HCM City (VNA) - The third International Conference on InformationTechnology Outsourcing in Vietnam will be held in Ho Chi Minh City in October.

Vietnam ITO conference will seek to promote the potential of the country’s ITindustry as an emerging destination for innovation and offer a businessmatching platform for local and international buyers and Vietnamese vendors.

Themed “Vietnam – The Emerged Destination for Innovation,” the conference wouldunderscore Vietnam's long-term goal of becoming Southeast Asia's leadinginnovation centre, Tran Phuc Hong, vice president of the Vietnam InformationTechnology Outsourcing Alliance (VN ITO Alliance), one of the event’sorganisers, said.

It would feature an international conference with more than 500 participants,business-matching sessions to connect Vietnamese software companies and localand foreign buyers, a technology exhibition, and visits to top IT companies andsoftware parks among others, he said.

Artificial intelligence, blockchain, big data, the internet of things, digitaltransformation, and tech talent would be discussed, he said.

There would be two major panel discussions chaired by top experts from Japanand the Republic of Korea, he said.

The former would discuss Japanese success stories when working with Vietnam ITservices companies, and how Vietnamese companies could expand their market toJapan, and the latter would discuss how Korean tech companies can work withVietnamese IT companies for win-win cooperation, he added.

The technology exhibition is expected to have 60 booths, double the number twoyears ago, including nearly 30 by Korean and Japanese companies, who are keento partner with Vietnamese IT companies.

Lam Nguyen Hai Long, honorary chairman of VNITO Alliance, said Vietnam has beenvery successful in the software outsourcing field over the past decade.

International counterparts regard Vietnam as an Asian hub for software outsourcing.Moreover, in recent years Vietnam has implemented many new models and policiessuch as smart city model, creative cities programmes and start-up activities inresponse to the fourth industrial revolution, he added.

It is also a highly open economy, which enables its firms to reach largemarkets, he said.

As a country in the top 10 in terms of students studying abroad and with alarge number of scientists working in developed countries, Vietnam hasfavourable conditions to keep abreast of the most sophisticated products andtechnologies around the world, he said.

Those conditions offer opportunities and premises for Vietnam to become one ofthe centres for software development and innovation in Southeast Asia, he said.

Organised by the VNITO Alliance, QTSC, and the Investment and Trade PromotionCentre of HCM City, the biennial conference will be held at the Tan Son Nhat SaigonHotel from October 23 to 25. – VNA