HCM City (VNA) – Updating technology and revamping administration are crucial for theexistence and development of Vietnamese businesses amidst the fourth industrialrevolution, experts said at a workshop in Ho Chi Minh City on April 12.

The experts agreedthat the industrial revolution has directly impacted Vietnam’s economy, especiallyenterprises.

Assoc. Prof. Dr.Le Hoai Quoc, head of the management board of the Saigon High-teach Park(SHTP), said the revolution generates both opportunities and challenges forlocal firms.

Sectors liketourism, domestic trade, IT, education, health care and construction willbenefit from data connectivity and digitalisation. Meanwhile, energy,electricity, electronics, manafucaturing technology and garment-textile areexpected to face cost-related challenges.

However, this rulewould not be applied to all enterprises in those sectors, he said, explainingthat those which know how to grasp opportunities, update technologies andcreate suitable products will grow rapidly.

On the contrary,businesses which lag behind in terms of technologies may have to downsize oreven withdraw from the market, he said.

Lieu Hung Tien,Director of Haravan Technology Corporation, suggested local firms utilise e-commerceto gain market share, given internet users make up 60 percent of Vietnam’spopulation, with each of them spending 25 hours per week online, and about 600million cross-border consumers globally.

Le Dinh Phong, arobotics and automation expert, said small scale and limited financial capacityhave hindered domestic firms from investing in automatic lines and cutting-edgetechnologies.

He said only 1percent of Vietnamese businesses are using state-of-the-art technologies while mostof them are struggling with out-of-date machines.

Given this,Vietnamese enterprises have no choice but adapt to the global trend in order todevelop, experts said.

Nguyen Lam Vien,General Director of Vinamit JSC, said apart from digital technology, and dataand physical techniques, attention should be paid to biological technology,which, he said, plays a very important role in agriculture and food processing.

Trinh Thanh Nhon,General Director of ICC, a cosmetics manufacturer, said that Vietnam’ssmall-and medium-sized enterprises will face more challenges on the path towardsthe industrial revolution.

Highlighting theefficiency of new technology in production, Nhon said after revampingproduction technology, ICC needs only 50 workers compared with 150 in the past,with output up three-fold.

Delegates at theworkshop also said that new administration technology can help leaderssupervise production and handle problems easily.

They suggested employingmore labourers with high skills, encouraging foreign firms to participate inthe local supply chain and promoting innovation.-VNA