Creative digital applications to develop digital economy - New driving force for economic growth and labor productivity

On December 11, 2023, in Ha Long city, Quang Ninh province, the Ministry of Information and Communications coordinated with the People's Committee of Quang Ninh province to organize the 5th National Forum on Developing Vietnamese Digital Technology Enterprises - Make in Vietnam 2023 , with the theme "Creating digital applications to develop the digital economy - New driving force for economic growth and labor productivity".

Vietnam.vn respectfully introduces the full text of Minister Nguyen Manh Hung's speech at the ceremony.

The National Forum on Developing Vietnamese Digital Technology Enterprises is held every December. December is also an occasion to celebrate a special holiday for the digital technology business community, Vietnam Digital Technology Enterprise Day on December 12. Vietnam is perhaps the only country in the world to have a day to honor digital technology enterprises. Tomorrow is December 12. Congratulations to Vietnamese digital technology entrepreneurs and enterprises!

The forum is a time for us to look back, summarize, evaluate the development, and honor typical digital technology enterprises through the Make in Vietnam Digital Technology Product Award.

These are excellent digital technology products designed, created and manufactured in Vietnam, having a great impact and influence in bringing the activities of people, businesses and governments into the digital environment, contributing to promoting the development of Digital Government, Digital Economy and Digital Society.

Looking back over the past 4 years, from 2019 to present, Vietnam's digital technology industry has had encouraging developments and growth.

The number of digital technology enterprises increased by 30%, digital technology industry revenue increased by 32%, the proportion of Make in Vietnam of digital technology industry products increased from 21% to 29%. In particular, the field of software production for foreign countries increased by 43%, and we currently have over 1,400 enterprises of this type, with revenue gradually approaching the $10 billion mark.

In 2019, we named and gave birth to the Vietnamese Digital Technology community, with the mission of Make in Vietnam: Research in Vietnam, Create in Vietnam, Create in Vietnam, contributing to helping Vietnam escape the middle-income trap, realizing the aspiration of a strong and prosperous Vietnam. Vietnam not only assembles and processes but also creates Vietnamese products, solves Vietnamese problems and goes global.

If you want to go far, remember the original mission!

The theme of this year's Forum, which will also be the theme of 2024, is: Creating digital applications to develop the digital economy - a new driving force for economic growth and labor productivity.

The most important thing in developing the digital economy is digital applications, digital transformation applications for industries. So who will do this? It must be the network operators, the digital technology enterprises. We have the infrastructure, we have the technology, we have the human resources, we have the knowledge of digital transformation, so we must be the ones to create digital transformation applications for industries to sell to them. In the past few years, we left this to the industries to do themselves and therefore, the development of digital transformation was very slow.

Developing digital applications for industries is also product creation, which is also Make in Vietnam. Network operators and CNS enterprises must consider this as a research and development activity. China Mobile, a Chinese network operator, spends up to $4 billion a year to develop applications and Use Cases for industries. They have developed over 30,000 industrial 5G applications, and China Mobile's annual revenue has increased by over 10%. The 5G application market will reach $670 billion by 2025, which will help network operators' revenue increase by 50% compared to 2020.

So, tens of thousands of Vietnamese digital technology enterprises should go into industries and fields to create digital applications, help with digital transformation, and develop digital technology for these industries and fields. And this is also the process of industrialization and modernization of the country. Vietnamese digital technology enterprises from now on have a new mission of industrialization and modernization of the country through creating digital applications and digital transformation for industries and fields.

Developing the digital economy in all sectors is also a way to increase labor productivity in these sectors . For many years, Vietnam has failed to achieve the target of increasing labor productivity. Now, our solution to this difficult problem is to create digital applications to develop digital economy in all sectors.

2024 will be the year of commercialization and development of 5G nationwide to create infrastructure for industrial digital applications.

2024 is also the year of AI development, especially narrow AI, creating AI applications for each field, industrial AI . Let me talk a little about narrow AI.

AI works when humans give it a purpose, certain rules. Without these two things, AI will stand still. Humans can give different purposes, different rules, in different contexts, to solve different problems. Not to mention that humans also decide what data to give AI, what algorithms and how we teach it. So human work will focus more on human work, which is to raise the AI ​​child, then direct it where, what goals, what direction, so that it can help us.

There will come a time when everyone will have their own virtual assistant, this virtual assistant is not only the knowledge of humanity but also carries the identity of each individual. And the assistant will always be an assistant, unless people give up their role as masters. Narrow AI and industrial AI applications will bring quick results, help increase labor productivity, intelligentize human resources, and have little risk. So let's start first and very quickly with narrow AI applications.

2024 is also the first year we implement the national strategy on semiconductor industry development.

The semiconductor industry is a foundation industry, not only that, it is also a national key industry in the next 30-50 years. As long as humanity continues to develop based on information, based on data as an input factor of production, data processing, that is, semiconductor chips, will continue to be essential. The need for data processing will be no different from the need for electricity and water. Some countries have introduced the concept of Computing Utility, that is, computing infrastructure.

Our most fundamental advantage is that Vietnamese people have STEM genes (math, engineering, technology and science) . STEM is the foundation of semiconductor technology, of chip design. Among the advantages, genetic advantages are the most important, probably not less than geopolitical advantages. From human resources advantages will come other advantages. From the global center of semiconductor human resources will lead to the global center of semiconductor industry.

When we develop the semiconductor industry, we should look at it in a larger context, a larger picture. If we talk about the semiconductor chip design market, it is only $60 billion, if we talk about the entire semiconductor industry, it is $600 billion, but the electronics industry is over $3,000 billion, and the digital transformation industry is over $20,000 billion, which is 30 times larger than the semiconductor industry.

Developing semiconductor technology is also an opportunity for Vietnam to rebuild its domestic electronics industry (such as consumer electronics, medical electronics, industrial electronics, etc.), especially when this industry is entering the transition phase to AI electronics and IoT devices. The semiconductor industry is also the core of the digital transformation industry. The digital transformation industry is the largest market for semiconductor chips. Vietnam with a population of 100 million is a large market, and is in a stage of rapid development, rapid industrialization, rapid digital transformation, and high electronics consumption, so it will be a favorable context for the semiconductor industry.

The semiconductor industry is a supply chain, a global ecosystem. We will develop the Vietnamese semiconductor industry in a domestic and global ecosystem. There is both autonomy and international cooperation. But Vietnam still has to move towards a complete supply chain, not just a few stages. Digital technology is changing very quickly, maybe even faster. Only a complete national supply chain can meet the requirements of high speed and low cost.

Without Make in Vietnam, Vietnam cannot become a developed country . Without Make in Vietnam, we cannot go out into the world. Without Make in Vietnam, Vietnam cannot be self-reliant. Without Make in Vietnam, Vietnam cannot be strong and prosperous.

Vietnam is a country with a very high density of digital technology businesses. They are eager to make Vietnamese products. They are eager to conquer the world, to make Vietnam famous with Vietnamese products, with Vietnamese technology.

They also really want the government, ministries and localities to assign them bigger tasks to transform the country, to industrialize and modernize the country, they have enough capacity to do those things. Only big things and big aspirations can help create big Vietnamese enterprises.

Vietnamese digital technology enterprises are committed to doing their best to turn Vietnam into a technological nation, creating technology and consuming technology , using technology to realize the aspiration of prosperity and strength, and not only that, but also turning Vietnam into a global digital technology center. Vietnamese digital technology products will contribute to creating a Vietnamese brand, contributing to the prosperity of humanity.

Minister of Information and Communications

Nguyen Manh Hung