HCM CITY — Developing big data infrastructure and clean energy usage were issues at the top of the agenda at a seminar titled “Overseas Vietnamese contribute to the development of HCM City” held on Thursday.

Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs Vũ Quang Minh told the seminar “Overseas Vietnamese have contributed significantly to the development of Việt Nam in general and HCM City in particular, both in terms of the economy and skills.”

Trần Anh Tuấn, head of the HCM City Development Research Institute, said “HCM City is going through a development boom and so many problems need to be resolved with the knowledge provided by overseas Vietnamese.”

An official from the city Department of Information and Telecommunications said “HCM City has spent a lot on IT applications in administration. However, the city lacks a common and big enough database to meet the development demand.”

Dr Nguyễn Duy Mạnh, a specialist in data science at France’s StarClay Corporation, said “Big data is billions of files, millions of pictures, videos and clips, and machine learning is algorithms to deal with big data.”

“Like building infrastructure, in big data, the Government should invest in its open data with statistics from all relevant authorities, invest in broadband internet, support enterprises to develop big data infrastructure, install equipment for Internet of Things to accurately measure, update and announce the database, issue information security policies to protect users.”

Developing machine learning is the way to help Việt Nam control big data, he said.

“Vietnamese are usually good at mathematics. Now the Ministry of Education and Training only needs to introduce probability statistics and coding in school and Vietnamese students will be ready for the digital revolution.”

Assoc Prof Vũ Tường Thụy of the University of Nottingham in the UK, who is also dean of science and engineering at Hoa Sen University, said “Việt Nam has young IT engineers suitable for big data and the infrastructure in the IT industry in Việt Nam is updated with the most modern technologies in the world.

“However, Việt Nam lacks a legal framework to allow everyone to develop and exploit the database. The country should strengthen training in data science and develop standard data that is allowed to be shared easily.”

Speaking about development of clean energy, Trần Duy Châu, a researcher from Electricity of France, said “In the near future the city will see a strong trend in solar power development, both commercial and household.

“Besides the benefits of solar power, the rapid development of these decentralised power resources will also have many implications for the environment, planning and construction management, urban landscapes, fire and electrical safety, land management and many others.”

“The city must improve labour safety management and fire and explosion safety.”

The seminar, titled “Overseas Vietnamese contribute to the development of HCM City,” was organised by the State Commission on Overseas Vietnamese and the HCM City Development Research Institute. — VNS