According to the chair of the Vietnam Internet Network Association Vu Hoang Lien, the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) has identified five new areas which will have the same scale as telecommunications by 2025, and surpass telecommunications by 2030.

These include computing cloud, digital platform, e-commerce, Make in Vietnam industry and cybersecurity. They will be the major growth spaces for digital technology and telecommunications firms, and Vietnam’s internet in the next 10 years.

Le Thai Hung, strategic director of VNPT (Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group) AI, commented that previously, humans received information via newspapers and television. Later, the internet brought huge information and data. But with the internet of the next generation, humans will no longer interact via chatting and communicate with screens in the usual way.

“In the future, we will combine the real physical world and the virtual world on the Internet. This can become a reality thanks to the strong rise of the metaverse and technologies such as virtual reality (VR),” Hung said.

Nguyen Kim Anh, CPO of VinBigdata, said the next generation of the internet won’t depend on geographical positions and cable routes. Instead, there will be new technologies allowing users to connect to the internet anywhere, together with broadband transmission lines transferring more information.

Asked if Vietnam can become a hub that connects the global internet, Sean Bergin, president and co-founder of APTelecom, said this is possible, but warned that this will be a long path for Vietnam to follow. And on this path, Vietnam will have to compete with strong competitors in the region, including Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines.

Charles Karsten from AMS-IX said Vietnam has great advantages in terms of geographical position, and the government’s and people’s openness to the internet.

Meanwhile, Hung from VNPT AI can see Vietnam’s advantages in the young population and the early access to the internet by Vietnamese. These will be the driving forces for the Internet to develop.

Anh of VinBigdata said that to turn the ambition of becoming a global internet hub into reality, Vietnam needs a clear and comprehensive strategy for both the state and people. 

Van Anh