The Fourth Industrial Revolution is an important opportunity that Viet Nam must quickly seize in order to accelerate the process of industrialisation and modernisation, said Ho Thi Kim Thoa, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade organised the “Industrial Revolution 4.0 Forum” in Ha Noi yesterday to provide enterprises and organisations with an overview of the advancements being made and the influence these would have on Viet Nam’s development strategies.

The fourth industrial revolution is blurring the gap between the real world and the virtual world through advanced technologies and innovation, said the deputy minister.

In particular, the influence and spread of this revolution was taking place on a global scale and was forecast to change systems of production, management and administration worldwide, she added.

Meanwhile, Tran Dinh Thien, director of the Viet Nam Institute of Economics, said that there would be a great opportunity for us to move forward and lead the way during the fourth industrial revolution.

“Having a unique, distinctive and feasible approach will help Viet Nam take advantage of the opportunities from the fourth industrial revolution to make a breakthrough,” Thien said.

However, deputy minister Thoa also noted that if the country did not have clear objectives and suitable approach and participation through economic restructuring, education reform and science and technology development, the pressure of the fourth industrial revolution would be very hard on Viet Nam.

On the other hand, Thien pointed out the two biggest challenges facing Viet Nam, by explaining that the country was having to both catch up with global integration while also having to compete with other countries to develop.

Therefore, the director of the Viet Nam Institute of Economics recommended that Viet Nam develop suitable digital strategies, adopt smart governance policies, while building a digital connection infrastructure, digital workforce, digital technology industry, smart agriculture, smart tourism, smart urbanisation and innovative ecosystems and start-ups.

Speaking at the forum, Louise Chamberlain, country director of UNDP Viet Nam, said that the fourth industrial revolution was of such great interest because it represented both fundamental opportunities for rapid human progress, but also considerable challenges.

“Events like today’s forum are critically important, because the impacts of the fourth industrial revolution and their scale are not yet well understood. Even studying this subject is challenging because the complexity of assessing the impacts is tremendous. The difficulty lies not only in the technology breakthroughs I mentioned, but in their interactions with our ideas and systems governing economic and social development; also value creation, privacy and ownership, and even how we see individual identity,” she added.

The move towards higher productivity and social resilience were among the most immediate and useful steps to closing the knowledge gap that Viet Nam’s sectors, subsectors and enterprises face in enhancing their productivity and competitiveness, she said.

This requires a more granular study of emerging technology systems and their implications for improving value chains, said the UNDP representative. — VNS