Receive digital technology transfer
Applications and platforms for e-commerce and cashless payments for B2B and B2C models are well-used in Vietnam and have been greatly improved during the COVID-19 pandemic. Digital platforms for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are also developing rapidly. These product classes can be well-applied to newly developed countries at reasonable prices. However, many Vietnamese businesses do not have enough knowledge and skills in international business. This limitation, on the positive side, is an opportunity for cooperation between international partners and domestic technology businesses in less selective markets such as Africa, Asia, and even niche markets in developed countries.
Regarding opportunities for research and development (R&D) cooperation with Vietnamese startups, I believe that the potential of Vietnamese technology startups in the fields of Blockchain, Machine Learning, and AI applications has been and is being encouraged by the Government and there will be opportunities to seek international investment sources. The big challenge is that startups lack experience and understanding of market access for their research products, so they still need to strive hard to achieve results.
Tech staff working at FPT Software's high-tech campus, Ho Chi Minh City High-Tech Park. Photo: HOANG TRIEU
Vietnam is implementing a national digital transformation program. The fields of wood production, processing, aquatic products, high-tech agriculture, and food processing are growing rapidly. The energy and renewable energy sectors are gradually developing to replace fossil fuels. Digital solutions, factory automation. Digital problems for the farming, preservation and processing of agricultural products. Problems of optimizing energy and logistics operations. We will still need to continue to connect trade to deploy applications on digital platforms. This is still a great need for Vietnamese technology and digital technology enterprises to invest, coordinate with partners to apply and deploy to serve socio-economic development.
I remember when the software industry set a target of achieving 500 million USD in software export revenue, many people thought that we were... unrealistic. With diligence and hard work, domestic software companies have entered the outsourcing market for Japan, the US, and Canada and reached the 500 million USD milestone without realizing it. Today, in terms of software outsourcing, FPT Software alone (a unit specializing in providing information technology services in foreign markets of FPT Corporation) has reached the milestone of 1 billion USD/year. There are also steadfast faces such as TMA, KMS, Harvey Nash... helping Vietnam to remain a destination for the software outsourcing market with high added service value.
Confidently go out to sea
If I were to mark a notable milestone for Vietnamese small and medium-sized information technology companies in 2023 in the international arena, I would use the word "confidently stepping out into the ocean with my own products". That is HQSoft Company with distribution and retail solutions that have been chosen by large corporations such as Johnson & Johnson, Philips to deploy their management systems in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia since previous years and have always been expanding. HQSoft, with its collisions and challenges in the Vietnamese market, has confidently opened offices in Thailand and some regional countries to start entering the world market (go-global). That is iLotusLand - a young start-up with an application solution for monitoring and managing the environment on the Internet of Things (IoT) platform that is being trusted and applied by provinces and cities. Not only Vietnamese customers, but also customers in Mongolia and Brazil choose the company because of its accuracy, ease of operation and reasonable price.
FPT Company at Ho Chi Minh City High-Tech Park. Photo: HOANG TRIEU
That is a young enterprise of Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology in collaboration with Viettel's 5G Lab to produce peripheral equipment and applications to operate the internal transport fleet of an American airport with anti-collision technology. Those are enterprises that grew up from the business incubator of Ho Chi Minh City High-Tech Park. After 5 to 6 years of successful business in the international market, they returned and became investors in the high-tech park to produce and develop high-tech applications for unmanned aircraft such as drones, UAVs... There are many other small and medium-sized technology enterprises that choose the go-global path with their products, contributing to increasing value along with software outsourcing.
It would be remiss not to mention Vietnamese applications that are "exported" back to Vietnamese enterprises and foreign enterprises investing in Vietnam. Our enterprises used to spend millions of USD to equip international ERP solutions for each of their enterprises. The choice of advanced management solutions all revolved around solutions from SAP, Oracle, Microsoft. However, in 2022-2023, when the economy was sluggish, Vietnamese and international enterprises took the opportunity to upgrade their management systems. Vietnamese solution companies that mastered enterprise management technology, combined with newer, more flexible software development technology, won orders and gained a solid foothold. Gia Minh Company (GMC) with its comprehensive ExpertERP solution on mobile platform has been used by Starprint Group (Thailand), S&K Vina (Korea), Unilever Vietnam as well as customers in the packaging, wood, and printing industries to replace international products. In 2024, the company has made commitments to deploy for customers abroad.
Another bright spot in the picture of technology mastery that cannot be ignored is the role of enterprises in the logistics sector. Logistics costs in developed countries account for about 12%-14% of GDP. In Vietnam, according to reports from the Vietnam Logistics Association, this ratio accounts for nearly 22% of GDP. Applying technology to logistics problems will bring great results for socio-economic development. Good management and coordination of cargo clearance at seaports, optimal gate and yard dispatching systems, and connections with international logistics systems while still ensuring improved customs clearance of imported and exported goods.
Previously, all seaports had to buy foreign solutions at a cost of 3-5 million USD per port. CEH has mastered the technology with the VTOS port management solution and the VSL ecosystem, defeating international competitors to equip the port system of Gemadept, Hai Phong port, Saigon port... saving millions of USD for the state budget. At the same time, the company began to form an ecosystem with domestic companies to gradually solve the problem of optimizing the warehouse system. TKE Company's warehouse management solution is currently trusted by nearly 300 domestic and foreign warehouse enterprises. CEH's port management platform has also been studied and applied by seaport customers in the region. With these excellent results, CEH was selected as a typical digital transformation enterprise to present at the conference summarizing the national digital transformation program 2023.
2024 has come with opportunities and challenges. In addition to the results of the past year that need to be maintained, we are "excited" to be a chip manufacturing country with the first cooperation with the Netherlands - a country that manufactures chip manufacturing machines, cooperation visits from Nvidia, and the expansion of Intel while the human resources in this field are almost zero. But as the old saying goes: If you are persistent and persevere, if you dare to go, you will get there!
Source: https://nld.com.vn/buc-tranh-cong-nghe-so-viet-nam-196240205135614681.htm
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