• 30 Jun 2023
• 2023

[Podcast] Computers and “Don't Go Alone” Technology – Part 1: Super-Smart Era – Our Future

Era 5.0 – The era of a super intelligent society is what will happen and the timeline is very close: 2035 or, possibly, earlier. “The rise of a series of super technologies” – “Enhancing human-machine interaction” – “human-centered” are the “hot” keywords when referring to this period. Keeping up with the trend of the times, UEH does believe that: It is this moment that administrators and leaders in the fields of Business, Economics, Law, State Management, Data, and Communication need to understand and know how Apply Computering and Technology to majors and professions. This is the motivation for UEH to deploy the series of Computer and Technology application knowledge series “Don't go alone” with 5 attractive parts with the participation of leading experts.

Super-intelligent era 5.0 - “The rise of a series of super technologies” - “Improving human-machine interaction” - “Human-centered”

In Part 1 – “Our Future: Super-Smart Era 5.0”, Mr. Vuong Bao Long - Vice President of LogiGear Vietnam, an experienced expert in the field of technology and knowledgeable towards the technology market in Vietnam - shared further information regarding the concept of super-smart era 5.0, the current situation of the world and Vietnam as well as the opportunities and the challenges that have been awaiting.

Many countries around the world have been trying to come up with the most appropriate definition concerning Society 5.0. Diversely different definitions have been recorded; nevertheless, the most prominent, up to the present time, is introduced by the Japanese definition. This country believes that: The super-intelligent Era or Society 5.0 is a human-centered society, in accordance with the information technology to serve people’ needs towards the most harmonious, beautiful, safe and comfortable society for people, supporting human development in the most comprehensive way while leaving no one behind. This, up to the current time, has been the most general and closest definition regarding the super-intelligence Era or Society 5.0.

We need to distinguish between Society 5.0 and Industry 4.0. We have been through four Industrial ages: 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 and 4.0. From steam engines, from mechanical machines, to textile machines to electrical power, to electronic and computer automation, and to information technology (including GPS, CPS, IoT systems, computer networks, AI and so on). At this time being, all of us are going to enter a new era, an era in which most of the vehicles, large and small systems around us are integrated on the foundation of advancement of technology science and information technology.

The current state of the world

In 2016, the Japanese government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe launched a project to orient Japanese society towards the year 2030 with the purpose of assessing the development rate as well as the development level of one child-oriented Japanese society, to be particular: at what level is one Japanese person? Since then, Japan has established a Digital Initiative Committee and developed a strategy for building a Smart society 5.0. This country has positioned itself as a “Super-Smart Society” country in 2030. This is the slogan and the orientation for Japan nation to develop with the goal of becoming a super-smart country by 2030.

Singapore orients and positions itself as a smart nation in accordance with 3 main pillars: Digital Economy, Digital Government and Digital Society.

Next is India which positions itself as a digital nation – one Digital India. Prime Minister of India Modi stated that he aimed to develop India into a digital nation so as to serve the development needs and to boost the innovation capacity of his 1.3-billion-people nation.

A small Nordic country - called Estonia - is the country that has been also moving towards digitization and positioning itself as one Digital Nation. Estonia nation was the first country in the world is widely recognized as having successfully eradicated digital literacy and digitization for the entire population. 98% of their population has an electronic ID card - electronic identity, 99% of their states work and provide public services online, 95% of tax returns are filed and processed online and 99% of banking transactions are conducted electronically entirely.

Vietnam has not introduced one specific slogan, a clear slogan representing one digital country. However, we have positioned ourselves as a country moving towards the strong digital economy by 2030. Also, the vision to 2045 consists the key trends that we think that Vietnam itself can inherit. In which, it must be mentioned the impact of digital technology, the impact of export markets, the development of modern digital infrastructure, the development of smart cities, the increase of digital skills, the increase of digital services and the changes in consumer behaviors.

It can be recognized that our future may have 4 scenarios until 2045. In case of the traditional scenario, Vietnam’s digital economy, annually, can contribute 196 billion USD to the total GDP. In case of the digital export scenario, we can reach over 331 billion USD if our export is performed well. In case of the consumption scenario, we boost the consumer economy, which can reach a GDP of 216 billion USD plus from the digital economy. Additionally, the best scenario is the comprehensive digital transformation scenario, we can achieve GDP up to 544 billion USD. To have a closer view of this comparison, Vietnam’s current GDP in 2022 is estimated less than 400 billion USD. By 2030, Vietnam will position ourselves to become one of the developed countries with a total income, at that time, was approximately 18 to 20 thousand USD in Gross Domestic Product. GDP contributed from the digital economy is more than 500 billion USD, which is one-fourth of the Gross National Product and an extremely impressive number.

