In 2024, Vietnam's digital economy saw a major uptick in interest in artificial intelligence (AI).

Vietnam can unlock the digital economy across sectors through the effective use of AI-powered solutions.

The growth of Vietnam's esports market is highlighted in the Vietnam Esports White Book 2022-2023, which outlines global trends.

According to the EXIM Bank spokesman, Vietnam – a fast growing and populous country in Southeast Asia - has “enormous infrastructure needs” ranging from renewable energy to highways, airports and telecommunications equipment.

The 2012 Vietnam Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Summit opened in Hanoi o­n June 26, aiming to boost the country’s technological infrastructure.

A lot of mystery lies beneath the grounds of the Ho Dynasty Citadel in the north-central province of Thanh Hoa, said Tong Trung Tin, associate professor, doctor and head of the Institute of Archaeology in Hanoi.

Scientists have discovered a specimen of ‘nepenthes thorelii’, a tropical pitcher plant indigenous to Indochina, in the Lo Go-Xa Mat National Park in the southern province of Tay Ninh, after it was believed to be extinct for a century.

Vietnam should adopt incentives and “open” administrative mechanisms to improve the quality of research towards achieving the targets set in the 2011-2020 strategy for scientific and technological development.

The high demand for Internet addresses to develop smart houses would help speed up the shifting from IPv4 to IPv6.

The number of 3G subscribers in Vietnam has shot up thanks to cheaper mobile internet services and smartphones and the rising popularity of tablets.

Vietnam 's oldest mobile operator MobiFone has said it has increased its network capacity by 50 percent in order to meet the rising demand of data-based services. The upgrade, mainly of core transmission lines, wireless GSM network (System for Mobile Communications) and 3G (Third Generation network), focused o­n the central and southern regions, the company said. "While the higher capacity of core transmission will help us serve the rising number of subscribers, an upgraded wireless network and data bandwidth will better serve our Smartphone users" said MobiFone's deputy director Nguyen Dang Nguyen. MobiFone said the upgrade is technically backed by international network solutions firm Nokia Siemens Networks. According to Tanat Techatanabaht, general director of Nokia Siemens Networks Vietnam, the project will help MobiFone solidify its position in the fiercely competitive market while raising the company's revenue from the value added services. MobiFone, a subsidiary of Vietnam 's largest telecom service provider Vietnam Post and Telecommunication Group (VNPT), currently accounts for some 29 percent of the country's total 120 million mobile subscribers. New mobile subscriptions in Vietnam have skyrocketed in recent years with 19 million in 2006, 25 million in 2007, 74 million in 2008, 98 million in 2009 and 120 million in 2012.

The organisation, ‘Education o­n Nature Vietnam’ (ENV), has announced a new website where people can identify many different kinds of species to encourage community’s to protect Vietnam ’s wildlife. The website is easy to access and helps users to identify wild animals which are at risk of being abused or stolen and smuggled out of the country. It also provides information o­n the laws relating to each species as well as a an o­nline service where users can report breaches of the law o­n wild animals. The website currently provides updated information o­n 19 wild animals with others being added at a later date. According to ENV’s Deputy Director Tran Viet Hung, thousands of wild animals are being hunted everyday, pushing many species to the verge of extinction. The o­nline data will help ENV volunteers nationwide to report and record violations, especially in the country’s larger cities.

Green Growth is destined to be the growth engine for the future in Vietnam, according to the draft Strategy for green growth.

The organization, ‘Education o­n Nature Vietnam’ (ENV), has announced a new website where people can identify many different kinds of species to encourage communities to protect Vietnam’s wildlife.

Experts from Vietnam and the US met at a seminar in Hanoi o­n May 8 to discuss the use of ‘In-Pile Thermal Desorption’ (IPTD) technology to clean up Agent Orange or Dioxin contamination from the Da Nang Airport area.

The Viettel Group officially launched its telecom network in Mozambique, under the brand name Movitel, which has the large telecoms network in Mozambique.

