SMAC, a combination of the elements of social, mobility, analytics and cloud, offers a good opportunity for Vietnam to catch up with developed nations in the digital era.

Hoang Le Minh, Director of the Vietnam National Institute of Software and Digital Content Industry under the Ministry of Information and Communications, made this declaration during a conference on SMAC on August 22: The Platform for Smart Development.

Minh said that among the four elements, all users could understand social and mobility but would find it difficult to understand and have knowledge of analytics and cloud.

"The Government and enterprises must understand clearly about analytics and cloud because they are the foundation and tools for development. However, in order to apply SMAC successfully in Vietnam, the Government, companies and scientists need to cooperate closely and more effectively and have to build a long-term development process," Minh added.

For the period of 2014-15, the Government has formulated a strategy to develop science and technology. Minh said that this was a crucial time for the Government to develop SMAC to increase the country's capability to compete. He also suggested that the Government build national-scale infrastructure for analysing data.

The ministry has assigned the institute to develop models for applying cloud and analytics for Vietnam. According to Minh, his office has checked out development models from international partners, mostly in the US, and have prepared infrastructure for the coming three years.

Gartner's executive partner, Jonathan Krause, said the internet was effectively connecting the real world with the virtual world, and this had changed the nature of business by enabling customers to get involved.

In 2009, things connected to the internet were smaller than people connected to the internet by personal devices. However, this trend was expected to be reversed in 2020.

According to the results of a survey by Gartner, technology has branched out into two sides: new things such as analytics, mobility and digitalisation on one hand, and renovation of existence, including data systems and security, on the other. Krause said that the chief information officers (CIOs) of enterprises have to operate both at the same time, but not with the same team.

In 2014, the expenditure for information technology worldwide is projected to reach 3.8 trillion USD. Its cost in the Asia-Pacific region is expected to be 767 billion USD, a 5.5 percent increase compared with that of 2013. SMAC is believed to be one of the main factors that is sparking this rapid development.

Nguyen Minh Hong, Deputy Minister of Information and Communications, said the rapid development of information technology had contributed to the renovation of the model of growth.

"Mobility, big data, cloud, and social have brought the smart development trend to all areas. This is an opportunity and a challenge for each country to increase its capacity for competitiveness and gain a position in the digital world," Hong said.

The conference was organised to mark the first Information Technology Day 2014, which attracted 400 participants. Sponsored by the Ministries of Information and Communications, and Science and Technology, the event will be held annually to create a high-quality forum on science and technology and raise public awareness of IT application and development for Government offices, organisations, enterprises and people.-VNA