Vietnam unveils ambitious IT development plan
HANOI - Vietnam plans to multiply its fledgling computer software output by
an estimated 50 times within four years to US$500mil annually
under an ambitious blueprint unveiled on Monday in official media.
The country hopes to train 50,000 information technology specialists and
increase Internet subscribers by nearly tenfold – to 1.5% of its 80 million
population – by 2005, according to a report in the English-language
Vietnam News.
The IT sector will become “an economic spearhead” of Vietnam, the paper
said, reporting on the decision signed by Prime Minister Phan Van Khai last
week.
However, the country has a long way to go. Last year, Vietnam’s entire
software output was only about US$10mil , said Truong Gia
Binh, president of the Corporation of Financing and Promoting Technology,
Vietnam’s largest software and Internet company.
The government’s plan and official media reports did not provide current
software output figures.
Binh said the government’s steep growth targets would require massive
effort.
“It’s a big challenge,” he told Reuters. “I think the toughest issues will be
human resources training, both in software development skills and
language.”
The plan calls for intensive Internet training in high schools and government
agencies.
Vietnam also needs to quickly upgrade its infrastructure, as it has one of the
slowest connection speeds in the region, Binh said.
IT experts have recently called for an end to the Internet gateway monopoly
held by the state Vietnam Posts and Telecoms, saying that the lack of
competition has slowed capacity building.
Vietnam is counting on technology to help boost its economy and recently
opened a software park in Ho Chi Minh City.
Yet, the communist government also requires “firewalls” in local Internet
use, blocking sites that call for uprisings against the government.
Vietnam currently has about 150,000 Internet subscribers – an increase of
more than 250% since 1997 but still less than 0.2% of the population and
far below the regional norm.
Reuters - May 30, 2001.
|