This morning (April 26), Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee Phan Van Mai had a meeting with a high-ranking delegation from NVIDIA Corporation led by Mr. Keith Strier, Vice President of the Corporation.
Mr. Keith Strier is currently with the NVIDIA Corporation delegation surveying three major cities in Vietnam: Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang to select a location for high-tech investment.
Specifically, NVIDIA wants to work with relevant central and local agencies to prepare for the establishment of a Research, Development, and Training Center on Artificial Intelligence (AI); installation of a supercomputer system; transfer part of the production of graphics processing units (GPUs) for supercomputers to Vietnam.
At the meeting, Mr. Keith Strier expressed that the survey trips in Ha Noi, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City made him and the delegation optimistic about cooperating with Vietnam in the near future.
“I completely sympathize with the excitement of the Chairman of the Corporation when he visited Vietnam last time. Vietnam has all the factors to develop AI strongly as well as to master AI technology”, said the Vice President of NVIDIA.
Mr. Keith Strier recognized that an important factor is the determination and vision of senior leaders of Vietnam and of Ho Chi Minh City in developing AI, because not every country has such a vision and interest. “AI is not simple,” said Mr. Strier. This is a very complex technology chain and requires new policies and new skills, it also contains risks and requires investment from partners. Therefore, in addition to determination and vision, it is necessary to modernize infrastructure, information technology and improve the capacity and skills of businesses.
Through the survey and working process, the Vice President of NVIDIA affirmed that he wants to contribute with Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City and partners in Ho Chi Minh City to develop AI.
“We bring knowledge, experience and passion for AI to inspire you. We don’t just want to sell GPUs to Vietnam, it’s too simple. It is just a story of buying and selling, but more importantly, we want to collaborate with each other and develop AI technologies together,” said Mr. Strier.
NVIDIA will support infrastructure development in Vietnam, helping Vietnamese engineers to have advanced thinking about AI, to realize the potential of AI right in Vietnam without having to go to the United States. Mr. Strier also affirmed that the leaders of the Group do not focus on business in Vietnam but want to establish a partnership for both parties to develop together.
Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee Phan Van Mai also expressed the city’s desire to become a partner of Nvidia in developing AI, so that Ho Chi Minh City becomes an AI center not only of Vietnam but also of the region. Mr. Mai proposed to establish a joint working group between Ho Chi Minh City and NVIDIA to plan vision, orientation, and advise Ho Chi Minh City on priorities and focus areas for applying AI.
From the results of this joint working group, Ho Chi Minh City will identify what needs to be done or investment priorities, such as computing infrastructure, AI infrastructure, development of high-tech zones… “HCMC will invest in these and have enough budget to do so”, affirmed the Chairman of HCMC.
In addition, the city will immediately implement a training cooperation program to transform human resources. Currently, 3/4 of IT human resources are in HCMC. The city has also planned to promote Ho Chi Minh City National University and other training institutions in the area; in addition to universities, businesses will also be trained to transform human resources such as Quang Trung Software Park…
