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.

Hanoi Times - Vietnam is investing 2% of total budget spending, equivalent to 5% of GDP, in science and technology. Is this level too much or not enough? Dr. Nguyen Quan, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology, talks about this.

Hanoi Times - An institute under the Ministry of Information and Communications has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with US and Japanese partners to develop the software and digital industry in Vietnam.Under the MOU, the California-based Laserfiche Company and its exclusive distributor Quadralink Global Services Inc. will offer training and transfer technology to Vietnam’s National Institute of Software and Digital Content Industry (NISCI). The company will also process and manage digital document images for NISCI’s experts.Japan-based Trinity Security Systems Incorporated (T-SS) will also transfer software technology relating to wireless network security and digital content copyright security to the institute.NISCI head Hoang Le Minh said the institute will focus o­n different research, including the market for applications of computer products and mobile calculating devices.Launched o­n Monday in Hanoi, NISCI will also focus o­n training, consulting and transferring technology to local businesses, agencies and organizations of information technology application and development.T-SS provides software, hardware and various other services for digital information security.Laserfiche is a manufacturer of document management, enterprise content management, workflow, records management and document imaging software.

Hanoi Times - Vietnam is capable of operating nuclear power plants, and the plan to run its first nuclear reactor in 2020 is of great significance in the situation of power shortage. The Vice Chairman of the NA’s Committee for Science, Technology and Environment, Nguyen Dang Vang, made the statement regarding the controversial issue while meeting with the press o­n the sidelines of the o­ngoing NA session in Hanoi .

Hanoi Times - A workshop to discuss opportunities in the software processing industry for small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) opened in Hanoi o­n October 27.

Hanoi Times - Doan Hong Viet, Director of Digiworld, a distributor of digital products in Vietnam, said that the desktop computer market share is decreasing, while the demand for laptops is increasing.

Hanoi Times - Viet Nam’s software outsourcing industry has grown exponentially in the last five years, but the world economic downturn and entry of more countries into the market pose great challenges, according to IT experts.They were speaking at the Outsourcing Viet Nam Seminar 2008 organised in the city o­n Friday by the Viet Nam Software Association (VINASA), and the Viet Nam Game and Digital Content Business Club (VGB). The seminar was sponsored by Harvey Nash Viet Nam, a London-based software company with 600 employees in its Viet Nam branch.According to the Viet Nam National Institute of Software and Digital Content Industry, outsourcing revenues had increased from about US$20 million in 2002 to $180 million in 2007.The institute’s report shows that Viet Nam has about 150 companies engaged in outsourced software projects, employing an average of 100-150 software programmers.Some companies have as many as 1,000 software programmers, like FPT software, FPT Information Systems, TMA and CSC.Nguyen Duc Quynh, deputy director of FPT Software HCM City, said that local companies were also trying to diversify the software outsourcing market to include other countries besides traditional markets like Japan and America.Marc Voss, managing director of Harvey Nash Viet Nam, also remarked that Viet Nam still had much potential for growth in the software outsourcing industry.The software services that could be provided were also diversified, like BPO (Business Processing Outsourcing), Data Center, ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) Services, Quynh said.According to the HCM City Computer Association (HCA), the city’s revenue from software outsourcing is VND990 billion ($60 million), accounting for o­ne third of the national revenue.The main outsourcing markets currently are Japan, North America and the European Union, according to the report.ChallengesQuynh said that the US-led economic downturn could limit growth in IT spending.Besides China and India, other ASEAN, East European and South American countries are also becoming major destinations for outsourced software work because of the low cost resource pool.Quynh felt that these two factors were the most important challenges facing the Vietnamese software outsourcing industry.Phi Anh Tuan, director of the HCM City Branch of the CMC group, said the high salary paid to programmers was o­ne of the difficulties which companies were facing.Pham Thien Nghe, general secretary of HCM City Computer Association (HCA), calculated that a software engineer could generate a turnover of about VND20 million ($625) a month while the company would pay him VND10 ($313) million a month. If taxes and other expenses were included, the company would make no gain, Nghe claimed.Tuan noted that most local software outsourcing companies were small, hiring less than 500 employees. This made it difficult to win big contracts from large companies like Boeing or Microsoft.La Manh Cuong, managing director of Luxsoft Viet Nam, a Russian software company, said that procedures for establishing a business in Viet Nam were complicated and time-consuming. It took his company forty-five days to start its operations in Viet Nam.A shortage of IT resources required for the fast-growing service also affected development of the outsourcing industry, Quynh said.Earlier in the morning, VINASA and VGB also organised a seminar o­n the Real Situation and Solutions to Boost the Viet Nam Digital Content Industry.

Hanoi Times - An inadequate legal framework is impeding with police efforts to deal with the growing problem of high-tech crime.

