Vietnam Business Council for Sustainable Development under Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VBCSD-VCCI) successfully organized the virtual event named “Dialogue with Media 2021” themed “Digital transformation for breakthrough: Technology solutions or Strategic mindset of enterprises?”. The event was virtually attended by over 100 representatives from media agencies and businesses via Zoom and was livestreamed on the VBCSD’s Youtube channel.

In 2021, the Covid-19 pandemic’s negative impacts to the socio-economic stability and development across the country are much worse than those in 2020. However, during this challenging period, the digital transformation has been being implemented more strongly than ever. The business community has become more actively in applying new thinking and digitalization in business operation so that they can maintain their production-business activities in the best way. The digital economy is now more visible than ever. “In that context, VBCSD-VCCI has chosen the topic “Digital transformation for breakthrough: Technology solutions or Strategic mindset of enterprises?” to clarify the issues that many businesses, especially SMEs, are still confused when they develop strategies and implement digital economy model-based production and business activities. Through the event, the representatives of sustainable companies also share good practices and experiences in implementing digital transformation, thereby helping them obtaining new business opportunities and overcoming challenges caused the pandemic.”, Mr. Nguyen Quang Vinh, VCCI General Secretary, VBCSD Executive Vice Chairman shared in his opening speech. 

Representing VNPT Information Technology Company (VNPT-IT), Mr. Nguyen Trung Kien, Director of Strategy presented about “Digital transformation or digitization only?: From mindset to action”. Through his presentation, Mr. Kien clarified the difference between the two concepts of “digital transformation” and “digitization”, sharing about the current situation of digital transformation among the local business community, VNPT’s experiences in supporting the Government in digital transformation, and proposing recommendations to businesses to optimize digital transformation. Regarding the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic to digital transformation, Kien shared over 80% of business leaders think that digital transformation is becoming more and more urgent and important, around 65% plan to increase investment on digital transformation, and prioritized solutions for businesses now are work-from-home on large scale, cyber security, e-commerce and marketing, as well as process automation. 

According to the VNPT-IT representative, three factors determing the success of digital transformation are human resources, institution, and technology; habit changing is the biggest difficulty in digital transformation; awareness and correct awareness is the biggest challenge in digital transformation. Kien also encouraged businesses themselves to assess such risks as cyber security, data governance, privacy, reduced quality, reduced number of jobs, etc. 

Besides, the Panel Discussion “Enterprises as a pillar in a digital economy: Innovation and Challenges” welcomed the participation and sharing of representatives from Ericsson Vietnam, Nestlé Vietnam and Traphaco. From practical experiences of a business, Mr. Urs Kloeti, Factory Manager of Nestlé Bong Sen shared ““Our vision is to become a leading sustainable Glocal company focusing on innovation, digital transformation and sustainable development.  These key platforms have enabled the company to respond and continue to thrive despite the adverse impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. In terms of digital transformation, we approach the opportunities with a “Bottom-line value backward rather than technology forward”. It is necessary to prioritize data digitization to understand the opportunities, before investing into advanced tools. The most important thing in a digital transformation strategy is to equip and develop necessary skills for employees to access and master the technology. Digital transformation has by all means created positive impacts on the entire supply chain, improved product quality and consumer experience quality, supported sustainable farming and production, and generated a safer, more productive and more connecting working environment for employees”.

Representing a big name in the local business community, Mrs. Dao Thuy Ha, Deputy General Director of Traphaco shared: “in recent years, Traphaco has gradually succeeded in implementing digital transformation comprehensively, from preparing a “4.0” thinking for all business activities, to investing in human resources, facilities, to developing suitable processes, catching up with the trend of online shopping. Traphaco has also actively invested in international standard-based modern pharmaceutical technology, using robots in production to create a leading advantage in Pharma 4.0 in Vietnam; applying information technology in sales management (DMS); applying ERP in corporate governance; analysing and exploiting customer data via Business Intelligence (BI) system; assessing capacity of each agent, phamarcy shop to optmize sale policies. When the pandemic occurred, Traphaco quickly adapted and changed, achieving good growth: In 2020, we increased 12% in revenue, 27% in profit after tax. In the first 6 months of 2021, the company continued to grow by 22% in revenue and 38% in profit after tax over the same period last year.”

With international experiences in supporting digital transformation and being a reputed strategic partner providing advanced Mobile network technology solutions to all major Telecom carriers in Vietnam over the past 28 years, Mr. Denis Brunetti, President of Ericsson Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia stated that Enterprises engage in digitalization for business reasons, with digital infrastructure technology being the enabler; and Industry digitalization is happening across all segments, and dedicated networks and enterprise networking services are examples of areas already leveraging 5G mobile technologies, coupled with AI, Automation and the Internet of Things (IoT). 

Also according to Denis: “We can see 5G’s potential to transform industries and society at large – with use cases such as smart manufacturing, smart cities, smart grids, self-driving cars and advanced healthcare applications, just to mention a few. Healthcare, manufacturing, automotive and energy/utilities sectors represent the largest value pools for services created or enhanced by 5G. The possibilities that 4G and 5G IoT will create for enterprises across all industries will not only put enterprises on a fast track to meet the demands of the new world in the digital age but more importantly, contribute to the ongoing sustained socio-economic development of Vietnam.”

Dialogue with media on sustainable development is an annual activitiy by VBCSD-VCCI since 2018, to update and spread information of how the business community is doing sustainability among the society generally and media agencies particularly. The 2021 dialogue is supported by Nestlé Việt Nam.