Challenges and opportunities of the 5.0 Era

To move towards a Digital Economy, a Smart Society and Super-Smart 5.0 Era, it is a necessity to face certain challenges. The first challenge is uncertainty, listed as: Natural, social, war, disaster, and disease-like uncertainty. We need to have more proactive and radical solutions as well as adaptive, appropriate and timely changes along with very rapid and strong changes in terms of the field of technology, especially information technology. Recently, it can be affirmed that the birth of Chat GPT is one of the signs of breakthrough changes in information technology that machines and AI can do for humans in many ways. If the ethical aspect of Chat GPT is ignored, it can be stated that this is an extremely powerful tool that legislators in developed countries have taken strong measures to limit it, at least especially in the current period. In other words, this is the time of chaos and cyber attacks. In addition, huge risks are available when we scale and connect large and complex systems. Once it has been attacked, these damages will be extremely large and can disrupt social activities, too. Resources (listed as social resources, natural resources, cyber resources) become increasingly scarce. The use, the utilization and the recycling of these resources is a challenge for humanity and poses a lot of problems for us to consider.

Besides challenges, there appear countless opportunities for development: for the state, for businesses and for each of us. The first opportunity, Vietnam is in the Top 3 Countries with the best startup ecosystem in Southeast Asia, especially in E-commerce, fin-tech, health-tech, edu-tech. Vietnam is in the Top 10 of the population that use smartphones and 63% of the population use smartphones to interact in the market, that is, to purchase buying and selling activities in cyberspace. If calculated only in 3 big cities (Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang City and Hanoi Capital), more than 75% of adults use smartphones and more than 83% of Vietnamese households have an Internet connection. All of these are the necessary infrastructure and connectivity conditions towards promoting the digital economy and promoting the building of a 5.0 society.

Diverse opportunities from super-smart Era 5.0 awaiting for GenZ

These above factors do open up career opportunities for future GenZ generations. Science and big data are urgently in need of experts, data scientists, data analysts, actuaries and algorithm experts to develop big data in accordance with the above processing methods: AI artificial intelligence platform, the learning bots and chat bots like the appearance of Chat GPT. In addition, we have witnessed from-small-to-large chaos and large-scale cyber attacks. This is an opportunity to identify that the demand for security and information security in cyberspace is much larger. Many serious cyber attacks have happened. From 2017 to 2022, only in the field of Cryptocurrency - or the digital currency - three countries in the world were attacked the most by the dark forces and a lot of digital currencies was taken away. The first country to be attacked the most is Japan, the second country that is attacked the most and loses the most digital currency is Vietnam, and the third is the United States. From 2017 to 2022, due to the cyber attacks, Japan, Vietnam and the US lost approximately 817 billion, 534 billion and 525 billion USD, respectively.

In the recent time, two emerging trends from AI are: Data Science and Cyber ​​Security. In addition to other traditional developments in the information technology industry from programming, software testing, solution consulting, digital transformation consulting and system and software design help digital transformation in corporate, national, government, electronic, individual consumer and institutions (including higher education institutions), secondary and primary schools. Cyber ​​Security has become one of the most sought after and most used services in various fields from banking, healthcare, health tech to government agencies and public services.

Speaking of Data Science, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Quan Thanh Tho (University of Science and Technology - Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City) stated: “When the Machine learning and AI parts are mature, 80% of the factors determining the success of the system are dependent upon the data processing ability, i.e. data science”. This statement indicates the importance of data science and data analytics as well as the professionals that the information technology industry will desperately need in the coming era.

What is more crucial, upon mentioning the Cyber ​​Security market, in accordance with the statistics of the Vietnam information security market report in 2022, the size of the information security industry is forecasted by industry groups, especially banking industry and finance industry. Banks and government account for 41%, of which, especially, the banking industry accounts for the largest proportion, approximately 25%. Approximately 15% of the annual growth of this industry is in accordance with the forecast for the period from the current time to 2028.

All the above information provides one brief and concise information regarding our future - an era of super-intelligence, comprising some definitions, challenges and opportunities for us to consider. Hopefully, this sharing will help GenZ friends to make the right choices and to be in line with the development trend. Concurrently, each GenZ individual can have the appropriate orientation in choosing his/her right career. On the one hand, this can contribute to the development of the era, the era and the digital economy of Vietnam. Besides, it is possible through new tendencies, developments, and trends so as to take full advantage of the opportunities that the information technology industry as well as the super-smart era, the future of the digital age has been bringing.

Author: Mr. Vương Bảo Long – Vice President of LogiGear Việt Nam, Head of Contact Unit of EMBA UEH Alumni. 

This writing is in series of spreading reearches and applied knowledge from UEH with “Research Contribution For All – Nghiên Cứu Vì Cộng Đồng” message, UEH would like to invite dear readers to look forward to the upcoming Newsletter ECONOMICS NO. #77 .

News, photos: Author, UEH Departent of Marketing – Communication