Vietnam’s race for technology investment heats up

The application of advanced technologies has helped the TH Group produce delicious, high-quality products

Milk and money

The TH Group is one of the businesses that has achieved success by investing in technologies. Thanks to technological application in its value chain, its sales grew from more than VND2 trillion in 2012 to VND15 trillion in 2015 and over VND23 trillion in 2017.

Thai Huong, chairwoman of the TH Group, said she had been looking for ways to improve productivity and product quality. She explored the situation in countries enjoying agricultural productivity, good quality, large consumption and competitive prices. She found that Israel, for example, which is slightly larger than Nghe An Province in area, has developed some of the world’s leading agricultural products.

TH Group decided to buy Israeli technologies for the operation of its US$1.2 billion, 37,000ha high-tech concentrated dairy and fresh milk production project in the central province of Nghe An’s Nghia Dan District. The cows are now “managed” by computer software to monitor their health and control their breeding time, while the grasslands are farmed with automatic watering machines and soil tillers. The India-based Asia Book of Records recognized the dairy farm of the TH Group as the biggest high-tech cow raising facility in Asia in 2015. The application of advanced technologies has helped the group produce delicious, high-quality products, Thai Huong said.

The Viettel Group is also a typical example. The group annually spends VND4.5 trillion on research and development. Its application of advanced technologies makes the group Vietnam’s strongest brand in information technology and telecommunications. The group made it into the Top 100 most valued telecom companies worldwide, and was ranked by GSMA Intelligence in the Top 30 largest telecommunications companies globally in terms of mobile phone subscriber numbers. By 2020, Viettel aims to build a high-tech defense industrial complex for the modernization of the country’s military and its national defense.

Promoting investment

Viettel annually spends VND4.5 trillion on research and development

The race for technology investment is heating up. The Traphaco Joint Stock Company held a ceremony in Hung Yen Province in November 2017 to inaugurate the most modern pharmaceutical factory in Vietnam. The factory covers an area of over 46,200sq.m, with the total investment amounting to VND477 billion, including three workshops and five production lines with a capacity of 1.2 billion product units per year. The production process of eye and nasal drops is fully automated and the most modern in the pharmaceutical industry in Vietnam. The production line of pills uses an automatic and consecutive equipment system operated by a robotic arm of European standards.

The Vietnam Glass and Ceramics for Construction Corporation (Viglacera) has built a high-tech project, the first of its kind in Southeast Asia, which is capable of manufacturing five million sq.m of glass annually. The project uses technology and equipment provided by Von Ardenne GmBH from Germany, the world’s leading manufacturer of industrial equipment for vacuum coatings on materials such as glass, wafers, metal strips and polymer films. In addition, with production lines of compound stones utilizing technology transferred from Breton S.p.A (Italy), and using the most advanced techniques and latest technology, VICOSTONE is one of the leading engineered stone manufacturers in the world.

Nguyen Van Thu, chairman of the Vietnam Association of Mechanical Industry (VAMI), said that in a market economy, businesses strive to maximize profits. To do so, they must affirm their positions in the market. Science and technology play an important role in helping businesses improve productivity, efficiency and competitiveness to that end.

Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Pham Cong Tac said the government had approved many national scientific and technological programs to support businesses in technological innovation. In particular, the establishment of the National Technology Innovation Fund expressed the determination of the government and the Ministry of Science and Technology to improve the quality of economic growth. The fund aims to improve the innovation ability of Vietnamese businesses and promote commercialization of innovative ideas for products and services.