Japan ICT companies back to Vietnam for business

Kenji Ogawa (L), vice chairman of the Information Technology Promotion Agency (IPA-Japan), and Pham Tan Cong (R), general secretary of Vinasa, congratulate each other on the signing of the MOU on development of the human resource valuation system applicable to Vietnam ICT enterprises - Photo: Hien Nguyen

HCMC – Japanese information and communication technology enterprises are coming back to Vietnam to grasp business opportunities after an interruption caused by the financial crisis since end-2008, heard the Vietnam Japan IT Day in the city on Monday.

The event, organized by the Vietnam Software Association (Vinasa) and Vinasa Japan IT Cooperation Club, is attended by about 50 Japanese enterprises like NEC, GDS and Cybozu, Pham Tan Cong, general secretary of Vinasa, told the Daily on the sidelines of the event.

Many Japanese ICT firms shut down their Vietnam branches in the aftermath of the crisis, Cong said, and 2009 was a tough year for the Japanese ICT industry although Japan was a huge market with annual turnover of US$130 billion.

Vietnam’s software outsourcing sector also felt the impact of the Japanese ICT sector’s woes since it is recognized as the third largest partner of Japanese firms.

FPT, the country’s biggest ICT enterprise, was hurt when ICT companies of Japan left Vietnam; about 56% of its revenue came from Japan’s market.

“A tough period seems to be over. On Tuesday Japan ICT companies are back to Vietnam and they are searching for new partners and new business opportunities,” Cong noted.

Since early this year, he added, Vietnamese and Japanese ICT companies have exchanged many business matching trips and clinched a lot of high-value deals. “It’s a good sign for the Vietnam software outsourcing sector.”

Hiromi Sugiyama, vice chairman of the Japan Information Technology Service Industry Association, said the worst for Japan’s ICT industry was over and that it was time for it to explore new partners and business deals.

Vietnam’s software outsourcing segment is recognized as a key partner of Japan, Sugiyama said, adding embedded software development, business application software development and data entry were in need of Vietnamese firms.

He said Japan’s offshore outsourcing volume grew rapidly, from US$1.37 billion in 2004 to US$4.33 billion in 2008. Vietnam ICT enterprises are mostly likely to gain slice of this huge pie.

“Japan is a serious market. To win a contract from the market, Vietnam ICT companies should enhance the quality of IT developers’ skills and of services,” he noted.

On Monday saw Vinasa signing a memorandum of understanding with the Information- Technology Promotion Agency (IPA-Japan) to promote the human resource valuation system in Vietnam ICT enterprises.

IPA will provide technical support for Vinasa to build up the system and deploy it by early 2011.

In a related development, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) in Vietnam on Monday launched a campaign to promote its information technology products here in the local market.

The Taiwan Excellence campaign is organized by TAITRA and supported by 17 selective Taiwan information technology brands including ASUS, MSI, D-link, BenQ, Genius and Optoma.

TAITRA said it would organize a Taiwan information technology expo in HCMC next month to promote its products locally.

The Ministry of Information and Communications reported that between 2000 and 2009, Vietnam’s IT industry grew at double digits, 20-25% a year.

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IT sector targets $17bln over five years

The country's information technology industry has set a revenue target of US$17 billion by 2015, according to the Ministry of Information and Communications.

Software sales revenue would be $2 billion, hardware $12.5 billion and IT services $1.5 billion, the ministry said.

The plan to develop the country's IT industry until 2015 and 2020 has been drafted by the ministry to be submitted to the Government later this year.

Under the draft plan, the average growth rate of the country IT industry would reach 17.5 percent per year by 2015, with the hardware sector increasing 18 percent a year, software by 15 percent and digital content by 20 percent.

Exports will account for more than 60 percent of the total industry revenue.

The plan is to develop three production centres - in software, services and digital content - in HCMC, Hanoi and Danang.

Three strong regions of hardware and electronics will be established in the north, centre and south.

