Artificial intelligence ambitions and regulatory pathways: Vietnam’s strategy in the regional and global AI landscape

ABSTRACT

The Vietnamese government announced the National Digital Transformation Programme by 2025 to invest in Artificial Intelligence (AI) development, to become one of the top players in Southeast Asia by 2030, challenging frontrunners like Indonesia and Singapore. Through educational policies such as establishing AI and data science majors in public universities, the country has started to nurture a domestic talent base. Research labs both within university systems as well as at private industry labs such as VinAI and FPT have recruited Vietnamese nationals as well as international researchers to bolster AI research that puts Vietnam on the global map of AI development. However, the country’s pursuit is facing obstacles. Issues involve an AI talent shortage, weak intellectual property laws for solid and safe innovation, and unstable global venture capital funding. We argue that Vietnam could benefit from more policy learning on AI from other jurisdictions such as the European Union and China. Drawing on policy documents from these three jurisdictions, this paper aims to elucidate the core issues shaping the nation’s AI development and governance strategies. Our findings shed light on the areas Vietnam should prioritise in order to propel itself into a significant role within the regional and international AI spheres.

KEYWORDS:

• Vietnam
• artificial intelligence
• regulatory framework
• AI governance
• AI risks
• ASEAN

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).