Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Pham Hong Hai called on Vietnamese information and technology enterprises to catch the trend of Internet of Things (IoT), in Ha Noi on Thursday.

Viet Nam has more than 120 million mobile phone subscription, of these, 35 million use 3G.-File Photo

At a conference for Viet Nam 2015 Internet Day, the deputy minister also urged network infrastructure enterprises to join hands with digital enterprises to fully utilise the advantages of the IoT.

Internet Day is an annual event for enterprises in the field of Internet, domestic and international members of the Viet Nam Internet Association (VIA) and representatives from government agencies.

The event aims to affirm the important role of the Internet, which has been contributing to the change in the daily lives of the Vietnamese.             

This year the Internet Day theme is the "Internet of Things", which is a developing trend in the world, and has started to appear in Viet Nam with ideas and products like smart home, smart traffic, and smart city.

"With the four pillars of Social Network, Mobility, Analytics and Cloud, it is being predicted that the Internet of Things will bring a boom, both, in the number of connections as well as services and application on the Internet platform, which stimulates economic growth and technological innovation," Hai said.

The trend of IoT would bring an "unprecedented" opportunity for organisations and enterprises in Viet Nam, Vu Hoang Lien, president of Viet Nam Internet Association (VIA) said.

Economic value-added of the trend is expected to hit US$1.9 trillion by 2020.

Viet Nam's infrastructure for telecommunication and the Internet has developed vigorously in the past years.

According to the minister, the total domestic Internet connection bandwidth hit 900 Gbps, while global connectivity is 1,400 Gbps, by the end of September.

Viet Nam has more than 120 million mobile phone subscription, of these, 35 million use 3G.

The total number of fixed internet broadband connections in the country is around seven million, in which 40 per cent are fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) service.

Deputy Minister Hai emphasised that with a telecommunication infrastructure network which is being invested in and developed, and with a young population with the passion for technology, Viet Nam had an important premise and a potential market to develop initiatives and applications on the IoT technology platforms.

The Ministry of Information and Communications has asked the government to promulgate policies for the development of the network and service infrastructure on the platform of the Internet.

The ministry is implementing the plan of digitalising television to free bandwidth 700 MHz to serve the development of mobile broadband.

The ministry also plans to grant a licence for 4G LTE next year.

Recently, the government released the Resolution 36a on e-Government, which is expected to create a motive for the application of information and technology among citizens, enterprises, organisations and society.

Also, the Prime Minister's Decision No 1819/QD-TTg approving the national plan on the application of information technology in State agencies from 2016 to 2020 period contains the goal of implementing smart cities at least in three areas.

Truong Gia Binh, chairman of FPT, said that the analysis showed that real life and digital life would be one in the future.

"Every leader will be a digital leader, every enterprise will be a digital enterprise," he said.

There are currently 11.8 billion connected devices and the number of devices is expected to increase five times by 2020, Binh said.

"Viet Nam is neither fast nor slow in the IoT, therefore, we must not miss the chance," he emphasised.