Departing with technology, businesses accelerate in the digital age

On August 21, 2025, CMC Technology Group officially launched CMC OpenAI Company (C-OpenAI). This is considered an important strategic step, marking a new milestone in Vietnam's journey to master AI technology.

C-OpenAI is built on the foundation of 25 core technologies researched and developed by CMC, including computer vision, natural language processing (NLP), large language models (LLM), speech processing and data lake (Data Lake House). The entire C-OpenAI system operates on CMC Cloud infrastructure, ensuring Vietnamese data sovereignty .

Mr. Dang Van Tu, General Director of CMC OpenAI, said that these technologies have been commercialized and appeared on international rankings. The company aims to apply AI in many fields such as national legal virtual assistant, citizen assistant, education , healthcare, finance - banking, manufacturing and public administration.

CMC Chairman Nguyen Trung Chinh affirmed that the establishment of CMC OpenAI is a new step forward for the enterprise. “32 years ago, we started with the dream of putting Vietnam on the world technology map. And today, the launch of CMC OpenAI is a step forward to help the country rise up in the era of AI transformation,” said Mr. Chinh.

CMC aims to become a global digital transformation and AI transformation corporation by 2028, with revenue of over 1 billion USD, growing over 20% per year, with a scale of 10,000 employees, of which 40% are AI human resources. By 2030, the enterprise aims to be in the top 5 digital technology companies in Vietnam, capable of competing with advanced countries.

At the event, Minister of Science and Technology Nguyen Manh Hung emphasized that CMC-OpenAI is a technology enterprise model suitable for the era of knowledge-based development.

According to the Minister, a developed country is a country where 80% of its assets are intangible assets, intellectual assets. An underdeveloped country has up to 80% of its assets being material assets, physical assets. Vietnam has entered a new phase, a phase of development based on intellectual assets. 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, between material assets and intellectual assets.

According to the Minister of Science and Technology, CMC's bet on AI is a sound strategic decision. AI will increase global labor productivity by 1.5% per year in the next decades, equivalent to the increase brought by electricity in the 20th century. According to PwC's prediction, AI could contribute about 16 trillion USD to global GDP by 2030, larger than China's GDP.

It can be said that the development of Vietnamese digital technology enterprises over the past 20 years is an impressive story. From being mainly processing enterprises, Vietnamese enterprises have confidently stepped up to a higher level: Mastering technology, creating products and solving the country's big problems.

Sharing with reporters of Cong Thuong Newspaper about the enterprise's journey to master technology, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Han, General Director of Thu Do Multimedia said that with the Sigma OTT ecosystem, perhaps our greatest success is conquering the domestic market in a field that is the playground of global technology giants.

Our core product is Sigma DRM, a digital content copyright protection system. “Previously, TV stations and OTT units in Vietnam had to rely almost entirely on foreign solutions. We have changed that game,” said Mr. Han.

With an invention that can prevent hackers from exploiting security holes in Google's Widevine copyright protection system and Microsoft's PlayReady, Sigma DRM has regained more than 90% of the copyright protection market share in the domestic pay-TV sector. This is not only a story about business, but also a story about the pride and technological capacity of the Vietnamese people.

"After establishing ourselves at home, we started to bring Vietnamese products to conquer the international market. It is great that Thu Do Multimedia's solutions are well received, especially in the South Asian market," Mr. Han confided.

The comprehensive Sigma OTT platform is currently serving many major television stations in India such as: Anonet, DishTV, NXT... or in other potential markets such as: Sri Lanka, Bangladesh. This proves that the "Make in Vietnam" product is completely capable of competing equally on the global technology map.

Not stopping there, the unit continues to research and develop more and more products that closely meet market requirements. "Most recently, our artificial intelligence (AI) application product for computer vision, "Sigma Smart Detect", was honored to be in the Top 10 Make in Vietnam Digital Technology Product Awards 2024" - General Director of Thu Do Multimedia expressed.

Also determined to master technology, right from its inception, Coc Coc has chosen the direction of “Make in Vietnam”, researching, designing and developing technology products. Coc Coc’s web browser and search engine are both developed by a team of Vietnamese engineers, and are currently trusted by more than 30 million Vietnamese people.

Ms. Mai Thi Thanh Oanh, Deputy General Director of Coc Coc Information Company Limited, said that our biggest success is that we have maintained our position as the top 2 most popular browser in Vietnam for many years and are currently the only domestic search engine developed by Vietnamese people.

