For Samsung Vietnam, the most capital-intensive FDI company in the country and the biggest high-tech exporter, supporting the community where it operates should bear its own hallmark. Widely known for its diverse portfolio of hi-tech products, especially smartphones, the South Korean-invested firm has chosen technology as the core of its community activities in Vietnam.
The company has since its establishment 15 years ago launched several community programs to support the community, with a special focus on the country’s technology industry in particular and education in general. Thousands of young talent and students from across the country have benefited from the company’s technology and innovation support programs.
Nurturing technology talents
Just one month ago, on August 18, the company wrapped up the Samsung Innovation Campus 2022 -2023, which can be deemed its signature community program designed to train and support young technology talents in Vietnam.
The program, which was launched on September 21, 2022 by Samsung Vietnam in coordination with its partner Junior Achievement Organization, aimed to build the high-tech capacity for Vietnam’s young generation who will become the key workforce of Industrial Revolution 4.0. Three training courses were organized in the past year, focusing on the internet of things, artificial intelligence, big data, and coding & programming (C&P).
The program was executed at 33 schools in 12 cities and provinces across the country, open for students aged between 14 and 24.
Speaking at the closing ceremony last month, a representative of Samsung Vietnam said the program provided training to more than 3,200 students. In addition, the program organized workshops for over 200 technology teachers to improve their technological skills and pedagogical capacity.
Choi Joo Ho, general director of Samsung Vietnam, noted at the ceremony that with a vision to contribute to society and build a better world for young people, the company “makes the most efforts in developing technology talents in Vietnam and continuously accompanies the Vietnamese people.”
The Samsung Innovation Campus project was first introduced in the world in 2019 as a typical corporate social responsibility (CSR) program of the South Korean conglomerate, and has been available in 33 countries worldwide. That same year, the project was also launched in Vietnam, and to date, this project has provided training courses on AI, Big Data, IoT, and C&P for 6,000 local students and 400 teachers in 20 cities and provinces nationwide.
At the above-mentioned closing ceremony, Tran Van Dat, an official with the Ministry of Education, highly appraised the project’s value to the country’s education sector.
“The Samsung Innovation Campus program is very effective and practical. We hope that in the near future, the education sector will continue to receive support and collaboration from Samsung to implement this program annually,” he said.
Besides the Samsung Innovation Campus project, Samsung Vietnam has also organized other programs to enhance the technological capacity of young people in Vietnam. One of such programs is the Solve for Tomorrow competition, which has been organized annually since 2019.
Solve for Tomorrow 2023 was launched on June 2, 2023 in Hanoi, Danang and HCMC, drawing numerous highschool students aged between 12 and 18. The competition aims to promote studies and applications of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) to solve real-life issues.
From the first edition in 2019 until 2022, the Solve for Tomorrow competition attracted the participation of 165,000 students and teachers.
At the launch of Solve for Tomorrow 2023, Kim Yong Sup, deputy general director of External Relations & Communications at the Samsung Complex in Vietnam, stressed the practical value of the competition.
“Solutions to the problems people are facing such as sustainable development, safe society, respect for diversity, etc, may lie in the creative thinking of the young generation. Through the Solve for Tomorrow competition, Samsung is actively supporting the creative thinking of Vietnamese youth to develop into creative problem-solving competence,” he said.
Solve for Tomorrow 2023 has now been upscaled and is expected to attract the participation of 140,000 students with 2,000 entries submitted by schools from across the country. The total prize money for this year’s competition amounts to nearly VND8 billion, and the winning school will be donated a STEM Lab costing over VND1 billion, according to Samsung Vietnam.
Wheelchairs for the disabled
While technological support from Samsung Vietnam aims to benefit the young generation across the country, the company also has shown great care to the communities in localities where it operates.
Last October, Samsung Vietnam donated 490 wheelchairs for disabled people in three northern provinces — Bac Ninh, Bac Giang and Thai Nguyen, which are home to Samsung Vietnam’s factories. This was the 13th time the company donated wheelchairs to disabled people, taking the total number of wheelchairs donated to the disabled to 2,640 units.
Speaking at the handover ceremony, a Samsung Vietnam representative noted that “the annual wheelchair donation was an act of gratitude to the localities for their support extended to Samsung Vietnam.”
The wheelchair donation was also one of the first CSR programs conducted by the company, which aimed to help improve the unlucky people’s mobility and enable them to better integrate themselves to the community, the representative said.
Samsung Vietnam has also launched other community activities benefiting the community, including the construction of a school in each of Bac Giang, Bac Ninh, Thai Nguyen and Lang Son provinces, providing a modern education environment for children with difficult family backgrounds. The company has also awarded scholarships to high-performing students, installed smart libraries at several schools, and others.
Samsung Vietnam, as the largest high-tech manufacturing company in the country with last year’s export revenue amounting to US$65 billion, or nearly 9% of Vietnam’s total, has committed to further driving technological development in Vietnam via education.
Apart from large-scale technology programs for the community mentioned above, Samsung Vietnam has developed various other tech-based community programs, including 52 smart libraries, the smart school model now active in two medical universities in Thai Nguyen Province and HCMC, and several technological spaces for children called S.hub for Kids among others.
Via education, Samsung Vietnam provides an advanced technological environment to enable young people to develop their potentials to bring new changes for society and create a better world for all, the company states its mission on its website.
