Vietnam expects 20M Internet users by 2010
The number of Internet users in Vietnam will rise by a factor of 10 over the next seven years to around 20 million, according to the
country's Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT).
The current number of subscribers is 491,000, but with several people accessing a single account, the number of users is just over 2
million [M],according to Vietnam Internet Network Information Center figures.
That represents 2.5 percent of the country's 80 million people. In a published report of a seminar held last week by MPT and the
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), MPT said that figure will rise to between 4 percent and 5 percent by 2005 and
between 25 percent and 30 percent by 2010.
According to the MPT report, the seminar focused on the infrastructure of information and communications technology, which the
government has identified as a key economic driver for the country.
Vietnam recently introduced its first ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) broadband Internet service and WiFi hotspots, and
offers a national voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephony service.
MPT said that Vietnam's IT and communications industry is expected to be worth US$5.5 billion in revenue by the year 2010,
accounting for 9 percent of gross domestic product, much higher than the current level of 1.5 percent.
By David Legard -IDG News Service - August 26, 2003
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