Digital transformation will open up opportunities for Vietnam, mainly technology enterprises, the Minister of Information and Communications, Nguyen Manh Hung, said at a meeting earlier this week.
According to a press release, although Vietnam is expected to benefit from digitalisation, the nucleus for digital transformation is Vietnamese tech enterprises and they will undergo comprehensive changes.
Speaking at the meeting with the information technology and communications (ICT) community in the southern region, the Minister said that digital transformation does not need many facilities as the major factor is changing mindsets. IT firms play an important role in this process.
These tech enterprises may originate from large commercial and service firms with a high financial capacity and well-known tech firms intending to switch to producing made-in-Vietnam products and start-ups.
Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) stays on top of the ICT growth in the country, but the contribution from firms involved in research and development accounted for a mere 30% in revenue, and 50% in the number of the total enterprises.
The Minister explained that the ICT community should further focus on researching and developing products as this market is not limited and Vietnamese customers need more products.
Furthermore, Vietnamese firms should manufacture high-quality products that are different from foreign ones to compete with their global rivals.
As for difficulties in testing new products, the Ministry will launch test programs and collaborate with the HCMC government to adjust a few unreasonable regulations and policies and create the most favourable conditions for IT firms to gain ground.
The Minister also had a meeting with the Binh Phuoc authorities to discuss the development of ICT for the province.
At the meeting, the provincial government proposed the Ministry maintain the data integration platform to serve the document management system. Support it with information security, remove inaccurate information on social media platforms, and help the province build a smart city project.
Minister Hung also asked telecom and IT firms and relevant agencies to consider Binh Phuoc Province’s proposals, suggesting the province prioritise e-commerce development.
As reported earlier, Vietnam is pushing for the development of communication technology adoption. The Ministry recently launched a forum to support technology businesses.
The event’s main objective was to support the Vietnamese technology business community and develop it into a driving force for economic breakthroughs; helping the country escape the medium-income gap and become a developed nation.
Up till now, digital-based commerce brought back about US $3.5 billion for Vietnam or 1.7% of its GDP and the figure is expected to reach US $42 billion by 2030. Companies, which play an important role in economic growth, cannot produce and advertise their products effectively. Hence, technology development must be one of the country’s top priority.
Vietnam’s ICT sector has around 50,000 enterprises with combined revenues of about US $100 billion. To increase this figure, the government plans to adopt a national digital transformation strategy for 2019.
The country targets to house 100,000 ICT enterprises that need to transform development strategies, from assembling to manufacturing their products.
The forum Make In Vietnam covered five zones under Industry 4.0: economics (finance, e-commerce); transport, construction and natural resources (environment); healthcare and tourism; agriculture; and number conversion.
