Vietnam pitched as Japan's comprehensive IT partner

Tokyo, August 8 (VNA) -  Vietnam is positioning itself as a comprehensive IT partner for Japan's sustainable digital economy development, as highlighted at a seminar held in Tokyo on August 6.

The event, part of Vietnam IT Day 2024, was co-organised by the Vietnam Software and IT Services Association (VINASA), the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO), and the Japan Information Technology Services Industry Association (JISA), under the auspices of the Vietnamese Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC).

In his speech, Vietnamese Ambassador to Japan Pham Quang Hieu highlighted the success of Vietnamese IT investments in Japan, noting many large Vietnamese IT companies opened branches in Japan, along with many new IT firms of Vietnam established in this East Asian country. However, he acknowledged a gap in the workforce, with only about 6,000 Vietnamese IT engineers in Japan, comprising just 1% of the Vietnamese community there.

To address this, he announced the launch of the Vietnam-Japan Digital Transformation Association (VADX Japan), with Vietnamese IT companies as the core force. The association aims to achieve an impressive revenue target of 1 trillion JPY (7 billion USD) for Vietnamese IT companies in Japan by 2033 and build a workforce of tens of thousands of quality engineers.

The seminar featured presentations from representatives of JETRO, JISA, the MIC’s International Cooperation Department, and both Vietnamese and Japanese enterprises, which introduced policies, shared experience and proposed initiatives to bolster the IT sector.

Earlier, Vietnamese Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung underlined the strength of Vietnam's IT workforce, with around 1.5 million people employed in the digital technology sector, including nearly 700,000 engineers. Given Japan's severe labour shortage and its reliance on IT for future growth, Vietnam offers a promising solution, he noted.

Hung also emphasised the crucial role of VADX Japan, supported by the Vietnamese Embassy in Japan, as a platform to assist Vietnamese IT companies in entering the Japanese market. This initiative is part of a broader strategy to bring Vietnamese IT enterprises to international markets, at the forefront of a wave of companies establishing representative offices and setting up businesses overseas.

The event concluded with the debut of VADX Japan and the signing of memoranda of understanding between Japanese and Vietnamese companies, marking a significant step forward in bilateral IT cooperation./.