HÀ NỘI — Meta and the Việt Nam National Innovation Center (NIC) under the Ministry of Finance on Friday launched the third annual Việt Nam Innovation Challenge (VIC) 2025, focusing on advancing artificial intelligence (AI) development in Việt Nam.

Since its inception in 2022, the challenge has attracted over 750 solutions from more than 20 countries and was highlighted in the White House Fact Sheet during President Joe Biden’s visit to Việt Nam in 2023.

This year, VIC 2025 centres on Project ViGen, an initiative to create high-quality, open-source Vietnamese datasets to improve large language models (LLMs). The goal is to enhance AI’s ability to understand Vietnamese culture, language and context, driving economic growth and innovation.

Project ViGen is a collaboration between Meta, NIC and the AI for Việt Nam Foundation, with support from strategic partners NVIDIA, Viettel and the Việt Nam Academy of Science and Technology. The initiative aims to develop large-scale, high-quality open-source Vietnamese datasets for AI training, ensuring AI systems reflect Việt Nam’s cultural values and ethical.

Võ Xuân Hoài, Deputy Director General of the National Innovation Centre, emphasised that AI is rapidly transforming the world, making the development of large-scale, high-quality, open-source Vietnamese datasets a pressing priority.

“This project is for the whole nation, not just one group or organisation,” he said, highlighting the project's success relies on the collective efforts of policymakers, think tanks, researchers, developers, experts, and users. With strong collaboration, he believes AI can become a powerful tool for all Vietnamese and help position Việt Nam as a global AI leader.

Meta is supporting Project ViGen by providing open-source datasets through its AI and Data for Good programme.

“Meta will be the first contributor to this project, providing over 12 open-source datasets specifically for Việt Nam. These datasets, freely available, can be utilised by Vietnamese developers, businesses, and researchers to drive innovation and solve local challenges,” said Sarim Aziz, Director of Public Policy at Meta.

Trần Việt Hùng, Founder and CEO of AI for Vietnam, said AI is growing fast, but its use in Việt Nam remains limited. A major challenge is the lack of Vietnamese in AI models, making outputs less natural and unable to fully reflect the country’s culture.

He stressed that open-source datasets like Llama can help integrate Vietnamese into AI more easily, saving time and resources. Project ViGen, he added, shows how open-source models can drive global innovation while ensuring AI understands Vietnamese language and context.

Alongside Project ViGen, Meta and Deloitte introduced a new public sector guide, Transforming the APAC Public Sector through Open Source AI: Unlocking Innovation with Llama, which offers insights for governments on integrating open-source AI technologies.

VIC 2025 and Project ViGen align with Việt Nam’s national strategy on digital transformation and AI development. With collaboration from policymakers, researchers, and businesses, the initiative aims to position Việt Nam as a leader in AI innovation globally. — VNS