Paris (VNA) – Vietnam should focus resources on sectors where it can become indispensable in the global technology supply chain rather than trying to replicate products already dominated by global giants, a Vietnamese technology expert in France has said.
In an interview granted to the Vietnam News Agency (VNA)’s correspondent in France, Dr Ta Anh Phuong, Co-Founder and CEO of Seinetime, said as Vietnam moves to develop 10 strategic technology groups and 30 priority technology products, the biggest challenge for the country is no longer deciding which technologies to develop but determining how to allocate limited resources effectively to create products that can compete internationally.
The expert said Vietnam should be particularly wary of what he described as the "technology protectionism trap" – investing heavily in developing products that serve only the domestic market but lack the competitiveness to succeed on the international markets.
Experiences from many countries, Phuong said, showed that attempts to build full-fledged alternatives to the world's leading technology companies often result in high costs, rapidly outdated technologies, and limited export potential.
Against the backdrop of an increasingly specialised global technology value chain, no country can realistically master every segment of the technology ecosystem, he said.
Instead of asking how many technological products Vietnam can produce, policymakers should ask whether those products offer enough unique value for international markets to choose them. From that perspective, Phuong suggested Vietnam concentrate on sectors capable of creating "irreplaceable" value within global supply chains.
According to the expert, one promising advantage lies in Vietnamese-language data and datasets specific to Vietnam and Southeast Asia – areas where global technology companies do not yet hold overwhelming advantages. Developing artificial intelligence (AI) models tailored to the Vietnamese language and regional needs could enable Vietnam to build distinctive products rather than compete head-on with well-established global platforms.
He also proposed Vietnam develop capabilities in technology testing, certification and standardisation for the ASEAN market. If done effectively, Vietnam could become a regional hub for technology assessment, inspection, and quality certification, thereby establishing a valuable position within the regional technology ecosystem.
Another strategic direction would be to develop products with high switching costs for customers. Phuong noted that software and technologies deeply integrated into businesses' operations, equipment or management systems tend to create more sustainable competitive advantages than products that can easily be replaced.
Regarding Vietnam's newly announced list of 30 strategic technology products, Phuong said the greatest risk is spreading resources too thinly. Even advanced economies cannot invest equally across every technology sector, he said, recommending Vietnam to concentrate most resources on a number of areas capable of generating the strongest spillover effects over the next 3–5 years.
Priority areas, he suggested, should include Vietnamese large language models and specialised AI systems, cloud computing platforms, cybersecurity solutions for critical infrastructure and national databases, edge AI for smart manufacturing, blockchain for supply-chain traceability, energy storage batteries, high-efficiency electrical equipment, and specialised semiconductor chips. These sectors combine strong market demand with Vietnam's existing capabilities while offering significant long-term value creation, Phuong said.
Beyond technology priorities, the expert stressed the importance of data sovereignty as Vietnam is accelerating digital transformation and implementing the 2024 Archives Law. National digital archives should not follow a one-size-fits-all model. Instead, data should be classified according to sensitivity in order to establish appropriate governance mechanisms.
According to the expert, highly classified data related to national defence and security, senior leaders, and the operations of the state apparatus should be stored on domestic infrastructure, either fully isolated or nearly isolated from the Internet. Sensitive data such as population records, taxation, healthcare and judicial information could be managed through hybrid cloud systems, provided that Vietnam retains control over the original data and, more importantly, the encryption keys.
Control over encryption keys matters more than the physical location of servers because data sovereignty also depends on software, system administration rights, encryption mechanisms and the legal jurisdictions governing service providers, he stressed.
Phuong also warned of technical risks in digitising archival records, including metadata leaks, inadequate mechanisms to ensure data integrity, weak administrator account management and vulnerabilities arising during optical character recognition (OCR). If left unaddressed, these issues could undermine both the legal validity and long-term reliability of Vietnam's national digital archive system, he said.
Vietnam has a significant opportunity to upgrade its position in the global technology value chain. However, the expert said advantages will not belong to countries that try to do everything. In an increasingly specialised technological world, success will come to those that choose the right priority areas, concentrate resources on high-value segments, and create products that the market truly needs.
Vietnam should strive to become an indispensable link in the international technology ecosystem – the most effective way to avoid the "technology protectionism trap" and build sustainable long-term competitiveness, Phuong concluded./.
VNA
