Vietnam needs urgent technical training to prepare for Industry 4.0: PM

The fourth industrial revolution offer chances for Vietnam to thrive in its labor-dependent economy, but workers still require further technical training, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has said.

Vietnam needs to develop a comprehensive information technology system to serve a digital economy, Phuc said at the Smart Industry World 2017 conference in Hanoi on Tuesday, attended by government officials and local and international experts.

The country needs to “quickly develop human resources that serve the demands of a digital economy,” he said, setting a target for Vietnam to put more than one million highly-skilled members into the digital technology workforce.

“The fourth industrial revolution is an opportunity to materialize Vietnam’s dream of prosperity that we cannot miss,” Phuc said.

The government leader said Vietnam has a strong foundation to catch up with new technical accomplishments. Internet coverage in Vietnam has reached 52 million people, or 54 percent of the population, the fifth highest rate in Asia Pacific. Around 55 percent of Vietnamese people also use smartphones.

Nearly 90 percent of public administrative procedures in the country are now available online.

The number of startups has increased remarkably from 1,800 last year to more than 3,000, while the country’s top telecom firm Viettel has entered the world’s top 100 biggest businesses in the sector, Phuc said.

Automation will affect millions of workers in the footwear and garment sector, leading to large-scale redundancies of low-skilled workers, he said.