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Henig:  Top 10 ICT developments in 2022

06:00 | 11/01/2023

(VEN) - Vietnam's information and communications technology (ICT) industry entered a post-COVID development phase in 2022, with the Party and government adopting policies to promote the development of the technology sector and businesses. Following are 10 outstanding ICT developments of 2022 as voted by the journalists of the ICT Press Club.

1. National strategy adopted on digital economy and digital society

On March 31, 2022, the prime minister promulgated a national strategy for digital economy and digital society development to 2025, with a vision to 2030. This strategy foresees the centrality of digital development in achieving rapid, sustainable, inclusive development, adaptive and resilient to challenges in a world of unpredictable changes. The vision sets a target for the digital economy to account for 20 and 30 percent of Vietnam’s gross domestic product (GDP) by 2025 and 2030, respectively.

2. Prime ministerial instruction on e-government development

On April 26, 2022, the prime minister issued an instruction on e-government development to promote national digitalization. Accordingly, the prime minister instructed ministries, ministerial-level agencies, government agencies, and local people's committees to carry out their mandatory assignments. Concurrently, the government also requested agencies and units to coordinate with the Ministry of Public Security, the Government Office, and the Ministry of Information and Communications on infrastructure for linking national databases. Priority is to be given to the databases on business, taxation, customs, banking, driver's licenses, health insurance, education and social security.

3. Amendment of the Law on Radio Frequency voted by the National Assembly for ratification

On November 9, 2022, the National Assembly ratified the amended and revised articles of the Law on Radio Frequency in order to manage and rationally and effectively allocate the right to use radio frequencies, create a healthy telecommunications competition environment, promote the development of the telecommunications infrastructure, contribute to national digital transformation and to the formation of a digital economy and digital society.

4. Declaration of National Digital Transformation Day

On April 22, 2022, the prime minister issued a decision designating October 10 as National Digital Transformation Day to be marked annually in order to raise public awareness of the role, meaning and benefits of digital transformation and promote the participation of the entire political system and the population in the country's digital transformation.

5. VinFuture Award honors global network scientists, inventors

Five scientists were awarded the VinFuture Grand Prize, worth US$3 million for their breakthrough inventions in global internet connection technology. They are Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee (UK), Dr. Vinton Gray Cerf (US), Dr. Emmanuel Desurvire (France), Dr. Robert Elliot Kahn (US), and Prof. Sir David Neil Payne (UK).

Global network technology is the result of numerous inventions serving mankind, creating a firm foundation for the knowledge-based economy and a launch pad for further breakthrough technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, Cloud Computing, and Big Data.

6. Vietnam becomes microchip supplier

On September 28, 2022, FPT Semiconductor, a unit of Vietnam's leading tech company FPT, launched its first line of semiconductor chips used in medical devices as part of its efforts to enter the competitive global industry.

The company said in a statement it aims to supply 25 million chips globally by 2023 and is eyeing Japan, Chinese Taipei, China and the US as key markets for the chips that are used in everything from consumer electronics to aerospace and have been in high demand due to supply chain disruptions since the pandemic.

The finished FPT design will be transferred to the factory in the Republic of Korea (RoK) for production and packaging.

7. Phasing out 2nd, 3rd network generations

Internet service providers have started turning off 2G signals in some places where the demand is low. Nevertheless, Viettel is the first operator in Vietnam to turn off the nationwide 3G network with its 35,000 stations. Compared to the global practice, Viettel is one of the few pioneering operators to turn off 3G. The general network quality and customer service experience after the 3G phase-out remained steady, efficient and growing.

The 2G and 3G phase-out helps providers simplify networks, optimize the infrastructure for new technology development, optimize operating costs, and add frequency resources to 4G networks for service quality improvement in the context of increasing data traffic and 4G subscribers.

8. Internet providers join force to fight spam calls

On August 29, 2022, Viettel, VNPT, MobiFone, Vietnamobile, Local, Itel and Gmobile signed a joint agreement to prevent and handle spam calls. This is the first time that network operators have joined hands to block spam calls, with their adverse social consequences. The Ministry of Information and Communications affirms that it will resolutely inspect and publicly penalize network operators that do not seriously handle garbage SIMs, while subscriber information must be cleaned to avoid social consequences, rather than to pass off the burden end users.

9. Samsung launches major Hanoi R&D Center

On December 23, Samsung Vietnam officially inaugurated and put into operation a Research and Development (R&D) Center in Hanoi, the company’s largest hub in Southeast Asia.

The US$200 million R&D Center has 16 floors and three basements, covering a total construction area of 11,603 square meters and a floor area of 79,511s.qm. It is the first large-scale high-rise building devoted to technology development in Vietnam.

10. Vietnam holds first blockchain summit

Held for the first time in Vietnam, the Vietnam Blockchain Summit 2022 attracted thousands of delegates, speakers and experts, leading blockchain technology names in the world and Vietnam (such as Kyber Network, Gala Games, Sky Mavis, DFG, FTX, Binance, BNB Chain, Chainalysis, OKC, AAX). The summit creates connections for technology consultation and promotion of the digital economy.

Vietnam is considered a highlight on the world map with a large number of blockchain projects and highly-qualified blockchain human resources.   LINK

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Henig:  Building global brand for Trang An

06:00 | 11/01/2023

(VEN) - Ninh Binh Province has launched a campaign to preserve the integrity and effectively promote the values of its Trang An heritage site, and boost sustainable tourism development in its magnificent landscape.