Hanoi Times - Three months after young scientists of Hoa Lac High Tech Park used LTH 100 to clean the water of Van Lake in Hanoi, scientists have raised doubts about the effectiveness of the chemical substance.The scientists affirm that the method which has been used for Van Lake cannot be used for other lakes or it will damage biological diversification and kill endemic organisms.Associate Prof Dr Le Van Cat, a chemist from the Vietnam Institute of Sciences and Technologies, said that he applauded the idea by the team of young scientists to clean the water of Van Lake but he ‘does not highly rate LTH 100 as a substance to clean water’, and that he can identify thirty substances with can be used for the same purpose.“There are a lot of substances which can kill seaweed. In swimming pools, seaweed is killed with sulfate. LTH 100 is like any other pasteurised substance,” Cat said, adding that the method of cleaning water at Van Lake is, in fact, a kind of killing seaweed.“Seaweed can float right after dying, but it will fall to the bottom of a lake if people do not remove it soon enough. The young scientists, I think, tried to remove the seaweed right after it died. However, how could we be sure they removed the seaweed before it fell to the bottom of the lake?” Cat asked.Cat also denied the fact that LTH 100 can oxygenate organic substances, get rid of nitrogen, phosphorus and heavy metals as the young scientists said, emphasising that no tool can do all those things. Meanwhile, Duong Duc Tien, PhD from Hanoi National University, said that if drastic measures were taken, Van Lake could become so clean that its bottom could be seen. However, he said that the value of the lake, as well as other lakes, is in its diversified ecosystem, and that cleaning the water of the lake does not mean turning the lake into a swimming pool.Ha Dinh Duc, who has been famous for his researches o­n tortoises, is worried about if the young scientists learnt before about the historical characteristics of Van Lake. Duc said that every lake has its own characteristics and biological diversification which the current generation still cannot assess. It took hundreds or thousands of years for the current ecosystem of Van Lake today to be formed, but the ecosystem could be destroyed in a day.Prof Dr Dang Dinh Kim, Deputy Head of the Science and Technology Institute under the Vietnam Institute for Sciences and Technologies, also affirmed that LTH 100 must not be used to clean the water of all lakes in Hanoi. Kim and his colleagues said that the announcement by a deputy minister of science and technology recently that LTH 100 would be used to clean the water of To Lich River proves to be a hasty announcement.

Hanoi Times - Hanoi authorities have started a campaign to crack-down on the environmental violations in 68 establishments in the capital city.In the 24-day effort, inspectors from the Hanoi Natural Resources and Environment Department, officials from the Environment Protection Department and environment police will check local hospitals, hotels, restaurants and factories.Earlier this month, another delegation from the Hanoi Department of Natural Resources and Environment checked waste treatment in 14 units in the districts of Tay Ho, Hoan Kiem and Ba Dinh, which exploit water resources for their use and release waste water in the city.The delegation found the majority of the units, mostly hotels and hospitals did not pay attention to environmental protection and violated environmental laws, polluting the surrounding environment with their waste.According to Tran Trong Binh, chief of the environment police office, they recently caught Van Dao Company in Ha Dong City red-handed, release mud and oil sludge into the local Day River.The police said that though the company had released their waste on a small scale, it was seriously toxic as the river is one of the main rivers in the Red River Delta.The delegation will keep checking other suspected violators in the city until the end of next month.Last month, officials found a floating restaurant and a beer producing factory illegally releasing untreated waste and waste water into the West and Truc Bach lakes

Hanoi Times - The number of Vietnamese using debit and credit cards has grown to 900,000, or o­nly o­ne% of the country’s population, according to VISA International.

Hanoi Times - The Vietnam Coal - Mineral Industries Group (Vinacomin) is to work with partners from Australia and Japan o­n trial use of underground coal gasification (UCG) technology in the Red River coal basin.To this end, Vinacomin signed a 6.5 million USD project with Australia’s Linc Energy Ltd. and the Marubeni Corporation of Japan in Hanoi .

Hanoi Times - Vietnam plans to completely transform its standards system to become compatible with the global system by the end of 2010. The plan was announced at a meeting to celebrate World Standards Day (Oct. 14) in Hanoi.The Vietnamese Government has encouraged local and foreign individuals, organisations and overseas Vietnamese to participate in establishing standards and technical criteria as well as investing in activities related to this field, head of the national standards watchdog Ngo Quy Viet said.

Hanoi Times -The competition between the domestic mobile telecom service companies is getting tighter as they adopt a pricing strategy to strengthen their positions. 

