PM Nguyen Tan Dung delivered an opening speech at the third Vietnam Information and Communications and Technology Summit in Hanoi on June 20.
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| PM Nguyen Tan Dung speaking at the ICT Summit |
The summit gathers around 500 delegates in which PM Nguyen Tan Dung and former Japanese PM Yukio Hatoyama were invited as special guests.
In the opening speech, the prime minister said the summit was a chance to discuss and forecast development trends. The summit this year will focus on how technology can support and improve competitive advantages, communication infrastructure and education reform.
"These are the most urgent problems right now." he said. Since 2000, Vietnam has implemented various policies and measures to improve the domestic socio-economic condition and identified information, communications and technology as one of the most important factors.
Information and technology has become a key industry, contributing 7% to Vietnam’s GDP. Vietnam aims to develop communication technology infrastructure to the regional and global level. However, to be able to overcome many challenges and problems, the prime minister asked state agencies at every levels, enterprises and experts to collaborate for a higher goal.
The presence of PM Hatoyama at the summit was also an important mark for the 40th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Vietnam and Japan and will help to boost the co-operation.
Hatoyama said since Japan is poor in natural resources, people are their most important resources. Though Vietnam was granted with rich natural resources, humans still play a key role in the future development.
He further said after the Cold War, Japanese economy worsened. However, despite the low state budget at the time, the government still placed high belief in contribution made by science and technology. In 1995, the Science and Technology Basic Law was enacted which act as the basis for most of policies.
At first, the cost and speed of internet was high so the Japanese government implemented an e-Japan plan to reduce the cost to a third in four years and raise the number of internet users by 20 times. The infrastructure was developed quickly after that.