At the meeting organized on July 16 by the municipal People’s Committee and MIC to review joint program to develop information and communications in the period 2019-2020, on behalf of city authorities, Director of the Department of Information and Communications Duong Anh Duc petitioned the Ministry to give the city the green light to experiment new technological products.
Director Duc reported that the Department and the Department for Information Security under MIC removed malicious code from 510 computer sets in state agencies’ information system in the city as well as trained personnel in the field information security and cyber-security.
Especially, the city People Committee has assigned the Department to pilot 5G service implementation. It is scheduled that the Military Industry-Telecoms Group Viettel and MobiFone will provide a pilot 5G network in the city at 10 locations near Viettel's building in District 10, and at 12 MobiFone's locations in district 1 and 7.
Most technological products are made in the Saigon Hi-tech Park and Quang Trung Software City, said Director Duc. Firms in the Saigon Hi-tech Park and Quang Trung Software City should be given facilitation to experiment its products to shorten time before launching in the market.
Speaking at the meeting. Mr. Duc stressed that city managers highly considered AI as significant factors for the city to become a smart one. HCMC has asked the Department of Information and Communications and the Department of Science and Technology to work with the Vietnam National University HCMC and relevant agencies and experts in the field of AI to build AI ecosystem for the period 2020-2050 and issue in this year.
Some applications of AI-driven technologies have been used in hi-tech agriculture, healthcare services and education; for instance, a popular application is facial-recognition camera and smart home in high-rise buildings.
Additionally, Vietnamese largest dairy producer Vinamilk has applied robots and techonologies in its business while TPBank has equipped LiveBanking to facilitate its customers’ money transferring services with huge amount of money and FPT Group is developing AI program which provides free support for users interested in chatbot.
In term of startup projects, out of over 800 startup projects relating to IT, 600 have applied AI.
Mr. Duc emphasized that the city will mobilized all sources to develop AI to catch up with the world IT trend and by 2025, HCMC will become Vietnam’s center of AI research and implementations as well as in the region.
Alongside with this, HCMC authorities affirmed that it will intensify AI applications in building the city into a smart city and innovative urban areas. By 2025, AI applications will be used in construction, banking, tourism, transportation and telecommunications.
The city has sent its experts to Holland and Germany to learn about AI. Later, it will focus on long-term AI strategies outlined by the US, Russia, Germany and South Korea to verify their goals, rule and basic solutions as well as differences between these countries in order to choose the best way for Vietnam in generally and the city in particularly in the next ten years.
