The Republic of Korea (RoK)’s National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA) officially inaugurated a centre for Vietnam-Korea IT cooperation in Ho Chi Minh City, earlier this week.
The centre will serve as an important bridge for connecting and boosting cooperation and investment between Vietnamese and RoK firms in the field of IT.
The head of NIPA, said that the opening of this IT cooperation centre in Vietnam shows the RoK government’s efforts to support Vietnamese and RoK companies to foster ties in IT.
Accordingly, the centre will provide support, in terms of working venues and ICT cooperation programmes, for the RoK’s ICT businesses investing in six areas including e-government, smart training, smart city, smart healthcare, smart business, and smart traffic.
In addition, the RoK government will develop special assistance programmes in the time ahead to contribute to the development of Vietnam’s IT industry and the building of the start-up environment in the ICT sector.
This is the second centre of its kind that has been established in Vietnam, following the first one being launched in Hanoi two years ago.
In 2017, both ministers affirmed that the information science and technology sector is important for creating new industries as well as improving living standards. Thus, Vietnam and South Korea started looking to increase co-operation in this sector.
However, even before the establishment of the two centres, the governments and enterprises of the two countries developed numerous exchange programmes to work on IT-related policies and apply technology. As a result, Vietnam became the second largest IT export partner of South Korea.
Last year, during the Vietnam-Korea ICT Cooperation Forum, the Deputy Minister Nguyen Minh Hong said that the relationship between Vietnam and South Korea over the past 25 years since the establishment of their bilateral diplomatic relationship has reached great achievements in all areas. In particular, ICT cooperation is contributing to deepening this relationship as well as positively contributing to the development of each country.
Cooperation in the field of ICT has been promoted by both governments and enterprises. The two sides also closely cooperated in the training of human resources, exchange of experts, policy formulation, development, and the application of new technologies.
At the Forum, participants from both state management agencies and enterprises had practical discussions to further opportunities and specific cooperation activities. And strengthen the overall friendship and cooperation between the two countries.
The Minister of Science, Technology, and Communications of Korea believed that the cooperation between the two countries and businesses will create the foundation to deal with the changes that the 4th Industrial Revolution might bring.
The two countries also have close ties in other sectors like defence. Last month, the commander of South Korea’s army logistics command visited Vietnam. The trip highlighted some of the ongoing activity by the countries, both in the logistics space and in their defence relationship. Both sides also discussed some specifics on advancing logistics cooperation as well.
