Digitalisation contributes to innovative, open and sustainable society

Swedish Ambassador Pereric Högberg (second from right) speaking at the event. (Photo: M.V)

The event is co-hosted by the Embassy of Sweden in Vietnam and the Hanoi city People’s Committee.

Its sessions range from Digital government for good; Smart, connected and sustainable cities; Digital citizenship for safe and responsible use of technologies; and Impact-tech: Accelerating social impact through new technologies.

In his opening speech, Swedish Ambassador Pereric Högberg said: “Two important factors of the Swedish society are openness and transparency. The wide usage of technology and Internet have enabled Sweden to foster its culture of openness, access to information, innovation and entrepreneurship, resulting in its innovation, growth and prosperity as today. There is no smart society without smart and internet-savvy citizens.”

Mr. Vu The Binh, Secretary General of Vietnam Internet Association stressed: “Vietnam has accessed the Internet for 22 years. Besides the well-developed infrastructure and technologies that can serve well for a local market of 95 million population with over 60% of Internet users, my nation is now facing with the challenge of addressing some legal, social issues arising from emerging technologies.”

"Vietnam Internet Forum 2019 continues to be a great opportunity for having different views about “life on the Internet” in an open environment so that we can all head towards the establishment of a better digital society", he added.

As part of this year's event and in cooperation with Lund University, one of Sweden’s top ranked universities, one enterprise or individual from Vietnam will be honoured in a ceremony for their work in social innovation in a digital context.