IT experts have admitted that the global economic crisis is hitting the local software industry hard.

The sector usually predicted a minimum growth rate of at least 30 per cent, said Viet Nam Software Association (Vinasa) Chairman Truong Gia Binh.

"This year the figure might be at zero or just 10 per cent."

Last year saw the sector earning turnover of about US$600 million, 40 per cent of which came from exports.

Though well aware that software programmes and IT can help increase productivity, not many companies seem willing to pay for them.

According to the country director of Viet Nam IDC market research, Nguyen Lam, the economic crisis is forcing most local companies to cut spending on IT. This has meant fewer software contracts.

According to the latest figures released by the IDC, spending on IT this year is estimated to reach over US$2.2 billion, a reduction of $102 million compared with the company’s initial forecast.

"Local software processing firms are being hit by the global economic crisis," Lam said.

General Director of Misa Software Company Lu Thanh Long said many companies were cutting down production and spending to combat the effects of the crunch.

Consumers were watching their pockets and were more hesitant when buying the company’s products. Long said it was also difficult for the local software market to sell IT products to non-profit making companies. The Government’s appeal to cut 10 per cent of State budget spending had forced these companies to tighten their purse-strings, especially when it came to IT.

The crisis was either an opportunity or a challenge to the software industry, said Vinasa chairman Truong Gia Binh.

The chairman of leading Vietnamese outsourcing company TMA Solutions, Nguyen Huu Le, was also optimistic.

TMA Solutions have been supplying software research and development services to foreign telecommunication companies for 11 years.

"Many IT companies employ local workers to do research and development, especially as many are now cutting production."

The slump was a good chance for local software firms to provide new technology. Le cited the success of four mobile phone service providers, Viettel, VinaPhone, MobiFone and joint venture EVN Mobile-HT Mobile incorporation, who provide the third generation network (3G).

General Director of Misa Software Company Lu Thanh Long said he hoped the crisis would encourage business leaders to re-evaluate their management strategy.

"This would create an opportunity for software companies to sell new software programmes in management and business," he said.

Source: http://www.unesco-cep.org.vn/english/information/communication-information/it-sector-hit-hard-by-global-economic-crisis.html

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMHQo4QRoRU

VietNamNet Bridge – Viettel and MobiFone have joined the race to provide three generation (3G) services, both hoping to institute service by December 2009.

In its contract, MobiFone committed to supply 3G services in 100 percent of populated cities in 63 provinces of Vietnam as of December 2009. This firm reported it is in the final stages of meeting its commitment, with installation of 2400 3G base transceiver stations and 7700 more stations planned within three years.

When launched, MobiFone promises to offer 3G service for over 52 percent of the population, using the HSPA technology which permits clients to have access to the internet, send or receive email and use content services at 7.2Mbps. The firm will also provide 3G roaming services with at least 50 3G networks worldwide.

MobiFone confirmed that the 3G band would help it improve the quality of the 2G network and reduce jams. On September 2, the company conducted its first 3G call.

MobiFone’s recent efforts reflect its goal to surpass other rivals and become the second provider of the 3G services in Vietnam.

At the same time, Viettel stated to complete its 3G tests in HCM City and will also supply 3G services in December, six months earlier than scheduled.

According to its 3G contract, Viettel had promised to launch 3G services by June 2010. The company will invest up to 12.8 trillion dong (over $711 million) in the 3G network within three years. Upon its launch, Viettel’s 3G service will cover 100 percent of the population, with 15,000 BTS.

However, Viettel is aiming to make shortcuts. A Viettel official said the company may provide 3G service by December 2009. It introduced 3G services at trading centres in HCM City from October 10-15.

VinaPhone was the first telecom network offering 3G services, beginning October 12, 2009, but in the first month, faced problems in terms of quality and coverage. These matters were resolved in November and the 3G quality is now stable.

Source: http://english.vietnamnet.vn/ITTelecom/200912/December-to-be-climax-for-3G-market-883108/

VietNamNet Bridge – Some educators believe that in the digital era, it is impossible to ban mobile phones from schools, while others say mobile phones distract students from their lessons.

VietNamNet Bridge – The Government has issued a seven-point programme for advancing women during the country’s national industrialisation and modernisation process in an effort to turn Vietnam into a regional leader in gender equality issues by 2020.

