Minister Nguyen Manh Hung: New generation technology enterprises must be based on knowledge and great aspirations

The Ministry of Science and Technology's electronic information portal would like to introduce the full text of the Minister's speech at this event.

CMC - OpenAI is a technology business model suitable for the era of knowledge-based development. Those with money contribute money, those with knowledge contribute knowledge. Knowledge is equivalent to capital. Those who contribute money contribute 100% of the capital, but core individuals who contribute knowledge own 30% of the company. A developed country is a country where 80% of its assets are intangible assets, intellectual property. An underdeveloped country has up to 80% of its assets being material assets, physical assets. Our Vietnam has entered a new phase, a phase of development based on intellectual property. The Ministry of Science and Technology encourages newly established science and technology enterprises to be based on this model, a model that combines capital and knowledge, physical assets and intellectual property.

A business that starts with 50 million USD but has the aspiration to become a company with a market value of 5 billion USD in the next 5-10 years, to put its name on the global technology map, is a great aspiration. No large business has ever started without a big dream, a great aspiration. A great goal is a guiding star, without a guiding star, we will easily get lost, easily lose faith. C-OpenAI has a great aspiration, this is very encouraging.

A very important feature of the fourth industrial revolution is the balance between the power of big techs that own core technology and the advantages of countries/enterprises that understand local context/language/culture and possess specialized data to make specialized applications. Those are the small giants. In the digital transformation era, technology is global but data is local. Specialized applications help solve national problems, develop the country and also help perfect technology. Important specialized applications must run on Vietnam's AI infrastructure. There is a global AI infrastructure but there are also national AI infrastructures. There are global platforms but there are also national platforms. There are global applications (like ChatGPT) but there are also countless national applications. The combination of global and national will help our world develop more sustainably. This is an opportunity for developing countries like Vietnam. C-OpenAI is a Vietnamese enterprise, the main advantage is Vietnamese data, Vietnamese problems. Another advantage is open source AI code and the most fundamental advantage is Vietnamese people, Vietnamese intelligence and the flexibility and adaptability of Vietnamese culture - which are the most necessary and important factors in an era where technology is creating rapid and breakthrough changes.

CMC’s bet on AI is a sound strategic decision. AI will increase global labor productivity by 1.5% per year over the next few decades, equivalent to the increase brought by electricity in the 20th century. According to PwC’s prediction, AI could contribute about $16 trillion to global GDP by 2030, larger than China’s GDP. There is no doubt that AI is the most important technology of the 4th industrial revolution.

The country is entering the great celebration of the 80th anniversary of independence and National Day on September 2nd, but we have lost 50 years of war and embargo, and only 30 years of peace to build and develop the country. We have 20 more years to turn Vietnam into a developed country with high income, standing shoulder to shoulder with the world powers as Uncle Ho wished. To do that, it is not only peace, stability, high will and determination, selfless work, but also the opportunity brought by the times, that is the opportunity of a new industrial revolution. Vietnam did not have the opportunity to take advantage of the three previous industrial revolutions because we were at war. Now that the country is at peace and has become an upper middle-income country, we must take advantage of the opportunities of the fourth industrial revolution with its main technology being AI (AI is like the steam engine of the first industrial revolution, like electricity of the second industrial revolution and like personal computers of the third industrial revolution). Take advantage of it to rise up, to master AI technology, AI infrastructure, AI data and AI applications, to realize the nation's eternal dream, the dream of being strong, prosperous and happy, a dream so strong that no enemy dares to invade Vietnam. There must be many, many companies investing heavily in AI.

CMC's choice to develop AI based on open source is also a suitable strategic choice.

Next, I will talk more about open source and open technology.

The future of artificial intelligence will not be completely controlled by technology giants, but will also be dominated by the open source community, by application development businesses of countries. No company, no multinational corporation, no matter how large, can solve all problems, meet all changing needs of organizations and countries. Developing open technology is the key to unlocking the creativity of all people, thereby reducing prices, making it accessible to more people to solve the socio-economic problems of each country.

Information technology, digital technology has, is and will penetrate deeply into every corner of social life, will become the air we breathe. Therefore, it must be as cheap as air. The way to achieve that is open technology. Open technology is not only open source code, but also open architecture and open standards. Along with open technology is open culture. We will all contribute to technology development, share and use technology. Therefore, the price of technology will be cheaper.

Information technology and digital technology have become the foundation of the socio-economy. The greatest movement in human history is the movement from the real world to the digital world. But all countries are concerned about cyber security. Trust will become a decisive factor for the success of this movement. Countries can only have this trust when the technology they use is open technology. Open technology is so that countries can master the technology they use. It is no longer like before, we buy a "Black Box" from another country and leave the fate of our country to another country. Currently, many countries have declared that they will only buy technology when the technology is open, especially when that technology is used to build national infrastructures such as 5G, AI.

The greatest creativity is the creativity of the whole people. Only this creativity can solve the problems of each individual, each small organization and each country. No one can understand their problems better than themselves. Therefore, we will be the best people to solve our problems. The creativity of the whole people can only happen when technology is open. Open technology will unleash the creative capacity of each individual. Each person stands on the shoulders of others to develop, thereby creating a higher level for others.

Data is oil. In the future, most of the value will be created from data. The more data, especially the more different types of data, the greater the opportunity to create new value. The person who owns the data and the person who creates new value from that data are in many cases not the same. Therefore, opening data and open data is decisive in creating new value for the people and the country.

For a country like Vietnam that is following us, if we want to go ahead, we have to stand on the shoulders of others. Choosing to develop open technology, choosing to develop open source software, choosing to open data for individuals and businesses to participate in creating new values ​​is our orientation. With this orientation, Vietnam will develop into a technological nation, based on and inheriting human knowledge but also contributing to human knowledge.

Vietnam is committed to developing and mastering digital technology based on open standards and open source code. This is not only a commitment but also our strategy: Open to develop and master Vietnamese technology, to Make in Vietnam. This is not only a strategy but also our action plan. Each agency and enterprise should take on a job and commit to action. State agencies should act to build policies and strategies. Enterprises should act to develop platforms. Training institutions should act to nurture and develop open communities.

Wishing all of us good health, lots of energy, and strong belief in our ability to master strategic technologies to solve Vietnam's problems, help the country develop, and from here go global and contribute to the development of humanity.

I wish C-OpenAI to achieve its goal of 5 billion USD. May you be successful to inspire other Vietnamese technology enterprises. Your success must be demonstrated in solving strategic problems of Vietnam and of humanity. That is the problem of increasing labor productivity, double-digit growth; effectively using limited resources; improving the quality of human resources, the quality of civil servants; improving national governance; a two-tier local government model; each Vietnamese citizen has an assistant...