Vietnamese businesses are lazy to apply new technologies such as AI and Blockchain.

The above sharing was given by experts at the discussion session "Exploiting new technology in the public and private sectors for the future economy", within the framework of the Technology Festival with the theme "Applying new technology to create a new economy", held in Ho Chi Minh City recently.

New technology changes very quickly.

According to Mr. Nguyen Manh Cuong, Deputy Chief of the Ministry Office, Director of the Southern Office of the Ministry of Science and Technology, 6 years ago, Vietnam's innovation ecosystem was just starting out and was still very young. However, in recent times, reports from many prestigious international organizations have ranked Vietnam among the region's most dynamic groups.

In 2023, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) published in the Global Innovation Index 2023 (GII), Vietnam ranked 46th out of 132 countries; one of the 7 middle-income countries that have made the most progress in innovation over the past decade.

In 2023, the Government has paid attention to removing difficulties and obstacles for the innovation ecosystem to develop rapidly. Specifically, the Government has improved many policies, especially for small and medium enterprises to quickly apply new technologies.

Mr. Nguyen Manh Cuong said that the technology life cycle is changing very quickly. For example, the commercial life cycle of Apple's iPhone is 1 year but the technology life cycle inside is actually only 6 months. The challenge for Vietnam is that resources cannot target and keep up with that speed of innovation.

The Ministry of Science and Technology has a simple approach. Science and technology is to create knowledge, while innovation is to turn knowledge into money.

According to Mr. Nguyen Manh Cuong, world technology has changed a lot. If science and technology cannot be converted into money, it will remain like a locked box, unable to do anything, or it will take a long time to create an economy.

Ms. Lynn Hoang, Country Director of Binance Vietnam, also believes that in terms of technology in general, Vietnam may have a slower starting point than the world. But fortunately, with new technologies such as GenAI and Blockchain, the times have put Vietnam at the same starting point as the world, with opportunities being shared equally among all.

In the Blockchain field alone, we can be confident that Vietnam has had a good start, with projects leading global trends. For example: Sky Mavis, the father of the famous gamefi Axie Infinity, once considered a unicorn of Vietnam, has surpassed the 1 billion USD threshold in less than 3 years, with 3/5 founders being Vietnamese.

However, according to Ms. Lynn Hoang, we need to be frank with each other that technology, especially new technology, changes very quickly. Vietnam has a good starting position, but to compete in the long term, it needs a long-term strategy from both businesses and the Government's direction.

Vietnamese businesses are lazy to apply technology.

Mr. Tran Phuc Hong, CEO of TMA Innovation, said that there is a paradox in Vietnam, which is that there are many businesses providing technology services, including new technologies such as AI and Blockchain to the world market, but domestic businesses are very slow in applying these technologies.

Vietnamese businesses all have a procrastination mentality, only changing when a crisis occurs. Although they develop technology and can confidently keep up with the world, Vietnamese businesses have not yet truly taken advantage of the benefits of new technology to serve their business needs.

For example, with smart cameras, TMA has provided many factories and buildings with 24/7 monitoring, just adding an AI chip can automatically analyze videos, detect abnormalities and does not require many operators. But while TMA is cooperating and deploying for partners in Australia, in Vietnam, very few parties use it, although it can be applied in both public and private sectors.

Sharing the same view, Mr. Nguyen Manh Cuong also shared that from the management perspective, or support from state management agencies, it can be said that Vietnamese enterprises are very lazy to apply new technology.

According to Ms. Lynn Hoang, the issue of timing is very important here, whether to innovate and apply new technology or not is an important question that businesses need to ask themselves every day. New technologies such as Blockchain, AI, Vietnam is moving at the right time, on par with the world, but whether to accelerate and maintain or not is also related to the story of policies to promote development.

For example, Blockchain companies themselves are currently looking for the intersection between technological advancement and policy. New technology is moving faster than policy, so innovative businesses are looking for that intersection to balance. Countries are finding suitable policies for these new technologies, Vietnam is still in the observation phase, which is also a good thing when there are no certain standards. Ms. Lynn Hoang hopes that in the near future there will be a clear legal corridor for new technologies in Vietnam.

Dr. Tran Viet Huan, CTO Son Kim Group & President CIO Vietnam also believes that policies and platforms play an important role. In 2008, while working for IBM, he and his colleagues deployed the first cloud computing technology in Vietnam. A year later, at an experience sharing event in Thailand, when listening to the presentations of experts from other countries, he said frankly that Vietnam was moving faster but its foundation was not as solid as other countries in the region. As a result, Thailand has moved very quickly and Vietnam is still far behind the world in the field of cloud computing.

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