Singapore (VNA) - The high rate oftechnology adoption in Vietnam presents vast opportunities for growth,according to Le Hong Minh, co-founder, chairman and CEO of technology companyVNG Corporation. 

 In the field of mobilepayments, for example, Minh said that by demand alone, “five years from now, Vietnamcould have 40 million transactions per year, 40 times the current capacity ofthe banking system”.

However, "Vietnam still faces challenges tofully exploit this opportunity," he said at the Vietnam Internet EcosystemForum held recently in Singapore.   

“Vietnam lacks people who really understand andare fully committed to this tremendous change,” Minh said. As a result,businesses still lag behind consumers in technology adoption.

Minh said that to bridge this gap in humanresources, one of VNG’s goals is “to excite talented people to work in thetechnology industry in Vietnam, in whatever capacity they can.”

Based on his extensive research of Vietnam’s macro-economicdevelopment, Dr. Vu Minh Khuong of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy atthe National University of Singapore expressed optimism about Vietnam’seconomic performance, but stressed the importance of strategic reform anddigital transformation to sustain that growth, especially in the current globaleconomic climate.

“Information and communications technology (ICT)adoption will affect all internal and external factors influencing the growthof the market,” Khuong said.

Vu Minh Tri, Vice President of VNG CloudServices, and managing director of VINADATA, noted that cloud computing hadtremendous potential.

“The current trend is to have inter-connectedfacilities, opening up huge opportunities for IT companies to tap into thebudget for infrastructure development, which normally makes up 60 per cent of acountry’s GDP,” he said.

A panel discussion on the cloud computingsub-sector in Vietnam also pointed out that gaps which exist across multipleverticals, from retail to government, could be filled by cloud computingsolutions.

Alex Smith, the APAC technical lead forMicrosoft Azure, expressed confidence in the ability of the “public cloud toremove barriers of entry for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs), hencedemocratising the market”.

Partnering is also an excellent way to transferknowledge and expedite progress.

“The problems (regarding cloud computingservices) that they solve in Vietnam are fundamentally simple. Hence, with theright stewards with enough experience, progress will be seen much morequickly”, said Wilbur Le, vice president of corporate development at LEAP, aninvestor in cloud computing companies.

VNG, in joint efforts with Hanh Trinh Viet, acommunity organisation that connects overseas Vietnamese experts withVietnamese companies to find solutions to challenges of common interest, aimsto provide a sustainable channel for communication and collaboration with ITcommunities abroad, to connect with more Vietnamese talent and to inform themof the opportunities and challenges at home.

The forum also highlighted opportunities foroverseas professionals to take part in Vietnam’s exciting market.  

The forum featured leading organisations inSoutheast Asia like the National University of Singapore, Amazon Web Services,Microsoft Azure, ST Telemedia, SEA, Kyber Network and VNG Corporation.

The event attracted over 120 participants fromvarious industries and backgrounds, generating passionate participation fromthe audience.-VNA