November 9th will be Vietnam Internet Day 2015.

This year's Internet Day will take place on November 19th with the theme "Internet of Things," bringing together the Internet community, infrastructure businesses, mobile companies, application companies, value-added businesses, digital content companies, e-commerce businesses, information security companies nationwide, as well as startups and training institutions.

This information was just announced at the General Assembly of the Executive Committee of the Vietnam Internet Association (VIA) for the second term (2015-2020), held at the Ministry of Information and Communications (Hanoi).

With the direct sponsorship and guidance from the Ministry of Information and Communications, the organizing committee expects this to be an opportunity for stakeholders to propose and contribute to national projects and development goals for the information and communications sector, as well as to create a bridge between businesses, the community, and state management agencies, in order to provide maximum support for the development of the Internet in Vietnam.

Deputy Minister Nguyen Minh Hong speaks at the Congress. Photo: Minh Quyet

The event is expected to announce the Overview Report on the Internet in Vietnam, as well as feature presentations from agencies such as the Department of Broadcasting and Electronic Information, the E-commerce Association, the Information Security Association, the Digital Media Association, etc.

Promoting the application of the Internet in education, healthcare, and public services.

Speaking at the event, Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Minh Hong emphasized that VIA is the first association in the telecommunications and Internet sector in Vietnam and, over the past five years, has proven its role in supporting the relationship between the State, businesses, and society. The Ministry of Information and Communications highly appreciates the efforts of its members in participating in advising, providing feedback, and contributing to the development of industry policies, as well as activities such as seminars, scientific conferences on the Internet and IT, and active international cooperation.

The growth figures in scale also partly reflect the effectiveness of VIA's operations. From 67 members in 2011, VIA now has 95 members, including many leading ICT companies such as VNPT, Viettel, Qualcomm, etc.

However, recognizing that the next five years will be a crucial, pivotal period with many challenges and new tasks for the Association, the Deputy Minister suggested that VIA should focus on building a healthy Internet environment, providing useful support to users, and strictly adhering to regulations related to Internet management and digital content. At the same time, the Association needs to closely follow the policies, guidelines, and strategies for IT development in the 2015-2020 period to provide timely feedback and constructive criticism to the Government, promote and support domestic members in international cooperation, and anticipate new technologies and trends in the world.

Sharing the same view, the Association's representative emphasized that the TPP, AEC, FTAs, the Internet of Things trend, the transition to IPv6, and the increasing popularity of 4G LTE technology have made the Internet environment more open than ever before. This will be the main challenge for VIA's operations in the new term.

VIA has set a goal for itself by 2020 to become a strong organization, a "reliable support" for member businesses and the domestic Internet user community, an influential voice in State policy, and a crucial link in the relationship between the State, businesses, and users.

"VIA needs to contribute to promoting the application of the Internet in social life, especially focusing on education, healthcare, and public services, aiming for 10% of social activities in Vietnam to be online by 2017." At the same time, it also aims to contribute to the formation of an Internet of Things ecosystem in Vietnam, with the core being telecommunications, Internet, hardware, software, and related application businesses.

According to Vietnamnet