Illustrative image (Source: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – With the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0) in full swing,many countries – including Vietnam – are in the midst of a new technological wavethat not only creates opportunities, but also brings challenges to the local government,businesses, and consumers.
Industry 4.0 willenable Vietnam to boost labour productivity, improve information connectivity,save costs, and much more, however the Government and private companies mustalso be ready to undergo some substantial reforms in order to stay abreast ofthese changes.
In Vietnam, revenuefrom e-commerce was valued at 900 million USD in 2016 (a surge of 50 percentfrom the previous year) and is likely to mount to 5 billion USD by 2020 (with annualgrowth of 35 percent) – 2.5 times higher than that of Japan and a global highscore, according to Le Quoc Huu, Chief ICT Architect for Smart City at ViettelTelecom Corporation.
However, the FourthIndustrial Revolution will also trigger a fierce competition among domestic andforeign enterprises, said Huu. The biggest barrier for Vietnamese firms is the lackof skilled workers, especially in the ICT sector.
Most firms are small-and medium-sized enterprises, with very small household businesses accountingfor more than 31 percent of the country’s GDP. They tend not to have experienceor innovation to adapt to the digital economy, not to mention their limitedfinancial and corporate management capability, he noted. Another challengeremains in the country’s overwhelming cash-payment popularity which will not beeasy to change.
Industry 4.0 alsoposes greater cybersecurity and other non-traditional threats which can resultin an increase of transnational high-tech crimes. It requires proactiveresponse and control from the Government to ensure privacy for people andsecurity for the country.
At a recent summitthemed “Vision and Development Strategy in Industry 4.0”, Prime Minister NguyenXuan Phuc affirmed that the Government of Vietnam is committed to developinglong-term policies to make use of opportunities from Industry 4.0 and lessenits unwanted effects.
He urged the businesscommunity, ministries, state agencies, and people to take practical steps toboos the country’s digital economy and smart industry which is key to thenational economic restructuring and growth model transformation driven byimproved productivity, efficiency, and competitiveness. –VNA
VNA
