~ Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui. ~
The Vietnam News

[Year 1997]
[Year 1998]
[Year 1999]
[Year 2000]
[Year 2001]

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.