Industry 4.0 requires multi-stakeholder participatory approaches linked to national development efforts

To answer the question what policies should Viet Nam focus on to actively participate in Industry 4.0, Mr Fernando Santiago said: "The ability to endorse Industry 4.0 is highly contextual; it requires a profound understanding of current productive and technological structures of domestic manufacturing firms and careful consideration of any gaps in the framework conditions surrounding the manufacturing sector. Enhancing digitalization and the development of a digital culture among different social and economic agents are obvious priorities."

He also added that Viet Nam should seek to formalize the multi-stakeholder participatory approach followed so far to enhance private sector involving in policy making and policy implementation and by better integrating Vietnamese academic and research organizations in technology absorption and innovation.

Mr Santiago commended Viet Nam for the strong leadership and efforts to link the approach to the fourth industrial revolution to broader development efforts at national level. He recommended balancing policies that support firms ready to join the fourth industrial revolution and those targeting firms still struggling to catch up. He made a vote of caution to understand the fourth industrial revolution not as an end in itself, but as a new opportunity to build a competitive and sustainable and inclusive economy.

Mr Fernando Santiago has been invited to join the Industry 4.0 Summit 2018 in Hanoi on 12 – 13 July under the theme of "Vision and Development Strategy in the Fourth Industrial Revolution". The summit was jointly held by the Vietnamese Government and the Central Economic Commission of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Viet Nam. Some 2000 delegates, including 50 senior experts in the region and across the world as well as national and international entrepreneurs attended the summit.

Leaders of the Party, Government and National Assembly of Viet Nam, as well as international experts took part an executive talk themed "Vietnamese Policy on Enhancing Access to the Fourth Industrial Revolution". At this talk, Mr Fernando Santiago shared the highlights of UNIDO's study on strategic approaches to Industry 4.0 in middle-income countries, including Vietnam.