The Committee for External Relations of St. Petersburg on 28 April organised a teleconference on cooperation between Vietnam and Russia in artificial intelligence (AI). This is the first online conference between the two countries in the field, which is developing rapidly and offering both development potential and challenges.
The conference received support from the Vietnam Software and IT services (VINASA), Russoft (an association of software developing companies in Russia), the Technological Sovereignty Exports Association, and the Overseas Vietnamese Association in Russia.
According to a news report, the Deputy Chairman of the Committee for External Relations of St. Petersburg Vyacheslav Kalganov explained that the theme of the teleconference is a topical issue because the current technology development makes the demand for control and automation systems increase. Experts and speakers exchanged views on the high-technology situations in the two countries as well as potential cooperative fields. They highlighted priorities for cooperation between the two countries in information technology and digital transformation and made interactive proposals in the AI field.
Earlier that week, Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son told his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, that Vietnam has always attached importance to the comprehensive strategic partnership with Russia. During a phone talk with the Russian Minister, Son affirmed that Russia is among the leading partners in Vietnam’s foreign policy, and congratulated the country on its success in containing COVID-19, especially in vaccine research and production.
Despite the pandemic, Vietnam and Russia have maintained exchanges, with many phone talks held between their high-ranking leaders, contributing to promoting the bilateral cooperation across spheres, Son said. The ministers discussed Vietnam-Russia collaboration, covering politics-diplomacy, security-national defence, economy-trade, investment, energy-oil and gas, and COVID-19 prevention and control.
They also compared notes on cooperation between the two foreign ministries and coordination between the two countries at multilateral forums, including the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and ASEAN. Both expressed their hope to well organise activities during the Vietnam-Russia and Russia-Vietnam Year in 2021.
Minister Son used the occasion to thank Russia for supporting Vietnam’s ASEAN Chairmanship in 2020, and non-permanent membership of the UNSC for 2020-2021. Vietnam is willing to closely coordinate with Russia and other ASEAN countries in organising activities marking the 25th anniversary of the ASEAN-Russia relations (1996-2021), Son said. For his part, the Russian minister lauded Vietnam’s performance in external affairs, as well as the country’s increasingly impressive role in the regional and international arena.
As OpenGov Asia reported recently, AI technology application in Vietnam is predicted to witness a significant rise to serve socio-economic growth purposes. It is essential to have precise and practical guidance for this development. As the economic growth rate in Vietnam seemingly sees a slow-down, AI with its useful implementations in diverse fields might become the promising driving force to boost this rate, not to mention its tremendous values in education, healthcare, and legislation.
Due to the exceptional usefulness of AI to a country, there is now a strong need to develop capable AI human resources to better exploit this technology to serve the community, businesses. AI-related morality values should also be considered in any national AI strategy.
