Ho Chi Minh City, Nov 2025 – At the 2025 Ho Chi Minh City Economic Forum (HEF 2025), where international leaders and experts convened to discuss “Green Transformation in the Digital Era,” CMC Corporation captured significant attention. The company introduced its open technology ecosystem, C-OpenAI, and proposed a dedicated AI Transformation Framework for Ho Chi Minh City, while also participating in a high-level panel on building a smart administration.
A Mark from the Private Tech Sector
HEF 2025, co-organized by Ho Chi Minh City and its domestic and international partners, served as a global dialogue platform for the “dual transformation” – green and digital. In his opening speech at the plenary session, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized that Vietnam considers green transformation in the digital age an inevitable trend and a strategic priority. He stated that all development policies must be people- and business-centric, refusing to sacrifice the environment and social welfare for pure economic growth.
Image 1: A panoramic view of the 2025 Ho Chi Minh City Economic Forum (HEF 2025).
Amid this landscape, CMC—a private tech enterprise and co-founder of the Vietnam Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Vietnam C4IR)—showcased an “AI-first” approach for urban development. The company presented a suite of “Make in Vietnam” AI products and solutions designed for building smart cities and smart governance.
The C-OpenAI Ecosystem and Smart City Solutions
At its exhibition booth, CMC displayed numerous flagship products and services from its C-OpenAI ecosystem, which is built on 25 core technologies. A standout was the CMC AI Camera, a smart camera solution for which CMC owns over 85% of the technology, from hardware design to software and computer vision. This solution helps detect unusual behavior, supporting traffic management, urban security, fire and explosion monitoring, and building operations.
Image 2: Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and domestic and international guests show keen interest in the C-OpenAI Ecosystem and its smart city solutions.
In the green energy sector, the C-Energy smart charging station, designed as a 30 kW module using the CCS2 charging standard, has already been deployed at locations like the Thai Son Driving School (under the Ministry of National Defence) and Tan Son Nhat Airport’s T1 terminal. The plan is to expand its network to parking lots, urban areas, and commercial centers across Ho Chi Minh City. For cybersecurity, the CMC Security Operations Center (SOC) operates 24/7, leveraging AI and big data analytics to detect, predict, and prevent attacks, thereby protecting the digital infrastructure of government agencies, banks, and businesses.
CMC also introduced the CLS AI Legal Assistant, which helps review legal documents, detect overlaps and conflicts, and search regulations, thereby contributing to the development of a rule-of-law state. The C-AIOFFICE solution assists agencies and enterprises in building “smart offices” with an ecosystem of AI assistants for drafting documents, synthesizing reports, and coordinating tasks. When operating on the unified C-OpenAI platform and the Group’s Cloud/Data Center infrastructure, these products connect to form a comprehensive “toolkit” for smart cities, spanning traffic, healthcare, energy, security, and public administration.
Proposing an AI Transformation Framework for HCMC
Alongside its product exhibition, CMC put forward a detailed AI Transformation Framework tailored specifically for Ho Chi Minh City. This framework is designed around a model of “5 Pillars – 2 Enabling Layers – 1 Assurance Layer.”
Image 3: CMC’s proposed AI Transformation Framework for Ho Chi Minh City.
The Five Pillars are:
1. Infrastructure: High-performance computing, data centers, cloud services, and edge computing platforms.
2. Data: Shared data warehouses, specialized data, IoT sensor data, real-time data, and a strategic, phased open data policy.
3. AI Technology: Foundational models, algorithm libraries, and toolkits for building, deploying, and monitoring AI.
4. AI Applications: Solutions for socio-economic management, public services, logistics, healthcare, education, etc., implemented according to priority phases.
5. AI Innovation Ecosystem: Linking universities, research institutes, AI businesses, startups, R&D centers, and innovation funds.
The Two Enabling Layers are:
– Policy & Standards: Including regulatory sandboxes, an AI legal framework, data standards, algorithm standards, and evaluation/audit mechanisms.
– Resources: Encompassing state budget, public-private partnerships, grants, investment capital, and international cooperation.
The One Assurance Layer is Governance, underpinned by principles of data safety, cybersecurity, AI ethics, transparency, and accountability in algorithm usage.
Image 4: CMC Chairman Nguyen Trung Chinh meets with representatives of Foxconn Group at HEF 2025 to discuss cooperation opportunities.
Mr. Nguyen Trung Chinh, Chairman of CMC Technology Group, shared that while in 2024, CMC pioneered the announcement of its AI-X Strategy and an AI Transformation Framework for organizations and businesses, at HEF 2025, the Corporation has “tailored” this framework for Ho Chi Minh City. This custom framework aligns with the city’s key programs, such as building large-scale computing and data center infrastructure, developing an urban data platform, deploying AI application clusters for traffic, healthcare, public services, and urban security, and supporting the AI startup ecosystem. CMC will soon work with C4IR to present the proposed AI Transformation Framework to the Ho Chi Minh City leadership.
Smart Governance Dialogue: The Need for Smoother Mechanisms for Businesses
Within the framework of HEF 2025, Mr. Dang Van Tu – SVP Vice Chairman/Chief Technology Officer of CMC Group and General Director of CMC OpenAI Company – participated in the panel discussion “Smart Governance in the Digital Era.” The session focused on international experiences and public-private partnership models for urban governance.
The opening segment featured three reports on the characteristics of smart governance and lessons from Singapore; key components of smart governance and the role of businesses; and foundational elements and the power of partnerships from Australia’s experience.
The subsequent discussion revolved around three main themes: transparent data and real-time decision-making; multi-channel, citizen-centric digital public services; and large-scale urban governance post-merger. The panel was moderated by Professor Nguyen Quang Trung (RMIT University Vietnam) and included Ms. Vo Thi Trung Trinh – Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Digital Transformation Center, Mr. Dang Van Tu, and other international experts.
Image 5: Mr. Dang Van Tu, SVP Vice Chairman/CTO of CMC, in a panel discussion with international experts on Smart Governance.
When asked about the opportunities and obstacles for businesses participating in digital government projects, Mr. Dang Van Tu affirmed that the “Triple Helix” and “Penta Helix” collaboration models promoted recently by the Government, universities, and businesses present a significant opportunity.
National missions, partner enterprise programs, and sandbox mechanisms for digital transformation have created a corridor for private enterprises like CMC to quickly test new technologies, build solutions, and deploy them for state agencies. The advantage of tech firms lies in their ability to rapidly update global trends and learn from international use cases to localize them for Vietnam, thereby shortening the implementation time for digital government and smart governance projects.
However, Mr. Tu also pointed out three major challenges. First, the mechanisms for project acceptance, payment, and operational support remain complex, discouraging many businesses from participating. Second, the fragmentation in system and database development across ministries, sectors, and localities makes data connection, sharing, and interoperability difficult.
Finally, although innovative models and policy frameworks have been established, the processes still need to be “smoothed out,” simplified, and made more consistent to encourage businesses to invest long-term in state projects.
Partnering with Ho Chi Minh City on its Green-Digital Journey
From its product exhibition space to its policy proposals, CMC demonstrated the pioneering role of a private enterprise in partnering with Ho Chi Minh City on its journey to build a smart administration and a smart city. This aligns with the “green transformation in the digital era” direction that Vietnam is pursuing.
Chairman Nguyen Trung Chinh stated that CMC would continue to collaborate with Ho Chi Minh City and Vietnam C4IR to concretize the AI Transformation Framework into practical programs and projects. This effort aims to help the city become an intelligent, dynamic, safe, and sustainable international super-metropolis.
