Public-private partnerships contribute to digital transformation in Vietnam

According to experts at a VIR's forum on digital transformation on March 21, digitalisation needs to be embedded in all aspects of society to be impactful. The pace and consistency of improvements being made has given a lot of reassurance that Vietnamese authorities are on board to ensure digital transformation continues to accelerate and be applied successfully across different sections of society.

Do Tien Thinh, deputy director of the Vietnam National Innovation Centre (NIC), told that digital transformation is the way to support innovation and further help the business community to achieve emission reduction targets.

"During the process of working with the business community, we see that technology groups have a demand for expanding customers network to provide technology solutions, meanwhile, local enterprises have a demand for digital transformation and innovation," he said. "Being aware of the demand-supply of the market, the NIC plays the role of the intermediate party to connect the private sectors and technology groups as well as technology solutions providers. For example, the demand for training human resources for digital transformation and innovation is huge, so we worked with some technology corporations such as Google to implement some training courses for businesses."

Besides this, the NIC has cooperated with Siemens, and Hitachi to implement innovation support programmes at factories.

The NIC participates in advising policies for government agencies. For example, two years ago, it contributed to the Law on Investment, in which the NIC proposed to offer incentive mechanisms to encourage businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises to implement innovation and digital transformation.

“In my opinion, the concept of public-private partnership in innovation and digital transformation should not be confined to implementing specific projects. The state parties should play a key role to connect the business communities,” Thinh said.

Bruno Sivanandan, co-chairman of EuroCham's Digital Sector Committee said, “Digital transformation by European companies is mainly driven by their ability to capitalise on innovation in the technology space in the fields of web3, AI and most importantly, data protection as consumers are protected as they stand to benefit most from this trend."

"EuroCham and its Digital Sector Committee member companies specialise in these fields and can contribute their knowledge, expertise and best practices in, for example, enabling local IT players to capture a larger market share, make better strategic decisions and improve the bottom line in their business," he said.

Swedish investors in Vietnam are among those taking a lead in the field. Ericsson has been working closely with Mobile Operators in trialling 5G capabilities with initial 5G pilots since 2020. Ericsson is also one of the five companies in the Sweden-Vietnam Energy Alliance, alongside ABB, Hitachi Energy, Hexicon, and Lincoln, advising on the integration of renewable energy in the national energy plan.

Other Swedish investors such as Tetra Pak, Assa Abloy, Polarium, and Hestra, among others have adopted sustainability as their operational motto and work to become local pioneers by opting for green set-up and implementing sustainable practices among staff members. Swedish solution providers of standardised management systems are also ready to work with the Vietnamese industry to figure out the best practice.

These Swedish investors say that doing business in Vietnam in compliance still requires much physical paperwork in the mix with partial digital, causing issues in syncing and centralising data. To support this, clarity on data protection needs to be bolstered, they claim.

Upgrading data protection would help businesses and government bodies plan with clarity and confidence. Thus, the Swedish government is boosting the digital revolution is to recognise and provide guidance and practical support to key stakeholders, including innovation hubs, academia, enterprises, and government bodies.