'Vietnam's IT is on the rise!'

Comment of Mr. Le Truong Tung - Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City Informatics Association: the overall picture of Vietnam IT still has gloomy features, but there have been remarkable breakthroughs.

To reschedule, in this July, Vietnam IT Panorama Report 2006 has just been issued by the City Computer Association. Ho Chi Minh completed and launched the Vietnam IT industry. This is the sixth year the Ho Chi Minh City Informatics Association performs annual reports on IT based on reliable sources at home and abroad.

It seems that there is not much development, even a downward trend as reported by the press, but with Mr. Le Truong Tung - one of the members of the authors group to build a comprehensive report, a picture of the industry. Although IT is still gloomy, there are still remarkable breakthroughs. Reporter VnMedia had an interview with Mr. Le Truong Tung about the above content.

It seems that in the past few years, Vietnam's IT industry has only developed at "average" level, even regressed without mutations. This is reflected in the ranking of indicators of Vietnam IT panoramic report. Do you think so?

"However, the overall picture of current IT development in Vietnam is still quite messy, this also proves to have signs of development, but there is still something insecure."

Mr. Le Truong Tung : If talking about the position of Vietnam IT industry in the overall picture of the world, it is true that it does not change much. But it also depends on the evaluation. In the rankings of the world, there are not all 191 rankings, so even though I am at the bottom of the rankings, it is good to see if we get into the ranking list. Changing some rankings is not so important, but it is important that we see the world people are evaluating Vietnam at such a level and how they will treat themselves. This is really a concern.

In terms of development, there are many. In the last few years, Vietnam IT has had some big mutations such as software. Then the services related to the content industry, Internet services . For example, 2005-2006 continues to be the year witnessing the rapid growth of Vietnam Internet - Telecommunications. After 12 months, the number of Internet subscribers converted increased by 86%, the number of Internet users increased by 80%. If the previous year marked the percentage of Vietnamese Internet users exceeding the Asian average of 8.4%, this year this rate reached 16% (as of June 2006), exceeding the average threshold of the world, at 15.7%. In my opinion, every year IT industry has certain highlights. Or there are orientations from the previous year to this year that can be promoted, not not.

So from the figures given in the 2006 panoramic report, do you have any assessment of the general picture of Vietnam's IT background today?

Mr. Le Truong Tung : I think that the growth rate of over 20% / year of Vietnam's IT industry is a high growth rate compared to the average growth rate of the world and the region that has been mentioned. If compared with the growth rate of Vietnam's economy is 8% per year, then with the IT development rate is nearly three times higher, the IT industry is on the way of developing very fast.

The position of Vietnam's IT industry in the general economy has been clearly confirmed. Although if IT is placed in the general lineup of other industries, sometimes its growth rate increases many times, sometimes only a few times. However, the development that has leveled off a bit is probably a good thing. Because in fact for each economic sector in the initial period always has a very fast development speed but when there is a slowdown, it can also be assessed that it has started to go in depth with The orientation is relatively stable. Because even the most powerful IT countries in the world such as Japan and the US . the growth rate is always kept at a stable level.

However, it must be seen that if viewed far away, Vietnam's IT picture in the period of 2006-2010 has not been clear. It was supposed that at this time, we had to orient very clearly the next 5 years of Vietnam IT industry because this was the time of transition of the period 2001-2005 and 2006-2010 while plan 5 I am currently building this year. Some strategies come up when we are not really reassured, such as having a strategy and then needing guidance that will concretize in practice. Meanwhile some strategies are not available.

Thus, it can be said that the given figures in the panorama report still show good growth in all fields, although not as in previous years. However, the overall picture of current IT development in Vietnam is still quite messy, this also proves to have signs of development, but there is still something insecure.

In the panorama report, 2005-2006 marked the milestone of IT partners to increase investment in Vietnam, including the project of Intel licensed by the Vietnamese Government to invest in the construction of the assembly plant. With a value of up to 300 million USD . According to you, how does this prove our country's ability to attract IT partners?

Mr. Le Truong Tung : IT market is one of the global markets so it is hard to exist a pure local IT economy. And so is Vietnam's IT market. In my opinion, even the software and hardware industry can only develop well if it can attract foreign partners, especially big IT partners.

In the past time, the presence of Fujitsu, Canon . and especially the investment of 300 million USD of Intel in the construction of a chip factory in Ho Chi Minh City. Ho Chi Minh has partly proved its ability to attract investment. If we continue to attract more foreign partners, especially big partners, these events will be a very important factor. At that time, Vietnam IT will also share the global market in terms of technology.

Thank you Sir!