Son La has deployed the use of digital certificates and specialized digital signature applications to serve the activities of provincial State administrative agencies since 2017. To date, the number of specialized digital certificates in operation is 6,632, of which 5,503 are personal digital certificates.(with 4,837 Token devices, 490 SIM-PKI devices, 176 centralized digital certificates),1,129 organizational digital certificates. State agencies in the province basically meet the conditions for using digital signatures in handling work.

The Government Cipher Committee inspected and evaluated the application of digital signatures for public service in Son La province in 2024.

The document management and administration system of Son La province has been integrated with a digital signature toolkit specifically for public service.(VGCA Sign Service)The entire process of drafting, processing, approving, signing and issuing documents is carried out directly on the software. The Department of Information and Communications has instructed the secretaries of agencies and units to use the tool to check the legality of incoming documents to ensure that only documents are received and processed in accordance with regulations.

The Son La province administrative procedure settlement information system has been integrated with digital signatures to serve the use of online public services by citizens and the administrative procedure settlement operations of state agencies. In particular, the Department of Information and Communications has compiled and registered the need for specialized digital certificates to serve the Reception and Result Delivery Department at all levels in the province.(with 962 individuals at 235 one-stop departments).

Up to now, leaders of departments, branches, localities and most civil servants at one-stop shops at all levels have been granted specialized digital certificates to serve the confirmation of documents submitted by organizations and individuals that have not been signed and digitize the results of administrative procedure settlement for results that have not been signed or in the settlement of procedures of a special nature (such as issuing driving licenses, medical practice certificates, etc.).

Mr. Pham Quoc Chinh, Deputy Director of the Department of Information and Communications, said: Every year, the Department coordinates with relevant departments and branches to open training courses on digital transformation, administrative reform, and document and archive work, which include topics from basic to advanced, suitable for cadres, civil servants, and public employees on the use of specialized digital signatures in public service activities. For the province's shared information systems that integrate specialized digital signatures for public service, whenever there is an update or change in related functions to use digital signatures, the Department of Information and Communications requires service providers to conduct training and guidance for users.

Leaders of the Department of Education and Training use specialized digital signatures.

Mr. Quang Van Lam, Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Training, informed: Using specialized digital signatures has facilitated the department's leaders in handling work, especially when attending meetings and going on business trips, contributing to saving time and office supplies costs. At the same time, digitally signed documents are quickly sent to relevant departments, branches, sectors and units, contributing to improving productivity and efficiency. Up to now, the level of electronic processing in handling professional work at the department has been significantly improved, the processing of outgoing and incoming documents, drafting and signing, and issuing documents are done in the network environment, contributing to improving work efficiency.

In Yen Chau district, agencies, units, and People's Committees of communes and towns have been granted 605 specialized digital signatures. The receiving and returning results department at the district and commune levels has been granted 80 transaction digital signatures for civil servants and public employees to use for authentication when receiving and returning results of administrative records and procedures.

Mr. Pham Duc Long, Vice Chairman of the District People's Committee, informed: From 2022 to now, the District People's Committee has coordinated with the Son La Information Technology and Telecommunications Center to organize 3 training conferences, instructing on the use of digital certificates, specialized signatures on document management software, online payment and saving to electronic data warehouse on one-stop software. Promoting the use of digital signatures in electronic transactions gradually replaces traditional transactions, ensuring safety and security of information in the network environment.

Safe use, promoting digital transformation

According to the synthesis, the rate of agencies and units applying digital signatures in exchanging electronic documents (except confidential documents) reached 100%. Documents that are required to be exchanged entirely in electronic form are directly signed by authorized individuals and organizations on the documents, with the rate of digitally signed documents having a clear change over the years, from 30% in 2017 to over 99.5% in 2024.,Contribute to improving the efficiency of processing work, significantly reducing the time for sending and receiving documents between agencies and units; changing working style and manners from handling work based on documents to handling work in an electronic environment anywhere, anytime...

Benefits of application The number of digital signatures used for public service is very large, but besides the positive results achieved, the process of using digital signatures for public service encounters many difficulties, sometimes errors arise but civil servants often do not encounter them, so they are confused and do not know how to handle them due to the limited level of information technology of some commune-level civil servants, leading to difficulties in applying digital signatures to work. The process of requesting extension, exchange, and re-issuance of digital signatures still encounters difficulties when subscribers change their job position, work agency, or equipment breaks down; in some cases, when a request for a new issuance has been sent in the form of a paper document, there has been no response as to why the request was not approved.

Support for users of specialized digital signatures on treasury, tax, and insurance systems is still limited, so some agencies and units still use both types of signatures in parallel for some transactions with the treasury, tax, and insurance because the public digital signature service provider is an enterprise with a customer care department that can provide support immediately upon request from users.

To resolve the above difficulties and problems, at a recent meeting with the Government Cipher Committee, Son La province proposed to the Government Cipher Committee to have solutions, instructions, transfer and decentralization for the Department of Information and Communications of Son La province to carry out authentication requests related to renewal, information change, and digital certificate device recovery; assign more rights and functions to look up digital certificate information to the administrative accounts of the direct management agencies on the system for registration and management of digital signature authentication requests.

Assign a focal point to support Son La province in implementing certification requirements, supporting difficulties and problems in the process of using digital signatures locally; supporting units in resolving procedures related to the issuance, cancellation, unlocking, etc. of digital certificates.

The Government Cipher Committee and the Department of Information and Communications inspected the use of digital signatures at the Son La Provincial Public Administration Center.

Currently, Son La province is continuing to deploy the registration of digital certificates for civil servants performing professional work at departments, branches, localities, officials in the health and education sectors with the goal of 100% of cadres, civil servants and public employees using specialized digital certificates in public service activities (signing documents related to public service activities...), so the demand for providing digital signature certificates in the coming time of the province will increase significantly, especially focusing on officials in the health and education sectors (about 25,065 people).

Effective use of specialized digital signatures creates a modern, transparent working environment, reduces paperwork, saves time and costs; contributes to improving the quality and efficiency of public service performance and management and operation of agencies and units. This is considered an important "key" to accelerating the digital transformation process in the province.

 Duy Tung