Nearly 100 businesses are showcasing their products at the fourth Environment and Energy Tech Hanoi 2012 (ENTECH Hanoi) that opened in Hanoi o­n May 23.

The Hanoitimes - A team of eight scientists from Hong Bang University in Ho Chi Minh City are presently studying a rare phenomenon in which o­ne 11-year-old girl from Tan Binh District is able to create enough heat to burn material items.

The domestic postal service has great potential to develop, but first urgent solutions must be found to overcome the existing market difficulties, experts said.General director of Vietnam Postal Corporation (VNPost) Do Ngoc Binh said the domestic postal service market has an average growth rate of 10-25 per cent per year, which has attracted the attention of many enterprises that trade postal and express mail services mainly in large cities such as Hanoi and HCM City.Vietnam is now integrating into the world economy, and the postal market would have new chances to develop, he said.According to the commitments that accompanied World Trade Organisation membership, Vietnam must open the domestic postal service market this year.The move would permit foreign-invested enterprises to enter the local market and spark competition, meaning that local providers would have to improve the quality of their services, Binh said.Vietnam has 44 enterprises that are licensed to trade express mail services, although many others have provided the same services without licences.Nguyen Thai Khang, Information Technology editor at the Vietnam Post newspaper, said many foreign firms were expected to acquire shares at equitised State-owned postal enterprises.However, local express mail service providers were not prepared to co-operate with other local firms in order to develop, due to a lack of investment and low-quality delivery networks, Khang said.Luong Ngoc Hai, general director of Viettel Postal Joint Stock Company (Viettel Post), said the existing economic crisis has affected the local postal service market.Postal firms have not dared to increase their service fees to compete with rivals although the cost of petrol and transport has increased sharply o­n the market. Instead, they have had to restrict operation costs to reduce losses.In the future, Hai said local post firms would have to compete with four global express mail service providers: FedEx, UPS, TNT and DHL. These firms would expand their market shares in Vietnam after the local market opened under the WTO commitments.Hai said it is necessary to build an association of postal and express mail service providers ahead of time, in order to help local firms improve the quality of their services and compete against their larger rivals.Nguyen Thanh Hung, deputy minister of Information and Communications, said the ministry would support the establishment of the association. Local firms should carefully consider the advantages and disadvantages of the proposal to succeed in future business endeavours.Hai also said the State should build a strategy for the development of human resources within the larger scheme to improve Vietnam's postal services.

Science and technology have significantly contributed to promoting the restructuring and growth of the national economy and the rising value of high-tech products will account for 45 percent of GDP by 2020.This is projected in a scientific and technological development strategy in the 2011-2020 period recently approved by the Prime Minister.According to the strategy, the value of transactions in the scientific and technological market will increase by 15-17 percent annually.By 2015, there will be 9 – 10 scientific and technological researchers among 10,000 people. Around 5,000 engineers will be trained by international standards to manage high-tech production lines in key sectors.By 2020, 60 scientific and technological research and application organizations will be formed by regional and international standards. While 60 training establishments and 5,000 businesses in this field will be also established.The strategy aims to restructure the national scientific and technological development system and encourage state-owned organizations to be self-responsible for their own operations.

Tourists visiting Ha Long Bay in the northern province of Quang Ninh are benefiting from free wifi service as of April 20.

President Truong Tan Sang has awarded the Ho Chi Minh prize to 10 Russian oil and gas experts for their great contributions to Vietnam’s economic, science and technology development.A ceremony to hand over the prize to the Russian experts was held at the Vietnamese Embassy in Moscow .The decoration was made in recognition of their contributions to the scientific and technological project to discover and effectively exploit oil from the Cuu Long basin in the Vietnamese continental shelf. Two of the Russian experts were posthumously conferred with the prize.Addressing the ceremony, Vietnamese Ambassador to Russia Pham Xuan Son and General Director of the Vietnam oil and gas group PetroVietnam praised contributions of the Russian experts to the cause of the development of the education, oil and gas sectors of Vietnam.They expressed hope that the traditional and comprehensive cooperation and strategic partnership, including the oil and gas sector, will be further enhanced.

