More than 300 Vietnamese and Japanese information technology (IT) firms attended the Japan ICT Day 2019 in Da Nang on Tuesday.

Vice Chairman Le Trung Chinh addressing the opening ceremony of the Japan ICT Day 2019

Themed ‘Viet Nam-Japan cooperation to promote digital conversion’, this year’s event was co-hosted by the Viet Nam Software & IT Services Association (VINASA), the Viet Nam - Japan IT Cooperation Committee (VJC), and the Da Nang People’s Committee.

In his remarks at the event, municipal People’s Committee Vice Chairman Le Trung Chinh noted that Japan is currently his city's largest foreign investor with 177 projects totalling over 800 million USD. The majority of the Japanese-invested projects involve IT and communications, real estate, and services.

He added the city is now home to over 65 Japanese IT businesses, and some of them have built strong brand names such as NeoLab, Nippon Seiki, Mabuchi Motor, and Asian Tech. Japan is also the largest market for Da Nang’s software producers, accounting for 36% of the city’s export market share.

Mr Chinh said the city has been giving top priority to promoting the development of electronics, telecommunications, and IT aspects in association with the digital economy during its progress by 2030 with a vision towards 2045. It is expected that the IT sector would contribute about 10% of the city’s gross regional domestic product (GRDP) by 2025, and 15% by 2030.

In attempting to fulfil its above-mentioned targets, over recent years, Da Nang has been focusing on implementing a project to support the city’s creative and innovative startup ecosystem and a project to build Da Nang into a smarter city, as well as issuing IT business development policy.

Also, top priority has been given to accelerating the construction of the Software Park No 2, and appealing for even more domestic and foreign investment into hi-tech and dedicated IT parks in the city.

Mr Takeo Nakajima, Head of a representative office of the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) in Ha Noi, said according to JETRO's annual survey about 70% of Japanese enterprises in Viet Nam plan to expand their business activities in Asia and ASEAN, especially in Viet Nam. In 2018 alone, 248 Japanese enterprises invested into Viet Nam’s IT sector, accounting for 8% of total Japanese investment in Viet Nam.

The Japanese guest said Japan has been facing a severe shortage of human resources in IT sector. He added 95% of Japanese companies are willing to recruit Vietnamese IT engineers, but up to 80% of them require their employees reaching the N1 and N2 levels of Japanese language. This is a great challenge for Vietnamese IT enterprises, and is the biggest barrier in the bilateral IT cooperation between Viet Nam and Japan.

According to VINASA's survey, the three most potential industries for the Viet Nam-Japan cooperation are big data, digital conversion, and augmented / virtual reality. Besides, Japanese and Vietnamese businesses are showing their keen interest in training programmes on new technologies, Japanese language and Japanese business culture.

Within the framework of the Japan ICT Day 2019, VJC and the IT Innovation and Strategy Centre Okinawa (ISCO) together signed a Memorandum of Understanding on boosting the bilateral cooperative ties between Viet Nam and Japan in the IT field, especially new digital industrial technology, known as Industry 4.0.