Viet Nam prevails in Industry 4.0

Industry 4.0 was expected to narrow technological gaps between Vietnam and the further advanced nations as well as opening up for more chances to take. However, is it being expected too heavily? The reporter had an interview with Mr. Nguyen Huu Thai Hoa, Director for Strategies of Vietnam Post and Telecommunication Group (VNPT) to clarify this concern.

Mr. Nguyen Huu Thai Hoa

The reporter: How do you assess the existing opportunities and advantages of Vietnam toward Industry 4.0?

Mr. Nguyen Huu Thai Hoa: Vietnam is having great advantages to take part in the 4 ^thindustrial revolution as it has a good infrastructure and information technology foundation. Only for the past few years, the number of people using Smart phone has increased rapidly; Free wifi system has been widely equipped in big cities; The charge of 3G and 4G is among the cheapest all over the world. Besides, the strong investment into the Internet, technological infrastructure of such big corporation as Viettel, FPT, VNPT... during the past 15 – 20 years has created a favorable market for the field of technology.

During the past three years, there has been some outstanding and bright spots regarding 4 ^thindustrial technology, for example, the popularization of Facebook or the success of some businesses taking advantages of technology such as Uber and Grab. These corporations invested in Vietnam and took advantages of the available 4 ^thtechnological infrastructure. They, thereby, succeed very quickly and earned a big amount of money.

On the other hand, the human resources of Vietnam are not inferior to other countries in the world, even smarter, more qualified and flexible in comparisons to many others. Especially, the young generation of Vietnam gets fast access to new technologies. Typically, the emergence of startups of the youth in the field of technology has created appliance software from digital technological platforms.

Technology gradually replaces people in many parts

Reported: In addition to the above-mentioned advantages, what are the current difficulties in applying 4 ^thindustrial revolution in reality?

Mr. Nguyen Huu Thai Hoa: Accordingto the map for researching financial movement, if you place 12-hour circle around the center of Hanoi, Vietnam is now in the position of among five global financial centers and making up around 40% of the world’s money flow. However, the cash flow is still circling rapidly, it fails to stop at the bottom of the funnel. The main reason is that while the world is constantly changing and moving forward, meanwhile Vietnam stands still.

In fact, the move to new technology is meagerly witnessed in some information and technology corporations, when these ones are forced to work in software outsourcing, application, Internet management, such security systems as FPT, VNPT or Viettel. At these corporations, although there have been changes, they still lag behind regional countries. There are a number of reasons, it is mainly due to barriers of the State’s mechanism and the mindset of being afraid to change.

The 4 ^thIndustrial Revolution has been implemented in Vietnam, however it remains the characteristics of mass, movement and communication rather than real support for the economy and its practical value has not really contributed much to the GDP. Besides, the application of 4 ^thtechnology for farmers in Vietnam remains difficult. As it requires farmers to use software flexibly. Meanwhile, Vietnamese farmers still act in small scale and fragmented way. They mainly do farming manually. This is one of the biggest berries in applying 4 ^thtechnology in agriculture.

In addition, the 4 ^thindustrial revolution has a strong impact in most fields, which change production methods, social management, services and commerce etc. This fact, thereby, creates fierce competition between traditional enterprises and the ones applying new technology. Thus, domestic enterprises are at risk of losing to foreign-invested ones if they are not proactive and do not dare to make changes.

Industry 4.0 is promised to bring great potential benefits to the economy

Reporter: Application of 4 ^thTechnology is expected to transform the national economy, what is the advice for the concrete actions for the Government, entrepreneur community and the people?

Mr. Nguyen Huu Thai Hoa: Regarding Industry 4.0, the factors that the nations like Vietnam has been considering as advantages including young and abundant labor force will no longer be its strength. In the future, the people may encounter great deal of difficulties in seeking handy jobs which can be done by machines with even better results. Such disruption of labor market can lead to problems which may cause difficulties to the society, the economy and the politics. This requires people to constantly improve themselves, the qualification must be better and control machines intelligently and rationally so that they will not be eliminated in the current progress of technology.

On the other hand, it is necessary to have practical policies issued by the Government for the development of entrepreneur community. At the same time, the Government needs to focus on perfecting mechanisms, policies and provisions of law to keep pace with the development of the digital economy and smart industry.

Besides, Industry 4.0 itself has shortcoming regarding personal information safety and security. This limitation poses a challenge for Vietnam in improving its technology so as to create a consolidated barrier for information security.

Industry 4.0 has made Vietnam changed in certain fields, however, the real issue is actually not in technology but in the way we take action. If we do not want to make changes, no one can help us to become different.

Reporter: Thank you!