Hanoi Times - Vietnam has taken the initiative and been active in environmental protection and international integration, thus contributing to the cooperation between countries both regionally and globally for the common good. Vice Head of the Environment General Department Le Ke Son made the remark at a press briefing held in Hanoi o­n Oct. 3 to announce the country’s hosting of a number of regional environmental conferences in October. He said the East Asian Environmental Ministers’ Meeting, o­ne of the October events, will be convened in accordance with the idea put forward by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung at the East Asian Summit in Singapore in 2007. The conference will issue a joint statement regarding East Asian countries’ priorities for cooperation in dealing with climate change and protecting the environment. The statement will stress the importance of the exchange of information, experiences and technical assistance to develop environmentally-sustainable cities in the region. The participants will also discuss issues related to the preservation of biodiversity, the management of water resources, oceans and the rural environment, and the improvement of the public’s awareness of environmental issues. In addition to the East Asian ministerial meeting, other events include the 11th unofficial ASEAN Environmental Ministers’ Meeting, the 7th ASEAN plus three (the Republic of Korea , China and Japan ) Environmental Ministers’ Meeting, and the fourth Trans-boundary Haze Conference. These will take place in Hanoi from Oct. 6-11, with the participation of some 200 domestic and international delegates. An East Asian businesses’ forum o­n environmental protection and sustainable development, and a award ceremony to present award recognising environmentally-sustainable cities in ASEAN member nations will also be held during this time.

Hanoi Times - The 17th Vietnam Information Technology Week will take place in Hanoi from October 29 to November 2 with a wide range of activities, including exhibitions, seminars and the introduction of outstanding IT products.

Hanoi Times - Tinh Van Company o­n September 30 introduced its Xalo.vn search engine, a Vietnamese product. The advantages of Xalo.vn are its Vietnamese processing technology and filtering technique.

Hanoi Times - Motorola and VinaPhone just inked o­n September 29 the third project worth of US $28 million to expand VinaPhone’s Global System for Mobile (GSM) to all rural areas in South VietnamAccordingly, based o­n the most advanced technologies and solutions, Motorola pledged to provide and apply network equipment, telecommunication services and software which are reliable and easy-to-upgrade in order to expand VinaPhone’s GMS in all southern provinces. The new network will provide high-quality and reliable data transmission and telephone services to its subscribes. VinaPhone, a subsidiary of the Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Corporation (VNPT), is now extended its coverage to all 63 provinces in Việt Nam. It joins mobile service network with other operators in over 60 countries and territories. Motorola and VinaPhone inked the first contract of the same kind in November 2007 and the second in June 2008. These two projects were aimed at developing VinaPhone’s GSM services in Vietnam’s big cities and 12 northern provinces respectively.       

Hanoi Times - Local laptop companies are stubbornly competing with multi-national rivals by offering equally high-quality products at more competitive prices.

Hanoi Times - The latest draft of Vietnam’s first-ever Biodiversity Law was shared o­n Tuesday at a meeting jointly organised by the National Assembly’s Committee of Science, Technology and Environment and the UNDP. The revised draft law integrates pro-poor principles, recognizing that biodiversity conservation and development cannot be successful without participation of local communities. “Biodiversity and natural resources have been critically important for the majority of the Vietnamese population as they provide basic needs and livelihoods for people, particularly, the rural poor” said Christophe Bahuet, UNDP Deputy Country Director in Vietnam. “But if the current trend of biodiversity loss continues, Vietnam will face difficulties in ensuring sustainable agriculture and fisheries, and challenges in achieving the MDGs and Vietnam’s development targets” he added. In response, the revised draft Law takes into account protective measures needed to support the livelihoods of people who depend o­n access to natural resources and biodiversity. It also proposes benefits for those who posses traditional knowledge of biodiversity, thus encouraging them to participate in biodiversity conservation and rehabilitation. Vietnam is among the most biodiverse countries in the world, but is at risk. The 2008 version of the Vietnam Red Book shows that the number of endangered species of fauna and flora has increased to 880 species in 2008 from 700 species in 2000. Key causes include overexploitation of forests, shifting agricultural cultivation, loss of arable land, water pollution, and degradation of coastal areas. Rapid population growth and intense agricultural development are also putting biodiversity under pressure. “The Biodiversity Law is an effective legal instrument to prevent biodiversity declination, to conserve precious plants and animals, and to serve the sustainable social and economic development of the country” said Dang Vu Minh, Chairman of the National Assembly’s Committee o­n Science, Technology and Environment. The formulation of the Biodiversity Law is a major component of the UNDP/MONRE Poverty and Environment Project which seeks to harmonize poverty reduction and environmental goals in policy and planning. The project’s efforts are particularly focused o­n ensuring that the links between biodiversity conservation and poverty are fully addressed in the new law. Biodiversity is a complex issue and is closely linked to the sustainable use of natural resources, so the Biodiversity Law is expected to complement related laws, including the Law o­n Environmental Protection; Fisheries Law; Law o­n Land; Law o­n Forest Protection and Development. Final comments o­n the draft law are being requested before submission to the National Assembly for approval in November 2008.

Hanoi Times - o­nly two Vietnamese telecom and information technology businesses have invested abroad so far but their ventures have proved to be fruitful.