HORASIS ASIA MEETING 2023: Seeking solutions for sustainable supply chain development

On the afternoon of December 3, in the series of events of the Horasis Asia Meeting 2023, there were update sessions at provincial Convention and Exhibition Center. The sessions attracted many speakers to discuss, share experience and propose strategic solutions for sustainable development in the future.

Asian supply chains consolidation

The update session with the topic of "Asia's supply chain consolidation" was chaired by Mitesh Shah, Director of Singapore’s MitKat Global Consuting. At the session, according to speakers, global economic disruption did not negate the need of exchanging goods around the world. Asian nations have taken the lead in revitalizing supply chains recently, but new problems are nationalism and trade embargo. Speakers discussed and proposed how governments and private companies can cooperate more smoothly? How to improve supply chain reliability in the face of global instability?

Mai Hung Dung (third left), Member of provincial Party Standing Committee, Pernament Vice-Chairman of provincial People's Committee delivers a speech to welcome the Horasis Asia Meeting 2023

In terms of the issue of Vietnam and Asian countries becoming top supply chain developing countries, Bradley C.LaLonde, Managing Partner of Vietnam Partners, Vietnam's education is a field with great potential for development. Vietnam has built many subjects related to supply chains, distance education programs, network administration, logistics... , which are "hot" fields of study. According to Asif Iqbal, Chairman of the Indian Economic Trade Organization (IETO), the connection between schools and businesses will create many initiatives and build skills to develop human resources with the capacity of wide and deep participation.

For the content of predicting possible risks to supply chain structures when there are changing methods and what strategies are needed?, according to Mr. Mitesh Shah, rising prices and supply chain disruptions have greatly affected companies' profits. The shortage of this item is the input for other items while affecting consumers’ confidence. In addition, there are risks of financial problems such as companies losing revenue, losing market share, not meeting customers’ needs, losing reputation, leading to bankruptcy, affecting to the global economy. This will create pressure on countries. According to Mr. Mitesh Shah, when this situation occurs, businesses need to aim at the local market.

Proposing a strategy to serve the goal of developing supply chains for each Asian country, according to Mr. Asif Iqbal, each country needs to strengthen connectivity and resilience with global countries. “Vietnam is an open market. In my opinion, Vietnam needs to find balance to develop and expand globally. Asian countries need to connect with each other before connecting with countries on other continents. Companies need to build IOT application models, using big data such as Big Data, AI in the supply chain to be more resilient and adaptable. This will help businesses better monitor incidents occurring in production and business activities and increase operational efficiency", Mr. Asif Iqbal shared.

Digital transformation promoted

Speaking at the conference to promote digital transformation, speaker Pietro Borsano, Director of Thai Chulalongkorn School of Integrated Innovation affirmed that digital transformation is an inevitable trend today. Smartphone use is increasing rapidly, forcing governments to promote digitalization as a strategic goal for sustainable development in the future.

Delegates attend the “Asian Supply Chain Consolidation” update session

At the conference, a series of issues were discussed and shared such as how banks, investors and governments can implement plans to develop digital currencies and integrated policies? How do app developers get access to users? How to support small and medium-sized enterprises in digital transformation?…

Assessing the importance of digital transformation to the process of building up a smart city in Binh Duong, according to Tran Hoang, Chairman of VietnamMarcom, implementing digital transformation is inevitable and extremely important because it helps optimize the values ​​of the entire economic, cultural and social law system. Over the past years, Binh Duong was very successful in pioneering to take many solutions. So far, Binh Duong has strongly reformed administrative procedures, initially bringing efficiency and creating favorable conditions for businesses and people, helping save time, building trust in the government's policy of building up a smart city as well as responsibility through specific solutions, convincing the community to join hands in implementation. Binh Duong is doing these things very well.

Sharing about solutions to promote digital transformation at the national level, according to Mr. Hoang, provinces and cities must have smart ways to coordinate with experts at home and abroad to solve the problem of digital transformation. Convincing people and the community to respond is a matter that requires transparent policies, showing people about the benefits of this process.

Discussing the role of big data in promoting businesses' digitalization strategies, speaker Hidetoshi Uchiyama, CEO of Japanese Urry told a story of the company's development when implementing digitization. From the company's experience, according to the speaker, companies need to collect data based on each user's consent while not storing personal information. Collecting information is based on user location. Unerry's customers are mainly retail companies that use user location information to open stores.

According to speaker Pietro Borsano, Director of Chulalongkorn School of Integrated Innovation, along with Fintech, ERP solutions have also promoted digitalization and development. Integrating solutions, scanning QR codes for payment and using API software has promoted digital development.

Discussing academic and educational research in promoting digitalization, speaker Tim Nguyen, Vice-Principal of Vietnam Institute of Applied Research and Innovation for Business 3AI shared: "We have reviewed research projects to integrate into the content of the curriculum of digital technology subject, even developed students from high schools to universities with the goal of helping them become responsible digital citizens. To provide practical experience about digital technology, digital currency..., we must synchronize the entire system for implementation. In addition, we organized workshops, probation programs for students and cooperate with businesses and related sides".

Reported by Phuong Le-Translated by Kim Tin