundation for sustainably, effectively developing the “Digital Literacy” Movement across the entire VPA and realising the goal of enabling the Military to take the lead in national digital transformation.

Fourth, developing and multiplying models capable of spreading digital skills across the entire Military, closely linking the “Digital Literacy” Movement with programs and projects to build a learning society. To create a huge change in awareness and action among cadres and soldiers towards the study and application of digital technologies, offices and units should continue building and multiplying effective digital learning models. Emphasis should be placed on developing a “digital ambassador network” and “digital offices and units”, ensuring that every smallest-level unit has at least one “mentor” and one “typical affiliate” in digital transformation to lead and foster the “Digital Literacy” Movement.

Offices and units should proactively select “models”, propose specialised refresher courses, and develop a core force capable of providing advice, guidance, and assistance for troops’ study and application of digital skills in their practical work. Offices and units should promote emulation movements relevant to the application of digital technologies in command, management, training, logistics support, and technical work, closely link the “Digital Literacy” Movement with the Project on “building a learning society in the VPA towards 2030 and beyond” and the Movement entitled “the entire country emulates to build a learning society and promotes lifelong learning for the period of 2023 - 2030”. Doing so will help encourage the spirit of self-learning and active acquisition of new knowledge and technologies among cadres and soldiers and contribute to building a learning, innovative environment within the VPA and flexibly adapting to the requirements set by the national digital transformation period.

Fifth, effectively carrying out preliminary and final reviews to draw lessons on the “Digital Literacy” Movement across the VPA. To ensure the Movement’s effectiveness and far-reaching, sustainable positive impacts, party committees and commands at all levels should focus their leadership and direction on organising preliminary and final reviews and drawing lessons in a serious, objective fashion, accurately assessing results, and clearly pointing out weaknesses and difficulties in the implementation process as the basis for adjusting and supplementing solutions properly. Importance should be attached to detecting, rewarding, and multiplying creative, effective models as well as collectives and individuals with significant contributions, thereby encouraging cadres and soldiers to actively take part in the Movement. Due regard should be paid to resolutely combating misperceptions and signs of superficiality in implementing the Movement among units and individuals.

Based on preliminary and final reviews, competent offices should proactively report emerging issues and give advice to Steering Board 3488, the CMC, and the MND on creative models and solutions to improve mechanisms and policies for effectively executing the Movement. In the immediate term, they should carry out “Digital Literacy” evaluations and testing in a serious, substantive, effective manner.

Promoting the “Digital Literacy” Movement across the entire Military is a step towards the realisation of the Politburo’s Resolution 57-NQ/TW and the CMC’s Resolution 3488-NQ/QUTW on breakthroughs in science - technology development and innovation within the VPA. This is not only an urgent task, but also a matter of long-term strategic importance, contributing to fostering a digital learning environment, a culture of self-study and self-improvement, and mastery of knowledge and technology among cadres and soldiers. With the close leadership and direction by the CMC and MND, the tireless efforts, great resolve, and scientific approaches by offices and units, hopefully, the “Digital Literacy” Movement will continue developing widely, deeply and making important contributions to building a revolutionary, regular, elite, and modern VPA capable of firmly defending the Socialist Vietnamese Fatherland in the digital era.

Sr. Lt. Gen. LE HUY VINH, PhD

Member of the Party Central Committee

Member of the CMC

Deputy Minister of National Defence

Permanent Deputy Head of Steering Board 3488¹

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1 - The CMC Steering Board on breakthroughs in science - technology development, innovation, and digital transformation within the VPA.