Meta upbeat about Vietnam investment environment, seeks regulatory consistency

Meta, formerly known as Facebook, has "great confidence" in Vietnam as an investment destination, as evidenced by its foray into manufacturing virtual reality headset Quest 3S in the country, says Nick Clegg, its global affairs president.

Clegg said on Tuesday in response to a query from The Investor at a press meet in Hanoi on the sidelines of Innovate Vietnam 2024. The event was organized by the National Innovation Challenge (NIC) to highlight and promote Vietnam’s progress in innovation across various fields.

While Vietnam should retain its advantages in attracting investments, the country should also maintain consistency in its legal framework, he said.

New regulations that are drafted should be "easy to understand and implement" and "follow international practices," Clegg explained.

He noted that many countries were introducing new laws affecting the digital sector. For example, Japan has brought out a thought-provoking piece of legislation to improve operating system transparency.

Meanwhile, Mario Draghi, former head of the European Central Bank, has released a report pointing out many overlapping and contradictory and complicated rules in Europe, he added.

A day earlier, Clegg had met with Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and affirmed Meta’s plans to manufacture mixed virtual reality headset Quest 3S in Vietnam next year.

The project would create some 1,000 jobs in Vietnam, he said, adding that the American tech giant will also introduce virtual assistant Meta AI in the Vietnamese language, providing a tool for businesses and people for diverse purposes and helping bolster innovation in the country.

Clegg said Vietnam was among the leading messaging markets for Meta via its Messenger app.

A Meta release said the company’s investments in Vietnam have extended to AI innovation. Apart from Meta AI in Vietnamese, its Business AI for Messenger was being tested in Vietnam since June and will be fully launched by the end of this year.

The above initiatives were part of a broader effort to help Vietnamese businesses and developers tap AI technology and leverage it for growth and innovation, the release said.

Meta's ongoing collaboration with the University of Social Sciences and Humanities Hanoi also exemplified its commitment, with a credit-earning AI literacy curriculum scheduled to be launched next March, it added.