Tax breaks to boost software industry HANOI - The government yesterday announced a raft of measures to boost the country's emerging computer-software industry, but critics say the plan is doomed without an overhaul of the Internet and telecommunications sector. The Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment said the information technology industry would receive preferential treatment in a bid to put it in the vanguard of economic growth within the next five years. Software firms will enjoy a tax holiday for the first four years of operation and a 50 per cent reduction for a further four years, while software parks will enjoy a total exemption for eight years. Vietnam has set a target of US$500 million in software exports by 2005 and promised to cut red tape and offer financial support totalling US$120 to achieve that objective. More than half of that will be spent on training, with the government aiming to create a pool of 25,000 skilled programmers within five years. Two software parks in southern Vietnam are set to be connected to high-speed Internet lines, but both private and government Internet Service Providers (ISP) are still obliged to access the outside world via the state-owned telecoms corporation. Trong Dinh Anh of the Financing and Promoting Technology Corporation said local ISP's are paying US$100,000 a month to the state for a single two megabyte transmission line, 10 times the cost paid by ISP's in Thailand. Vietnam has about 70,000 Internet users who can access the service at 56 kilobytes per second. By Huw Watkin - The South China Morning Post - June 23, 2000.