Page 205 - ISC PROCEEDINGS 21.4

Comparing the three-layer capability structure: from e-government to AI
readiness
To assess the transition from e-government toward AI-enabled governance in a
systematic way, the study standardizes the three capability layers onto a common 0–1
scale. Since EGDI 2024 and the GovTech Maturity Index (GTMI) 2025 are already reported
on a 0–1 scale, their values are retained as originally published. For the Government AI
Readiness Index 2025, the composite score reported by Oxford Insights is converted to
the same scale by dividing the original value by 100, ensuring comparability across the
three layers.
Based on these standardized values, the study further constructs an integrated
indicator by calculating the arithmetic mean of the three indices. This Integrated Score
provides an overall reference measure of a country’s digital governance development and
enables comparative analysis across economies in the region.
Table 5. Normalized scores of the three layers of digital transformation (0–1)
Country EGDI 2024 GTMI 2025 AI readiness 2025 Integrated score
Singapore 0.969 0.927 0.820 0.905
Malaysia 0.811 0.848 0.687 0.782
Thailand 0.835 0.832 0.630 0.766
Indonesia 0.799 0.840 0.610 0.750
Vietnam 0.771 0.736 0.5998 0.702
Philippines 0.762 0.715 0.6051 0.694
Source: UN E-Government Survey 2024; World Bank GovTech Dataset (2025); Oxford
Insights Government AI Readiness Index 2025.
The results show that Vietnam scores 0.771 in the digital government foundation
layer and 0.736 in the GovTech layer, indicating a relatively solid level of development in
digital infrastructure and government digital systems. In contrast, the country’s AI
readiness score reaches only 0.5998, significantly lower than the two preceding layers.
This gap suggests that although Vietnam has established a reasonably strong digital
foundation and made progress in GovTech implementation, its capacity to leverage
artificial intelligence in public governance remains comparatively limited.
From a regional perspective, Vietnam’s integrated three-layer score reaches 0.702,
which is lower than Singapore (0.905), Malaysia (0.782), and Thailand (0.766), but roughly
comparable to the Philippines (0.694). These results indicate that Vietnam has made
notable progress in the digital transformation of the public sector, yet it has not entered
the group of leading ASEAN countries in terms of multi-layer digital governance
development.
More importantly, the three-layer analysis reveals that Vietnam’s digital
transformation remains uneven in terms of depth. While the e-government foundation
and GovTech layers have reached relatively advanced levels, the AI readiness layer has
not developed at a comparable pace. This imbalance suggests that Vietnam has
successfully built digital infrastructure and government platforms, but the broader
technology ecosystem and the diffusion capacity of AI across the economy remain limited.
From the perspective of the analytical framework, these findings suggest that a high
EGDI score represents a necessary but insufficient condition for the transition toward AI-
enabled governance. The GovTech layer serves as an intermediate infrastructure,
enabling cross-agency data integration and the deployment of digital systems at a whole-
of-government scale. In contrast, the AI readiness layer reflects the institutional capacity

204