Digital Transformation Center Vietnam
Vietnam faces complex development challenges in overcoming the middle-income trap, implementing the energy, transition, mitigating and adapting to climate change, as well as solving other environmental issues. At the same time, the country is recording considerable socio-economic progress, particularly the economy is booming, currently being the second fastest-growing market in Southeast Asia after Indonesia. Vietnam is among the top 10 countries with the highest number of smartphones, counting 71.5 million smartphones in use. The high level of social acceptance is a unique opportunity for the Digital Transformation Center Vietnam to accelerate the digital transformation in the country in a participatory, people-centric and sustainable manner. Nevertheless, digital transformation risks digital divide and sustainability issues such as high resource consumption, unfair working conditions, and responsible investment in new technologies must also be addressed. The Digital Transformation Center Vietnam therefore focuses on digital entrepreneurship, the digital economy and government advice.
Our approach
To enable Vietnam to effectively leverage digital technologies to overcome the local environmental, social and economic challenges, the Digital Transformation Center develops approaches in three focus areas, leveraging synergies with the existing German development cooperation portfolio:
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First introduced as a term in 2011 by the initiative of the “Promoter Group Communication of the Research Union Economy – Science” of the German Federal Government, the Industry 4.0 paradigm has generated new opportunities and new challenges for SMEs. In order to increase their competitiveness and efficiency, SMEs have to enable the digital transformation of the production and logistics chains (smart manufacturing) and of products (smart interconnected objects). Industry 4.0 and the future of work interventions aim at promoting the twin transition of green and digital transformation of Vietnamese industry to overcome the middle-income trap and be well equipped for the future of production.
We adopt the Industry 4.0 Readiness approach, which consists of a series of activities and events to raise awareness about Industry 4.0 technologies and digital opportunities. SMEs are supported in formulating and implementing Industry 4.0 roadmaps and cultivate a collaborative, creative and human-centered company culture. This will allow SMEs to sustainably and effectively integrate Industry 4.0 concepts in their digital transformation journey.
A working group and governance structure help build strategic partnerships between different actors involved in the ecosystem, such as government, industry associations and academia. These different stakeholders form a network to assist the deployment of the National Industry 4.0 strategy.