VietNam Business: research development

Thursday, February 3, 2011

SHTP licenses two R&D projects

(From right) Le Thai Hy (2nd), head of SHTP management board, awards an investment certificate to TMA Solutions on Tuesday - Photo: Que Minh

HCMC – Saigon Hi-Tech Park (SHTP) Management Board on Tuesday awarded two investment certificates for building Research and Development (R&D) facilities to two local firms in the park in District 9.

TMA Solutions, a giant software outsourcing company, will open its ICT research and development center in the park. The center will be located in SHTP’s Science City, which is the functional zone exclusively reserved for high-tech research and development, training and incubation activities.

With the total investment of US$5 million, TMA’s project will be divided into three phases of development, with three research laboratories on Data Network and New Generation Network (NGN), Embedded System and other new technologies closely following the global development trend.

Besides in-house R&D projects, TMA plans to set up joint ventures with both local and foreign partners such as Novitell (Denmark), Exceed Global (Australia), Astonis (U.S.) and Viettel (Vietnam) to do the R&D of new products, according to the park in a statement.

Established in 1997, TMA is now the largest company in HCMC and the second in Vietnam in terms of software services and solutions, technical services and ICT training. The company has more than 900 engineers, six laboratories and five overseas offices, and has recorded an annual growth rate of 50% during the last 13 years.

The other R&D project licensed on Tuesday is invested by the Southern Construction Materials Institute under of the Ministry of Construction. The VND30 billion project will research and develop new materials for construction in HCMC and the southern area.

SHTP is now home to 44 local and foreign hi-tech companies, with a total investment commitment of more than US$1.84 billion, creating more than 10,000 skilled jobs, contributing nearly US$640 million in export revenue to the city.

SHTP expects foreign and domestic investment capital flow this year to hit US$150 million. The park is focusing on attracting high-technology projects in microelectronics, IT, telecoms, research and development, and the service sector.

Friday, November 5, 2010

IT firms fail to invest in R&D

Photo: Reuters

Most Vietnamese IT firms have failed to make adequate investment in research and development due to limited financial capacity and a lack of skilled personnel, said HCMC Computer Association chairman Chu Tien Dung.

In the past 10 years, firms focused on creating IT products to meet short-term market demands rather than properly investing in research and development (R&D), Dung said.

Domestic IT businesses that took on outsourcing work from foreign partners found it difficult to make sufficient investment in R&D because most of them were small and medium-sized, said Vietsoftware chairman of the board Tran Luong Son.

Some of the companies realised the importance of R&D but due to insufficient financial capacity, their R&D investment had yet to bring satisfactory results, he said.

While investing in R&D seems to be difficult for small IT firms, several larger enterprises have invested in R&D, resulting in new production technologies and unique products that have played a decisive factor in sharpening their competitiveness.

TMA Solutions, a large software outsourcing company, recently opened its first R&D centre in the Quang Trung Software Park in HCMC to expand its business in training, mobile service and business solutions.

Chairman of TMA Solutions Nguyen Huu Le said the company accepted outsourcing contracts from foreign companies over the past 12 years and also executed R&D projects under contracts with foreign partners.

"To date, TMA has accumulated good experience in innovation technologies from these projects and we can produce many items in Vietnam," he said.

Mobile provider Viettel also established an R&D centre to develop new telecommunication equipment. The company has developed a USB with integrated 3G, the VT1000-3G, and plans to put it on the market by the end of the year.

CMC Group has also announced that it will set aside US$2 million to research or acquire new technology.

Establishing R&D centres in Vietnam, however, still faced tax barriers and difficulties with equipment testing procedures, Le said, adding that it took his company three years to complete all relevant procedures.

Le suggested the Government should offer incentives for R&D projects.

Dung agreed. He said that Vietnamese ICT companies were seeing big opportunities in technology transfer from global IT companies as they move their R&D centres to Vietnam to cut costs.

Several local outsourcing companies have seen a chance to receive R&D centres from foreign partners. The centres brought comprehensive technology and increased profits for local outsourcing companies, he noted.

To encourage more enterprises to shift to R&D, Dung suggested the Government rethink its tax policy for ICT companies that invested in R&D projects or R&D labs.

VietNam Business