Centre for Fourth Industrial Revolution in HCM City to become operational in June

HCM City (VNA) – The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee and the World Economic Forum (WEF) will set up a Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR Vietnam) in June under an agreement signed between the two sides on January 16 on the sidelines of the 54th Annual Meeting of the WEF in Davos, Switzerland.

Located at the Saigon Hi-Tech Park - one of Vietnam’s two national hi-tech parks - that serves as a driving force for the city’s development, the centre will focus on research cooperation, policy recommendation, technology transfer, resources mobilisation for green growth, smart urban areas and AI, among others.

Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Phan Van Mai, who signed the agreement with WEF Managing Director Jeremy Jurgens, said the establishment of the C4IR in the city holds great significance not only for the city’s development goals but also the nation’s priorities.

The city will have opportunities to engage in the WEF’s global initiatives to shape up a comprehensive ecosystem to promote new growth engines, lure more investment and improve the national competitive capacity, he said, adding the centre is expected to become a reliable and effective platform to bolster cooperation among experts, researchers, business community and international partners.

WEF Managing Director Jeremy Jurgens described the establishment of the centre as an important milestone in the WEF-Vietnam partnership and it is expected to advance the Southeast Asian country’s ambitious innovation and growth agenda through international and multi-stakeholder collaboration.

The centre, the second set up in Southeast Asia following the first in Malaysia in 2023, aims to become a hub of expertise to co-design and pilot future-focused policy frameworks that shape up the future and enable the development and deployment of technologies in the region and the world./.