The Art of Technological Espionage: A Proposal for a Special Mechanism to Acquire Cutting-Edge Secrets

At the Conference on Summarizing the Work in 2024 and Deploying Tasks for 2025 of the Ministry of Information and Communications, Mr. Tao Duc Thang shared that by 2030, Viettel aims to master 100% of the design and production of chips serving national defense and security and some breakthrough new-generation specialized chips such as AI chips and IoT chips.

By 2028, Viettel’s 5G network will also be available nationwide. By 2030, four new submarine cable routes will be put into use, with at least one route owned by Viettel. The company will also deploy 11 new large-scale data centers with a total expected capacity of over 350MW, accounting for more than 40% of the total capacity of data centers in Vietnam.

Viettel will also collaborate with NVIDIA to deploy a large-scale data center infrastructure with high-performance servers to serve the booming demand for AI applications with nearly 800 supercomputers and 6,000 GPU cards.

According to Mr. Thang, the Political Bureau has just issued Resolution 57 on breakthrough development of science, technology, innovation, and national digital transformation with clear and specific goals and solutions. The Viettel Chairman proposed five solutions to realize Resolution 57, including accepting risks in scientific and technological research by implementing a pilot policy exemption mechanism to allow enterprises to test new technologies and business models.

Mr. Thang believes that the nature of venture capital investment is high risk and low success rate, but if successful, it will bring high profits, offsetting the costs incurred and promoting the development of new technologies and business models. “Therefore, this will be a breakthrough policy that allows state-owned enterprises like Viettel to boldly research, test, master, and apply new technologies and business models,” he said.

The Chairman of Viettel also proposed that the Party, State, and Government leaders soon provide guidance on using the budget sources mentioned in Resolution 57 to perform research and development tasks.

At Point 1, Part II of the Resolution sets the goal that by 2030, the expenditure for research and development will reach 2% of GDP, approximately US$9 billion per year. This is a large budget that will strongly promote Vietnam’s scientific and technological research and development.

Mr. Thang shared that at Viettel, with a research and development budget of more than VND 10,000 billion (~ US$45 million/year), the Group has completed many important projects assigned by the Party, State, and Army, such as researching 5G and 5G core products and products for the national defense industry.

Viettel’s representative also emphasized that investment in science and technology should focus resources on projects researching foundational and pervasive technologies such as semiconductor, low-orbit satellite, and dual-use national defense industry, instead of dispersing and fragmenting the investment.

In addition, Viettel proposed implementing a special mechanism in researching, accessing, and purchasing foreign technology secrets and advanced technologies. “According to our experience, the most challenging part is evaluating and determining the value of these technologies because they are unique and monopolistic, making it difficult to reference and compare,” said Mr. Thang. He requested the Government and ministries to guide the principles of evaluating and determining the value of technology in the process of transferring foreign advanced technology secrets.