Vietnam to inaugurate software park next week
HANOI - Vietnam will Friday inaugurate a new software park, Quang Trung Software Park, on the outskirts of
Ho Chi Minh City, a city official told Dow Jones Newswires Thursday.
According to Nguyen Trong, deputy director of the city's Department of Science & Technology, Quang Trung will be
Vietnam's largest software park. It will be able to accommodate up to 10,000 businesses.
He said that while only 10,000 square meters of land are currently ready for use, the park will grow to 40 hectares when
completed.
"So far we have invested 70 billion dong ($1=VND14,542) to develop the area. We can't say exactly how much more we will
need to spend but I think it will be tens of billion dong more," he said.
Trong added that around 30 companies have moved to Quang Trung. Another 40 are waiting to do so, he said.
He said the park can now offer tenants a two megabyte internet connection. "But we hope to enlarge that to give software
producers better working conditions."
Vietnam is trying to sell itself as a cheap software destination for foreign companies. While it is able to offer inexpensive and
well educated labor, it can't yet offer sufficient internet connections to attract major firms.
Because of these restrictions, some foreign companies outsource programming work to Vietnamese firms are unwilling to
establish more complex operations.
According to Trong, "some foreign companies have shown interest in this place (Quang Trung), but it's still early to say how
many will join."
Ho Chi Minh City's has one other major software park, Saigon Software park.
By Catherine McKinley - Dow Jones Newswires - March 8, 2001.
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