The programme of action calls for an increased awareness and sense of responsibility from authorities at all levels towards furthering women in the modern world by enforcing gender equality to enable educated and professional women to contribute more to the nation’s development.

“Women should have an equal access to employment and enjoy a significant improvement in their standards of living, materially, culturally and spiritually. This will give them the opportunity to play a greater role in society and in all other fields, enabling them to contribute more to the community and their families” emphasises the Government’s scheme.

The seven recommendations include drawing the attention of the whole political spectrum to gender equality issues and encouraging state agencies to work closer together to help women advance themselves.

The programme also calls for legislation concerning women and gender equality issues to be made more accessible, which will increase public awareness.

A comprehensive legal system and the introduction of more appropriate measures are also essential for achieving a fair and equal society.

Ensuring equality between men and women in management positions, especially in State agencies and sectors, is now one of the government’s major objectives.

“More effort needs to be made to utilise all the available resources to achieve gender equality and raise the status of women, including more research and international cooperation,” says the government.

Source: http://english.vietnamnet.vn/social/200912/Vietnam-targets-becoming-regional-leader-in-gender-equality-882622/

HA NOI — The Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, has asked localities to regularly check on documentation for foreign workers who are employed in enterprises, organisations or under contract.

The move aims to bring in stricter management policies for foreign labourers in co-operation with the ministries of Labour, Invalids and Social Affair, Public Security and municipal and provincial People’s Committees.

The initiative will focus on placing checks on the recruitment and work permits application process for foreign workers.

Under the new regulations, foreign employees who want to work in Viet Nam will need a working licence and professional competence certificate.

Foreign employees will have to submit a full set of application forms to their employers, including a resume, health certificate and a copy of their professional competence certificate.

Employers and employees will have to sign working contracts under Vietnamese laws. If foreign employees work for more than 10 consecutive days or a total of 30 days a year, their employers, the Vietnamese partner or representative of the foreign non-governmental organisation, will have to supply documents to the local department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs.

Punishment

Minister Ngan said if enterprises violated the regulations, they would receive administrative punishment and the foreign labourers would be deported under Vietnamese law.

Municipal and provincial People’s Committees must provide a report to the management of foreign labourers by the 25th day of the last month of every quarter to the ministry’s Employment Department. This report must include the number of enterprises using foreign workers, the number of workers, as well as methods and initiatives used for the management of the employees.

The minister also asked the committees to disseminate information to foreign workers about the new regulations.

In Viet Nam, there are nearly 100,000 foreign employees. However, more than half have yet to receive a labour certificate.

Nguyen Ngoc Anh, director of the A&T Design Company, said that after studying design in South Korea he invited some excellent Korean graduates to work in his company, but he had to go through the proper channels in order to get visas for them.

"The visas help ensure that they are able to work for the company for a long time," said Anh. —VNS

HAU GIANG — Rice prices could go up by nearly 50 per cent next year as world demand surges, according to Truong Thanh Phong, chairman of the Viet Nam Food Association.

He said that demand for rice was increasing after typhoons and drought damaged crops in the Philippines and India.

"Africa is also seeking more rice from Viet Nam," he said at the country’s first Rice Festival that took place in Hau Giang Province last Sunday.

World prices might rise to about US$800 per tonne by the end of the second quarter next year but would not reach the highs of 2008, Phong said.

The export price of Vietnamese 5 per cent broken rice is now about $520 a metric tonne. It compares with $559 per tonne for the same category of Thai rice, and $590 per tonne for 100 per cent grade-B Thai white rice, the regional export benchmark.

Rice futures traded in Chicago have gained 38 per cent from this year’s low of $11.195 per 100 pounds in March. They reached a record $25.07 in April 2008 as concerns over shortages prompted countries like Viet Nam and India to curb exports, sparking food riots across the globe.

Viet Nam might ship as much as 6 million tonnes of rice next year, Phong said.

The country would have about 1.8 million tonnes from this year’s stock and a new harvest available for shipment in the first quarter of 2010, he said.

Viet Nam expected a record 6 million to 6.2 million tonnes in rice exports this year, topping the earlier high mark by up to 20 per cent, Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang told the National Assembly in Ha Noi on November 18.

Viet Nam shipped 4.65 million tonnes of rice last year and 5.17 million tonnes in 2005, according to the General Statistics Office.