The ministry aims to develop two hardware and electronics businesses with an average revenue of over $2 billion and two software businesses with an average revenue of $200 million a year, plus two digital content businesses with a turnover of above $500 million a year.

Some 50,000 IT engineers would be trained and become proficient in foreign languages.

The draft plan aims to generate Made in Vietnam hardware products for the domestic market, which could be exported to international markets.

Some open source software products would be localised to be used in State agencies. The plan aims to develop a search engine in Vietnamese and three websites on procurement of goods in line with specific culture of Vietnam.

The draft plan envisages Vietnam would be among countries with the most attractive outsourcing industry and HCMC, Hanoi and Danang would be in a group of 10 emerging cities for outsourcing.

The plan also aims to attract over $5 billion in foreign investment for the information technology industry.

 

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IT sector targets 17bln USD over five years

The country's information technology industry has set a revenue target
of 17 billion USD by 2015, according to the Ministry of Information and
Communications.

Software sales revenue would be 2 billion USD, hardware 12.5 billion USD and IT services 1.5 billion USD, the ministry said.

The plan to develop the country's IT industry until 2015 and 2020 has
been drafted by the ministry to be submitted to the Government later
this year.

Under the draft plan, the average growth
rate of the country IT industry would reach 17.5 percent per year by
2015, with the hardware sector increasing 18 percent a year, software by
15 percent and digital content by 20 percent.

Exports will account for more than 60 percent of the total industry revenue.

The plan is to develop three production centres - in software,
services and digital content - in HCM City, Hanoi and Da Nang.

Three strong regions of hardware and electronics will be established in the north, centre and south.

The ministry aims to develop two hardware and electronics businesses
with an average revenue of over 2 billion USD and two software
businesses with an average revenue of 200 million USD a year, plus two
digital content businesses with a turnover of above 500 million USD a
year.

Some 50,000 IT engineers would be trained and become proficient in foreign languages.

The draft plan aims to generate Made in Vietnam hardware products for
the domestic market, which could be exported to international markets.

Some open source software products would be localised
to be used in State agencies. The plan aims to develop a search engine
in Vietnamese and three websites on procurement of goods in line with
specific culture of Vietnam.

The draft plan
envisages Vietnam would be among countries with the most attractive
outsourcing industry and HCM City, Hanoi and Da Nang would be in a group
of 10 emerging cities for outsourcing.

The plan also aims to attract over 5 billion USD in foreign investment for the information technology industry./.

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Local universities sign IT agreement

HCMC – Local universities which have information technology training field signed an agreement last Thursday in Phan Thiet Town to reinforce cooperation with an aim to develop the country’s IT training and application.

The schools included University of Engineering and Technology under the Vietnam National University in Hanoi, Phan Thiet University, FPT University, and the University of Information Technology under the Vietnam National University in HCMC. Joining the alliance were also Duy Tan University, Hung Vuong University, Ba Ria-Vung Tau University, Information Technology College, Hai Phong Polytechnics College, and Saigon Advanced Institute of Technology.

The signing ceremony was part of the 6th International Conference on Information Technology for Education held Thursday and Friday in HCMC and Phan Thiet.

These universities will together build learning resources consisting of curricula and materials for their IT faculties. The resources will be organized as an online library for lecturers and students from these universities.

The cooperation will also help universities effectively utilize the international human resources such as inviting professors and experts worldwide to teach and give speeches to students of the universities besides sharing materials and free international software in the field of information technology.

“These terms of the agreement will help member universities to gain the best learning results and save costs,” Hoang Van Kiem, rector of the University of Information Technology, told the Daily on the sidelines of the first day of the conference held in HCMC.

“We hope that in the near future, other universities will join our network,” he said.

Last Friday, over 300 delegates and scholars from the U.S., Canada, France, Australia, Singapore, Korea, Japan and Poland attended the second day of the conference in Phan Thiet. They discussed different IT topics, including computer-based education and e-learning, computer science and learning environment, and machine learning among others.

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