Tourism growth

Situated near the southern margin of the Red River Delta, the Trang An Landscape Complex is a spectacular landscape of limestone karst peaks permeated with valleys, many of them partly submerged. Exploration of caves at different altitudes has revealed archaeological traces of human activity over a continuous period of more than 30,000 years, illustrating the life of seasonal hunter-gatherers and their adaptation to major climatic and environmental changes, especially the repeated inundation of the landscape by the sea after the last ice age.

Dominating the landscape is a series of steep, almost vertical 200 meter cliffs covered by forests, and rice fields stretching along rivers, with farmers and fishermen living in their traditional ways. Visitors traveling on river boats steered by local guides can experience the natural, peaceful environment.

Hoang Thi Thu Huong, Deputy Head of the Management Board of Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex, said that the tourist area is creating jobs for 1,300 boat drivers, mainly women aged 45-60, with a monthly salary of VND5-6 million (US$212-255).

In 2014, the World Heritage Committee of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) added the Trang An scenic landscape complex to the list of World Cultural and Natural Heritage sites. This boosted annual tourism by 5.96 percent between 2015 and 2020, with international visitor growth reaching 11.4 percent a year, and tourism revenue increasing by 27.2 percent annually.

In the first 10 months of 2022, Ninh Binh Province received more than 3.075 million visitors, including over 3.032 million domestic visitors, and 43,400 international arrivals, 3.2 times higher than the same period last year.

Launch of heritage festival

In November 2022, Ninh Binh Province held the first Trang An heritage festival with the participation of 14 provinces and cities from across the nation and the Udomxay Province of neighboring Laos, connecting provinces and cities featuring typical cultural heritages in order to promote them to domestic and foreign tourists and preserve and honor cultural heritages.

Ninh Binh Province wants to turn the festival into a large-scale annual cultural and tourism event towards building a new brand for Ninh Binh culture.

At the recent 50th anniversary of the 1972 Convention, UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay affirmed that Trang An heritage has successfully combined economic development with sustainable tourism development. That is why it was picked to pilot a project on sustainable tourism to enhance the benefits for local communities, especially women.

Nguyen Cao Tan, Deputy Director of the Ninh Binh Department of Tourism, pledged to focus on improving the efficiency of state management relating to the Trang An scenic landscape complex.

Accordingly, functional agencies continue to review and adjust policies and legal documents on heritage conservation, develop tourism in a sustainable and responsible manner, and encourage investment and effective exploitation of Trang An and other beauty spots in Ninh Binh in order to preserve outstanding heritage values for future generations.

Kim Chi & Thu Huyen    LINK

Henig:  How can green trade with EU benefit Vietnam?

06:00 | 12/01/2023

(VEN) - Green trade with the EU will benefit Vietnam. In the opinion of economists, however, both enterprises and government agencies must make a sustained effort to adopt green trade standards.

Green standards

According to Vu Ba Phu, Director of the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, green consumption is becoming more popular in the EU market. In the past, green standards were applied only to high-end products, but today, they have become a requirement for all EU-imported goods in all market segments.

The EU applies green standards to ensure that all types of consumer goods do not pose risks to the environment, residents and supply chains. In 2014, the EU adopted the Non-Financial Reporting Directive. In 2020, the EU Green Deal was approved. In November 2021, the EU promulgated a law preventing the import of goods linked to deforestation. On November 10, 2022, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive was issued, requiring supply chain reports from 50,000 companies.

“Green growth, green development, and the circular economy have become global trends and are prevailing in developed economies like the EU,” Phu said.

Bartosz Cieleszynski, Deputy Head of the Trade Section of the EU Delegation to Vietnam, said the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) has the potential to boost green trade and support sustainable development goals. The trade deal will remove almost all tariffs for 71 percent of Vietnam’s exports to the EU and 65 percent of EU exports to Vietnam.

Tariff removals and commitments under the EVFTA Chapter on Trade and Sustainable Development will create a strong impulse for trade flows of green products.

Notes from experts

At a recent seminar on promoting green exports, Truong Dinh Hoe, secretary general of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), said local firms need to pay more attention to the sustainability of their value chains.

He cited an example of a Vietnamese shrimp exporting firm losing an opportunity to ship its products to the European Union (EU) as it uses plastic trays for packaging and was slow to convert to environmentally-friendly packaging products.

Bartosz Cieleszynski affirmed that each company in the Vietnamese business community can apply green technology and green trade. In his opinion, for an export-oriented economy like Vietnam, green technology and sustainable trade should start from key export sectors, such as agriculture, forestry and fishery.

The EU encourages organic farming because of its benefits for the environment, water and soil, as well as farmer incomes and rural development. Given the increasing importance of organic farming in the EU, Vietnamese exporters should pay greater attention to disseminating this concept among farmers so that they can create products meeting the demand of EU consumers.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade plays an important role in promoting green trade between Vietnam and the EU. To promote green exports, the ministry will enhance the awareness of green transformation for officials at different levels and in different sectors, while adopting a specific strategy to position Vietnam as a green manufacturing hub. Green standards will be set for production. Priority will be given to promoting a circular economy and developing green business models. Appropriate mechanisms and policies will be put in place to help businesses apply green standards in production. Trade promotion will be intensified to help businesses increase exports.

Viet Nga     LINK