“Make in Vietnam” digital platforms unleash local creativity

Vietnamese enterprises own many preeminent technologies

Technological revolution

According to Do Cong Anh, Deputy Director General of the Authority of Information Technology Application (AITA) under the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC), Vietnam is turning Covid-19 from a pandemic into a launch pad for a technological revolution that places it ahead of other countries in the region.

In fact, Vietnam is one of the fastest developing innovation centers in the region, drawing such wireless telecom giants as Qualcomm, which has established an R&D center there to research the Internet of Things, 5G, and machine learning, says Thieu Phuong Nam, General Director of Qualcomm in Indochina.

Locally made digital platforms include akaBot developed by FPT Corporation, a comprehensive Robot Process Automation (RPA) solution for businesses with virtual robot assistants simulating human operations, helping to perform repetitive tasks in large numbers.

AkaBot Product Manager Bui Dinh Giap says the company’s solutions can be applied to many different fields such as finance, banking, retail, manufacturing, logistics and more, cutting business costs by as much as 60 percent, increasing productivity by 80 percent, and reducing processing time by up to 90 percent while being committed to the highest level of security.

Two years after its launch, in addition to conquering the Vietnamese market, akaBot’s products are also exported to Japan, the Republic of Korea, the United States, Europe, and Chinese Taipei. Among its major clients are companies such as Thinkpower, HSBC, Panasonic, TPBank and Mizuho, Giap says.

From robots to clouds

Another Vietnamese-owned platform is ezCloud, a tourism business and management platform developed by the Global ezCloud Technology Company Limited (ezCloud).

According to Nguyen Hoang Duong, Managing Director of ezCloud, the company wants to help customers simplify tourism management, operations and business. It is used in five countries and is the leading tourism management and business platform in Vietnam with more than 6,000 customers.

Similarly, Base.vn, a comprehensive corporate governance platform, is used by more than 5,000 companies, about half of them leading enterprises in Vietnam. The Vietnamese virtual assistant platform Viettel Cyberbot helps businesses automate customer care on the basis of Vietnamese language processing technology.

Research by Temasek, Bain & Company shows that Vietnam's digital economy is expected to exceed US$43 billion by 2025. According to Truong Gia Binh, Chair of Vietnam Software and Information Technology Services Association (VINASA), new business models and services are increasingly being produced on technology platforms, with their clear advantages drawing more and more businesses to the digital technology race.

Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung has urged each industry to master digital transformation infrastructure and platforms, creating a window of opportunity for the “Make in Vietnam” initiative.