From November 12th to 19th 2007, with the recommendation of Qualcomm Group and United State Department of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Pham Minh Tuan, Vice Dean of Hanoi Advanced School of Science and Technology (HAST), Director of CRC-TOPIC incubator, and Mr. Pham Duc Trung Kien, Chief Executive Officer of VietNamNet Media Group were invited to visit University of California, San Diego (UCSD).
UCSD is one of the most prestigious universities in the US with 27,000 students. It is ranked 7th in the USA in scientific research by NSF and 13th globally by the Jiao Tong of China. UCSD is currently implementing a new strategic program, broadening cooperation with the Asia-Pacific. Dr. Tuan and Mr. Kien were the first Vietnamese scholars invited to visit and discuss cooperation opportunities.
At UCSD, Dr. Tuan and Mr. Kien gave a public lecture about opportunities in business, scientific researches, and social projects in Vietnam. Dr. Tuan presented case studies on successful foreigners and overseas Vietnamese entrepreneurs who succeeded in business (Mr. Bryan Pelz, General Director of Vinagame; Mr. Jonah Levey, General Director of Vietnamworks) and in social activities in Vietnam (Mr. Pham Duc Trung Kien, Executive Director of VEF; Mr. Greig Craft, General Director of AIPF and Protec helmet Company). American overseas Vietnamese professors and students joined the presentation and the following discussions.
Besides the working schedule at UCSD, Dr. Pham Minh Tuan and Mr. Pham Duc Trung Kien were also warmly welcomed by Dr. Paul E. Jacobs, General Director of Qualcomm Group at Qualcomm’s head office. Through discussion, they concluded that Vietnam IT/ICT policies have resulted in successful performance in the past few years, creating a strong competitive environment with 6 mobile phone service providers, raising the internet universalization over 20%, and making Vietnam rank 17th globally in terms of internet users. Other developed and developing countries may draw valuable experience from this change. Qualcomm’s representative also expressed their interest in supporting research in these areas. At present, Qualcomm Group is a major sponsor for UCSD.
During the trip, Dr. Tuan also met with leaders of UCSD Rady School of Business to discuss cooperation in establishing a high-quality MBA training program. In addition, he had a discussion with Ambassador Diana Lady Dougan, US representative for ICT, promoting NextGen Program for telecommucation for social purposes; and with Professor Akos Rona-Tas on carrying out the technology strategic research on the credit card business; with Prof. Eddy Malesky on stimulating technology assessment together with provincial competitive index (PCI), which helped to promote a stable and high valuable economic model based on Science and Technology. Prof. Malesky is a professor of UCSD, now working as a visiting professor at Harvard University. He is also the head expert of PCI Program implemented by VCCI and USAID, which is currently deployed annually in all provinces in Vietnam. Prof. Malesky showed great interest in research results on provincial competitivness, combining technology assessment with provincial competitive index of Hanoi University of Technology. Besides, the two Vietnamese representatives took part in many interesting events and meetings with professors, students, and businessmen in San Diego.