2021 is the beginning of the campaigns for Vietnam to exit the list of low-middle income countries and enter the next list of high-middle income ones in 2030, for Vietnam to be classified as a socialist-oriented developed nation in 2045.

The quickest and most effective way to achieve those goals is to implement advanced technologies and encourage innovation in the whole country.

Statistics from MIC show countless efforts of nearly 60,000 units in the ICT industry for the sustainable development of the nation.

Global ranking increases in various subfields of the industry have been the proof of this contribution. The post rose from the 57th position to 49th, ICT from 108th to 77th, e-government from 89th to 86th, and cybersecurity from 100th to an impressive position of 50th.

With the introduction of the scheme ‘Make in Vietnam’, the number of businesses in the field has witnessed a development of 28 percent. The human resources in the ICT industry grew from 780,000 people to over 1 million. Remarkably, the post has always maintained its average revenue growth of 30 percent per year.

Other significant achievements of the industry include a successful 5G technology pilot, an entrance into the list of top-10 countries with the latest generation of Internet protocol.

More importantly, Vietnam now stands at the second position in the world as to mobile phone and parts manufacturing, and the tenth position regarding electronic parts production. These two have helped the ICT become the industry with the largest export surplus in the Vietnamese economy.

In the meeting, MIC announced its program, co-organized with the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Vietnam Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, to support small and medium businesses in their digital transformation process, especially during the sensitive time of Covid-19 pandemic.

MIC has evaluated and selected these 12 Make-in-Vietnam platforms taking part in the program, namely MISA ASP – an accounting service platform, Novaon Onfluencer – an online advertising platform, Giga1 – a product distribution platform, VnPay and Momo – two online payment platforms, StringeeX – a customer care platform, 1Office – a comprehensive business administration platform, BizFly – a platform for stores and restaurants, EZCloud – a platform for hotels and recreation spots, CyRadar – a cybersecurity platform, Consultant Anywhere – a consultation platform, and Vietnamworks – a recruitment platform.

“MIC sets a goal to have around 50,000 small and medium enterprises participating in this program in 2021, over half of which will have free access to the mentioned platforms”, said Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Huy Dung.

The above platforms plan to offer various incentive policies like free 3-month trial time, a discount of 50 percent for a 1-year contract, free training and consultation sessions. Further information is available at sme.mic.gov.vn and smedx.vn. In the event, MIC formally introduced the Information Portal tingia.gov.vn as well as the Hotline 18008108 to receive reports on fake news related to state and private organizations, businesses, individuals. The portal also acts as a bulletin board to announce proved fake news and its real counterpart.

The portal is under the management of Vietnam Anti-Fake News Center (VAFC), a member of the Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information. The center will receive, detect, and assess the authenticity of reported news, then label it as faked news when needed and post the real version for comparison. The center will regularly update methods to identify and handle fake news as well.