
Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam ranked 6th out of the 10 ASEAN member countries and 55th globally in the 2022 Government AI ReadinessIndex, up seven places compared to 2021, according to the index report releasedby the UK’s Oxford Insights.
The country earned an average score of 53.96 points in2022, increasing from 51.82 points in 2021 and surpassing the global average of44.61, according to Oxford Insights, which ranked 181 countries this year, upfrom 160 in last year’s iteration.
These are part of the article “Vietnam’s AI LeadershipStatus Is Blossoming” published last week by the US magazine Forbes. Thearticle summarises several research sources about Vietnam’s AI industry,indicating that it has an ambitious plan to lead the AI industry in Asia,turning it into top four countries in Asia in terms of artificial intelligenceadvancement.
Forbes highlighted Vietnam’s jump in the AI readinessindex when mentioning that the International Development Research Centre inCanada and the UK’s Oxford ranked Vietnam 6th in ASEAN and 62nd in the worldfor the 2021 Government Artificial Intelligence Readiness Score.
That was the first time Vietnam’sAI Readiness Score reached 51.82 out of 100, which surpasses the global average of 47.72 andhelps the country climb 14 places compared to the previous year. The readinessof a country or territory toward AI technology is evaluated through threepillars – the government, technology, and data infrastructure.
The article cited statistics from the Ministry ofInformation and Communications which says that Vietnam now has more than 64,000digital technology enterprises, an increase of 5,600 compared to2020, and nearly 1,000 Vietnamese branded ICT products and services.
It is estimated that it has more than 1 million ITworkers, and more than 80,000 university and college graduates majoring ininformation and communication technology.
Moreover, the Vietnamese government is investing heavilyin AI and other digital technologies such as machine learning, blockchain, bigdata analytics, the Internet of Things (IoT), and cloud computing.
Vietnam recently approved the National DigitalTransformation Programme by 2025 with an orientation towards 2030, whichcreates a foundation for a solid strategy for the country to become a powerful AIinnovator in the years to come.
However, besides positive signs for AI industrydevelopment, Vietnam is still facing challenges, particularly those relating tohuman resources with the necessary knowledge in AI, the article pointed out.
According to the World Intellectual Property Organisation(WIPO), there are fewer than 2,000 Vietnamese studying and working inAI-related fields, and fewer than 300 are considered AI experts. Currently,there are about 50 universities and academies in Vietnam that teach majorsubjects related to AI./.