Minister of information and communications Nguyen Manh Hung at a ceremony to promote cloud computing and digitalisation in Ha Noi on May 22. — VGP Photo

Digital economy’s data must stay in Viet Nam instead of being stored elsewhere by foreign players, said minister of information and communications Nguyen Manh Hung at a ceremony to promote cloud computing and digitalisation held in Ha Noi on Friday.

The minister said cloud computing is to play a key role in the future’s digital infrastructure and therefore must be a top investment priority in Viet Nam’s digitalisation strategy and socio-economic development.

Notably, the ministry has made public the entire technical standards and requirements for the State’s e-Government project, giving firms a set of guidelines for the development of cloud computing platforms and applications required by State-owned enterprises and governmental agencies.

At the ceremony, Hung and leaders from Vietnamese four largest tech firms including VNG, VCCorp, Viettel and CMC introduced a number of open-source cloud-based platforms and application. All of which, according to the minister, met his ministry’s standards and regulations. He also said Viet Nam, as of now, is among the early adopters that have publicised standards and regulations on cloud computing.

“As Vietnamese firms are getting stronger hold of the physical networks, we must do the same for cloud computing and digitalisation infrastructures for they are the future and the cornerstone of telecommunications,” Hung said.

According to the ministry, the market for Viet Nam’s cloud computing was estimated at US$200 million and have been steadily expanding at a 30 per cent rate annually. However, Vietnamese firms only accounted for 20 per cent of the market share, a rather modest figure compared to their foreign competitors’ share.

Vu Minh Tri, director-general of VNG Cloud said once local firms finished building Viet Nam-based infrastructures they should not have to rely on outside suppliers. Firms should also be able to offer better support to Vietnamese firms, train more Vietnamese engineers and perform on-site training for customers much more frequently. Local firms, therefore, should gain major competitive advantages over foreign competitors and help spur the development of cloud computing services in Viet Nam.

Vietnamese telecommunications firms run a total of 27 data centres with 270,000 servers across the country, which can readily service all customers at affordable prices, said a ministry’s source. The local open-source community have also seen fast growth along with its global counterparts. The ministry said it had plans to hold the first-ever open-source community meeting in Viet Nam later this year.

Between May 22 and July 22, customers with new signings for cloud computing services by local firms are eligible for a 20 per cent discount under a stimulus package supporting economic recovery and digitalisation. — VNS