The development of the Vietnamese digital economy will create plenty of fresh opportunities for Czech companies operating in this sector locally, particularly in terms of cyber security and digital banking.

This comes after, economic diplomat at the Czech Embassy in Hanoi, made the remarks in an article detailing the country’s newly-approved strategy on Industry 4.0 posted on the Czech Foreign Ministry’s website mzv.cz.

Jarkulisch described how the latest Vietnamese strategy has set relatively ambitious goals, with aims to transform the current growth model based on the use of cheap labour and targets, with the digital economy contributing to 30% of GDP by 2030.

Alongside the rapid introduction of new technologies and the increasing digitisation of the economy, it also expects that the economy’s overall competitiveness will grow and the country’s position in international comparisons will improve significantly. Within the next 10 years, the nation may be among the top 40 countries in the Global Innovation Index, the top 30 countries in the Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI), and the top 50 countries in E-Government Development Index (EGDI).

In line with this strategy, the Vietnamese Government has also identified 99 priority technologies which it will focus on supporting, including artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, quantum technology, bioinformatics, and aerospace technology. This is in addition to remote sensing technology, research and development of high-resolution screens, and advanced 3D printing technology.

At present, the country is not at the initial stages of development of the digital economy. Indeed, over the past five years, the nation has managed to prepare a relatively stable starting position and create the basic preconditions in order to enable further growth. In addition, the growth rate of the digital economy has significantly accelerated due to the emergence of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, raising the total value of the Vietnamese digital economy by 16% to US$14 billion last year. According to a study recently published by Google, the growth motivations of this sector locally should continue to accelerate and reach a figure of up to US$52 billion by 2025.

Whilst there are many aspects needed for the development of the digital economy, the nation is not lagging behind regional competitors. Throughout Southeast Asia, the country ranks third in the number of internet users, third in terms of mobile phone users, and second in the average speed of internet through mobile devices. Due to this, the nation can also be proud to be among the countries with the largest number of Facebook users in the world with 60 million registered users, meaning that Vietnam is home to the eighth largest Facebook community in the world, he wrote.a