A key piece of legislation is proving a major roadblock for high-tech investors in Vietnam.The headache is caused by the Law o­n High Technology taking effect in 2008, which sets out tough conditions for projects hoping to be classified as high-tech projects and thus to receive special tax incentives.The biggest stumbling blocks for investors are legal requirements, saying that high-tech projects spend at least 1 per cent of their total annual turnover in the first three years of operation o­n research and development (R&D) and more than this amount from the fourth year o­n. Also causing problems is the requirement that the number of workers with university or higher degrees personally involved in R&D activities must account for at least 5 per cent of a project’s total workforce.In addition, average turnover from high-tech products in the first three years must be at least equal to 60 per cent of the firm’s total annual turnover and will rise to 70 per cent from the fourth year.The hi-tech project must also apply environmentally friendly and energy-saving solutions to production and product quality management, thus meeting Vietnam’s standards or technical regulations. In cases where Vietnam does not yet have standards or technical regulations, the standards of international specialized organisations apply.These tough conditions have seen even well-known high-tech firms like Intel, Samsung and Nokia failing to meet criteria under the Law o­n High Technology, despite having already been recognised as high-tech enterprises after special approval from the prime minister.A senior Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) official said the prime minister recognised those firms as high-tech o­nes in Vietnam because they “are well-known brands and will have a positive impact” o­n Vietnam’s industrial development and foreign direct investment attraction in hi-tech sectors.Intel received an investment certificate in Vietnam in 2006 to build a $1 billion chipset factory in Ho Chi Minh City. However, it o­nly started production in Vietnam in October 2010. Samsung started production in Vietnam in October 2009, while Nokia is planning to manufacture mobile-phones in Vietnam from 2013.Nokia o­nce stated it could move its manufacturing project to China from Vietnam if it was not recognised as a high-tech enterprise, said the MPI official.Do Hoai Nam, director of the Ministry of Science and Technology’s Department of Technology Appraisal, Examination and Assessment, admitted that the criteria, especially regulations o­n expenditure o­n R&D and percentage of labourers working in R&D activities was a large barrier for foreign investors.“As I reckon, most foreign manufacturers in Vietnam meet the criteria of manufacturing high-tech products, but don’t meet the criteria of being a high-tech enterprise,” said Nam.According to Nam, enterprises which manufacture hi-tech products enjoy highest incentives in land rentals and import taxes while hi-tech enterprises are given with highest incentives in corporate income tax, land rentals, value-added tax and import-export taxes.“Actually, 1 per cent of total annual turnover spent o­n R&D is a very large amount of money, especially for exporters. Secondly, it is not easy to recruit university-qualified 5 per cent of total labourers working in R&D activities in the context that Vietnam still lacks a well-trained workforce,” Nam added.Kim Yong Seok, planning director of Samsung Electronics Vietnam, admitted 1 per cent of total revenue was a big amount of money because the company’s revenue would increase year-by-year. South-Korean Samsung is planning to build an R&D centre in Hanoi to develop new high-tech products.Last year, the revenue of Samsung’s factory in northern Bac Ninh province reached approximately US$7 billion, according to a source at Samsung Electronics Vietnam. That means Samsung would have had to spend about US$70 million o­n R&D in Vietnam last year to meet the regulations in the Law o­n High Technology.Samsung plans to achieve US$16 billion in export turnover in 2015. By that time, if Samsung wants to continue enjoying the highest incentives, it must spend at least US$160 million o­n R&D, or US$453,296 each day.To make the matter worse, foreign investors are increasingly investing in manufacturing facilities in Vietnam, and they are still facing a serious shortage of high-skilled workforce. Nam said the high-tech criteria should timely be reconsidered because those did not encourage high-tech firms to invest in the country.