Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Phan Van Mai on April 25 had a meeting with a high-level delegation from the US chip giant NVIDIA led by Vice President Keith Strier, who is on a working trip to Vietnam.

The municipal leader stated that the development and application of artificial intelligence (AI) is in line with the orientation the city is carrying out with a view to becoming a major partner, good partner and major customer of NVIDIA in Vietnam through the delegation’s visit.

The southern metropolis aims not only to apply AI but also to become a center for AI technology development in the time ahead, Mai told his guest.

According to Phan Van Mai, the municipal People's Committee has assigned departments and sectors to research and apply this technology, first of all in administrative management, health care, education, urban management and many other fields.

He expressed his belief that the two sides will have plenty of opportunities for broader cooperation as HCM City has enough human resources, institutions and other conditions to cooperate in AI development.

Mai also informed the NVIDIA delegation about some contents to implement cooperation and pledged to develop AI with NVIDIA in a bid to become a regional AI center.

To reach this goal, NVIDIA and Ho Chi Minh City need to set up a joint working group in order to outline orientations for AI development and application such as investing in AI and computing infrastructure.

In line with this, the two sides can immediately deploy training and conversion of human resources to serve AI development as the city has abundant information technology human resources, with more than 100 universities, Mai continued.

For his part, Keith Strier appreciated the preparations for AI development in Ho Chi Minh City and affirmed NVIDIA’s readiness to help the southern city develop AI technology.

This is a complex technology chain, requiring the city to continue modernizing information technology infrastructure, improving human resource skills and capacity of businesses. If we fail to do these things, we will not be able to keep up with the development of AI, he noted.

Vice President Keith Strier said that the corporation wishes to cooperate with the city, adding that NVIDIA's shareholders are highly interested in the Vietnamese market but do not place much emphasis on business but on development cooperation.

According to Keith Strier, NVIDIA will support the development of local businesses and hopes Ho Chi Minh City will become one of the 5 leading cities in AI.

The corporation is greatly capable of training human resources in this industry for lecturers, students and will organize free classes to help people understand more about AI, he added.