Hanoi (VNA)🍃 – Simon Milner, Vice President of Public Policy for Asia and Pacific at Meta group, is of the opinion that Vietnam has a huge potential to develop digital economy. 

The Meta executive spoke to VietnamPlus about the promotion of and support for innovation in Vietnam. 

Reporter: What policy does Meta have to promote and support innovative businesses in Vietnam? Which fields does Meta want to invest in in the coming years?

Simon Milner꧑: To support Vietnamese businesses in innovation, we have just done it through products like Facebook or Messenger. Vietnam has always been an important market for Meta, where our products have directly supported small- and medium-sized enterprises and in various industries and especially the media industry.

In short, the way we support the business community in Vietnam is through innovative products. In addition, we also have cooperation programmes with agencies and departments of the Government of Vietnam and the Vietnamese business community. Over the past 5 years in Vietnam, Meta has trained digital skills for 580,000 students, nearly 25,000 teachers and 64,000 small and medium enterprises. Above all, we also create connections between Government agencies, communities and users. Moreover, the Government's policies on supporting Vietnam's innovation are really evident in our cooperation programme with the Ministry of Planning and Investment, especially with the National Innovation Centre.

Reporter: How do you assess the innovation field in Vietnam in comparison with other countries in the region?

Simon Milner𝔉 : Vietnam has a very respectable position in the region and has sufficient conditions to successfully build a digital economy. This is an opinion not only of me but also of many international experts when talking about Vietnam.

The conditions I mentioned here are the quality of human resources, especially Vietnam's education, and policies to encourage innovation. In addition, it can be said that Vietnamese people and the business community have a very strong and creative entrepreneurial spirit and especially the support from the Government is huge.

Optimistic about the innovative ecosystem in Vietnam

Reporter: What is your evaluation about Vietnam’s National Innovation Centre?

Simon Milner☂: The National Innovation Centre (NIC) is an important part and an example of the support of the Government of Vietnam.

In addition, Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung has a vision for innovation development. Over the past years, he and his colleagues have developed many guidelines and policies favourable for the development of innovation in Vietnam, which will be reflected at the Vietnam International Innovation Expo 2023 slated to take place in Hoa Lac at the end of October.   Meta was honoured to speak at the Press Conference of Vietnam International Innovation Exhibition 2023 taking place on August 15. And we have received an invitation from Minister Nguyen Chi Dung to speak at the International Expo this October. We also continually build initiatives and programmes based on successes and continuous learning. Overall, Meta believes its programmes in Vietnam have been effective, helping to continue building the Digital Economy and driving innovation. So I hope we will continue to build on that success.

Reporter: What do you think about the startup ecosystem for SMEs in Vietnam? What are the challenges that Vietnamese innovative businesses are facing?

Simon Milnerಌ: We are very optimistic about Vietnam's innovation ecosystem. During the talk, Minister Nguyen Chi Dung said: "We're only just starting, we have a lot to improve”.

In our company, there is a saying "We have only done 1% of our journey, the remaining 99% of the work has not been done." This is to confirm that aspirations and great ambitions are extremely important and we must always remind each other that we cannot "rest on our laurels" and always feel that we are not doing enough. As long as we have those strong aspirations, we can push ourselves to move forward in the spirit of Vietnam's innovation ecosystem. In terms of challenges, I may not be an expert to answer this question properly, but we are working very closely with NIC and with leaders of cities such as Da Nang with the hope that this is a learning process to better understand the Vietnamese market. We need to find out the difficulties that members of the innovative business community are facing so that we can offer support solutions. In the short term, we have a number of solutions and platforms to help these businesses reach the domestic and regional markets. That's just the beginning and we need to work deeper and broader. - Thank you for this conversation!/.