Vietnam will need additional 1 million ICT professionals by 2030

Demand for human resources in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector in Vietnam, particularly in artificial intelligence (AI), has increased continuously, and about 1 million more workers will be needed by 2030.

Hanoi (SVBG) – According to the Vietnam-Australia AI Network, in 2019 the total number of people working in Vietnam’s ICT industry was about 970,000, of whom around 180,000 in software and digital content sectors and 1,600 are AI researchers.

Local job-seeking website Vietnamworks predicted in 2020 that the country would lack about 400,000 IT workers in the year, and every coming year Vietnam will need some 78,000 more IT employees, based on the market demand.

On the recruitment side, foreign-direct-invested electronic manufacturers while expanding the production lines need a huge number of ICT employees.

Notably, Foxconn, a Taiwanese giant in the industry, announced in early 2021 an additional investment of some US$270 million in Vietnam for the assembly lines for new Apple’s iPad tablets and Macbook laptops.

At present, there are 50 universities offering AI-related programs in Vietnam, training some 50,000 IT graduates annually.

The AI Network said, during 2010-2018 period, Vietnam had 372 AI patent applications, ranking second in ASEAN. The number of scientific publications on AI increased from 134 in 2010 to 525 in 2018.

It looks to gather Vietnamese individuals, businesses, and organizations working in AI, both at home and abroad, to build an AI community in cooperation with Australian partners.

At a seminar in Geneva earlier this month, jointly organized by the Vietnamese Embassy in Switzerland, the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern (FHNW) and the Association of Vietnamese Intellectuals and Experts in Switzerland, speakers shared that the increasing demand for ICT personnel in Vietnam would provide investment opportunities for Swiss training institutes and boost research exchange between the two countries. SVBG