Minister of Information and Communications Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng at a ceremony to promote cloud computing and digitalisation in Hà Nội on May 22. - VGP Photo

HÀ NỘI — The digital economy’s data must stay in Việt Nam instead of being stored elsewhere by foreign players, said Minister of Information and Communications Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng at a ceremony to promote cloud computing and digitalisation held in Hà Nội yesterday.

The minister said cloud computing will play a key role in the future’s digital infrastructure and must be a top investment priority in Việt 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, Hùng and leaders from four of the largest Vietnamese tech firms VNG, VCCorp, Viettel and CMC introduced several open-source cloud-based platforms and application. All of which, according to the minister, met the ministry’s standards and regulations. He also said Việt Nam is among the early adopters that have publicised standards and regulations on cloud computing.

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

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

Vũ Minh Trí, director-general of VNG Cloud said once local firms finished building Việt Nam-based infrastructure they would 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 more frequently. Local firms, therefore, should gain major competitive advantages over foreign competitors and help spur the development of cloud computing services in Việt 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 source. The local open-source community has 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 Việt Nam later this year.

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