“Coc Coc is proof that a Vietnamese enterprise can completely develop and operate digital platforms serving tens of millions of users without depending on imported solutions,” Ms. Oanh affirmed.

Responding to the call in Resolution 57-NQ/TW of the Politburo, at the 6th National Forum on Vietnamese Digital Technology Enterprises held on January 15, 2025, many Vietnamese digital technology enterprises made strong commitments, taking the lead in taking on the task of bringing the country into a new era. In particular, Viettel Group has set ambitious goals in the telecommunications and semiconductor sectors.

Mr. Tao Duc Thang, Chairman and General Director of Viettel Group, stated that Viettel aims to have advanced 5G devices by 2027, along with a core ecosystem for 5G transmission, helping to connect faster and more accurately, serving digital transformation. Our goal by 2030 is to have the first 6G devices commercially available.

Vietnam's digital technology industry is growing strongly. In 2024, its scale will reach 158 billion USD, an increase of 26% compared to 2020. In particular, the hardware and electronics industry has become Vietnam's largest export industry, with a turnover equivalent to about 30% of GDP. Vietnam ranks 7th globally in the service location index, and is the leading software outsourcing destination in Asia.

By early 2025, Vietnam had over 54,500 digital technology enterprises. Not only has the number increased, but the capacity of the enterprises has also been affirmed. Some large corporations such as Viettel, FPT, VNPT, MISA, One Mount have taken on the task of investing and developing core technology products to solve some of the country's major problems.

Mr. Nguyen Van Khoa, Chairman of the Vietnam Software and Information Technology Services Association (VINASA), revealed that more than 1,000 Vietnamese technology enterprises currently provide digital services to most of the world's leading economies such as the US, Japan, Europe, Korea, Australia... bringing billions of USD to Vietnam each year.

Resolution 57-NQ/TW has set the requirement to “Form and develop a number of large-scale domestic strategic digital technology enterprises to develop digital infrastructure, lead national digital transformation and have sufficient international competitiveness”. The Law on Digital Technology Industry, passed by the 15th National Assembly on June 14, 2025, has established mechanisms to realize this goal.

Accordingly, the State orders enterprises to research and develop key digital technologies, belonging to important national projects, projects with special requirements, and at the same time provides financial support and trade promotion to expand international markets.

“Along with developing large digital technology enterprises, the Law on Digital Technology Industry also aims to build a strong digital technology industry enterprise ecosystem with the goal of reaching 150,000 enterprises by 2035," said Mr. Nguyen Khac Lich, Director of the Department of Information Technology Industry, Ministry of Science and Technology.

Therefore, the Law provides comprehensive support policies. Small and medium-sized enterprises are supported with infrastructure investment costs, high-quality human resource training, and priority to participate in bidding for public procurement projects.

In particular, to promote “Make in Vietnam”: Design, innovation and production in Vietnam, the Law clearly affirms the principle of “self-reliance and self-reliance in digital technology and strategic digital technology as the foundation for the development of the digital technology industry, emphasizing the requirement to promote research, master technology, design, and manufacture of digital technology products and services and strategic digital technology domestically.

According to Mr. Nguyen Khac Linh, the Law standardizes the “Make in Vietnam” program, prioritizes the use of Vietnamese digital technology products in state budget projects, and ensures a stable output market. Start-up businesses are supported with funding to purchase technology, develop prototypes, and promote international trade. FDI enterprises are encouraged to transfer technology, cooperate with Vietnamese digital technology enterprises, and improve production capacity and global competitiveness.

In order for the digital technology industry to become a key economic driver with a growth rate 2-3 times higher than GDP, the Digital Technology Industry Law also provides outstanding incentives for key projects in the fields of digital technology, semiconductors, AI, and data centers.

For example, projects with capital of VND6,000 billion or more enjoy a 5% tax rate for 37 years, a 6-year tax exemption, a 50% tax reduction for the next 13 years, and a land rent exemption for up to 22 years and a 75% reduction for the remaining years.

Enterprises receive financial support from the budget, development investment funds and are allowed to calculate R&D costs up to 200% of actual costs for corporate income tax purposes. Concentrated digital technology zones and innovative startup projects enjoy similar incentives to particularly disadvantaged areas, creating a strong driving force for digital technology enterprises.