An Interview with Nguyet Nguyen, Country Head of Public Policy, Vietnam at Facebook

Bài viết này có ngôn ngữ: Tiếng Việt

In our increasingly interconnected world, as more people come online to connect and to build communities and businesses, Facebook is a platform that many in Vietnam have come to love and rely on. In times like these, where our global response to crises such as the current health crisis, plays out on social media platforms as well as off-line, we’re seeing how communities are coming together to lift each other’s spirits, and to keep each other safe and informed. Facebook is also a place where Vietnamese people can express themselves and SMBs can connect with clients. 

We sat down with Nguyet Nguyen, Country Head of Public Policy, Vietnam at Facebook to talk to her about Facebook’s investments in Vietnam and its vision for Facebook in 2020 and beyond. 

Most people in Vietnam use Facebook in their daily lives. What’s Facebook’s vision for Vietnam?

Let me start by saying that our community in Vietnam is incredibly important to us. Most people use Facebook to communicate with friends and family, to start conversations about things that are important to them and to start businesses. That’s why we are committed to long term investment in Vietnam. We want to support innovation and Vietnam’s digital economy and we are incredibly supportive of the government’s ‘Industry 4.0’ strategy. 

Tell us more about what you’re doing in Vietnam and what plans you have for this year.

With the pandemic affecting many countries and economies around the world since the beginning of 2020, we think this is a challenging year for everyone. Vietnam has done an incredible job in handling the pandemic, which I’m sure will set an example for many other countries in this region. 

Given this context, we at Facebook believe that we need to invest even more in Vietnam, and one of our biggest investments this year is the “Facebook for Vietnam”. 

This campaign, launched in May, in partnership with the US Mission to Vietnam and partners, is designed exclusively for Vietnam under the social media hashtag #fb4vn to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Vietnam-U.S. relations. The campaign includes five strategic pillars: Innovation, Digital Economy, Safety and Digital Literacy, Cities and Community and will run from May until December 2020. This is also in line with the National Digital Transformation Strategy of Vietnam.

• #fb4Innovation — Drive initiatives for start-ups, developers and innovation campaigns
• #fb4Safety and Digital Literacy — Focuses on Safety on Social media, including child safety, women safety, child exploitation; and equipping youth with digital skills 
• #fb4Community — Highlight Facebook’s efforts to bring people closer together and use technology for good causes 
• #fb4Cities — Support cities in their effort to develop e-government and smart city through coordinated programmes across different areas
• #fb4Economy — Highlight Facebook’s contribution to business communities, especially SMBs, and promote tourism and education post-COVID in Vietnam.  

“Facebook for Vietnam” reinforces our long term commitment to the country, especially during and after the COVID-19 epidemic. 

You talk about helping Vietnamese businesses and communities to grow, especially after a lot of SMBs in Vietnam are struggling after COVID-19 health crisis. How? 

We understand that the COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll on the global economy as well as the local business landscape, especially small and medium businesses that have been heavily impacted. With this campaign, we want to work more closely with the Government, partners, non-profit organizations and others to help Vietnam quickly recover from the crisis while creating opportunities for people to build digital literacy skills, helping businesses grow and creating jobs in the digital economy.

In particular, first, Facebook will empower SMBs with growth marketing tools and provide a series of digital capability building programs so more businesses can start the digital journey for their businesses. 

Second, we will continue our partnerships with key local government and industry partners, such as the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Small Medium Enterprise Promotion Center, and the Vietnam Women’s Entrepreneurs Council to deliver targeted training to business and entrepreneurs and support them across their growth journey. Throughout 2020, FB plans to deliver over 80 virtual training sessions to engage urban and rural small and medium businesses to use online tools to support, grow, or even start their business. 

And third, we are planning a big project to promote the inbound and outbound tourism of Vietnam on our platform. This is part of our #fb4economy pillar under the #fb4vn campaign. We expect relevant policy and commercial partners to join us in helping Vietnam recover from economic impacts due to COVID-19 in the tourism industry.  

How does Facebook work with local authorities when it comes to these plans? 

We have a relationship with the government of Vietnam, like we do with many governments around the world, and we’ve had many constructive and cordial meetings. We are engaged with them on important issues and will continue to engage, like we do with governments around the world. Last year, we had high-level meetings, including Prime Minister Phuc at Davos in Switzerland, Politburo Member and Chairman of the Central Economic Committee Nguyen Van Binh in our Menlo Park Headquarters, California, as well as other senior government leaders. 

On the provincial level, we have engaged with various provinces in Vietnam through a series of programmes like She Means Business, Developer Circles, Think Before You Share and We Think Digital. In July 2019, we launched the first ever official partnership with a province in Vietnam - Da Nang. The partnership focused on enhancing digital capacity of government agencies and supporting disaster management efforts of the city. 

This year, we aim to leverage existing programmes and new customised activities to better support cities in their effort to develop e-government and smart cities. 

Finally, can you tell us a bit more about Facebook’s plans for the future in Vietnam.

We’re excited about the investments we’ve made in the country and about supporting our community in Vietnam this year and beyond. Around the world, people are using our family of apps to connect. They’re not only sharing personal stories - they’re also coming together to help others in times of crisis, growing their business and overcoming adversity. We’re going through this as a global community, including online. We’re constantly responding to the needs of our community around the world, including in Vietnam. Many new tools and features have been developed to respond to pandemics and to natural disasters. We look forward to making sure that our platform is able to support communities in Vietnam.

Bài viết này có ngôn ngữ: Tiếng Việt