Still, slumping prices meant the value of rice exports dropped 6 per cent in the 11 months through November to $2.56 billion, even as shipments increased, the GSO reported . Rice was Viet Nam’s sixth-biggest export by value in the first 11 months of the year.

"The Government is trying to boost rice exports to meet the country’s economic growth targets," Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Thanh Bien said at a conference in Hau Giang last Saturday.

Foreign currency revenue from exports would ease the dollar shortage in the country, Bien said. — VNS

HCM CITY — A major seminar on education held in HCM City last Saturday called for higher teaching quality that focuses on building national identity.

Participants from across the country also called for better quality of management staff, national and international standard curricula, modern teaching methods and better facilities in schools nationwide.

They said several shortcomings including low wages, lack of adequately trained teaching and management staff needed to be addressed to achieve higher education standards in the country.

Pham Minh Hac, chairman of the Viet Nam Association of Educational Psychology, which organised the conference, said that educational system in Viet Nam has to make teaching and learning more effective with a focus on overall personality development.

Nguyen Minh Ky from central Khanh Hoa Province stressed the need to build up a teaching staff with good ethics and morals as well as professional knowledge and pedagogic skills.

The State should tighten management of teaching staff and be determined about strictly punishing unethical behavior, he added.

He also called for the inclusion of more masters and doctorate degree holders in the teaching staff. "The country has 376 universities, but only 320 professors," he said.

Ky said that current pay levels for teachers were too low and had to be changed to ensure a good standard of living that would allow them to focus on their work.

The leader of any educational institution should be a person of high knowledge and principles, he added.

Hoang Ngoc Bat, member of the Thanh Hoa chapter of the Association of Educational Psychology, said that schools were not choosing educational content that would help students become moral, ethical and creative citizens.

Insufficient attention was paid to human values in schools and important social science subjects were not given due importance, he said.

Students from primary education to tertiary levels were also not taught life-skills that would help them do better in their career as well as personal lives, he said.

Stable curricula

Tran Quang Kiem, standing deputy chairman of the Hai Phong chapter of the Association of Educational Psychology, said that the country needed stable curricula and textbook content to help reduce wastage of time and money.

For the last few years, high school textbooks had to be changed frequently, leading to difficulties in learning as well as wasting funds that could be better spent in other areas, he said.

Other speakers called for the government and the Ministry of Education and Training to ensure management policies and agencies to monitor the operation of local and foreign schools in the country.

Hac said many foreign schools and universities had been set up in Viet Nam, but had not been managed closely.

Some schools and universities were not teaching anything about Viet Nam, he said.

He argued that teaching all the subjects in foreign languages was "not good," adding that teachers, lecturers and students including foreigners should respect Viet Nam’s cultural and educational tradition.

Nguyen Thi Hieu of the Management Education Institute said Viet Nam’s education still faced many problems.

A major problem was the approach that made student passive learners who took down notes without applying critical thinking skills, he said. This would hinder the full development of their intellectual capabilities, he added. — VNS

HA NOI — Viet Nam is active in the battle against discrimination and protecting women’s rights that are congruent with the Millennium Goal and the CEDAW convention on gender equality, National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Phu Trong told ASEAN female parliamentarians yesterday.

Trong received delegates from the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly who are in Ha Noi for a conference on the role of female members of parliament (MPs) during the lawmaking process.

The NA chairman highly appreciated the conference, which provided a chance for the AIPA members to exchange information and share experiences about improving women’s role in lawmaking and socio-economic activities.

"Fighting to liberate women and protect their rights, as well as implementing gender equality, have become a necessity for every country and is one of the millennium goals that all nations are paying attention to and making efforts to accomplish," Trong said to the AIPA MPs.

Almost all the AIPA parliaments have a high ratio of women participating in the governing bodies. Trong said he hoped the female MPs would uphold their role in their country’s political and socio-economic activities.

Earlier yesterday, Vice President Nguyen Thi Doan urged the parliamentarians from the regional countries to co-operate more closely to promote gender issues.

The Vice President in her address at the opening session of the conference yesterday praised the co-operation among the ASEAN member countries in improving the profile of women by approving a series of regional bills that recognise the role that women play in their countries. She told female MPs coming from regional countries that the Party and State of Viet Nam gave significant attention to promoting gender equality and that Vietnamese women have benefited in the political, socio-economic and cultural sectors.

Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly, Tong Thi Phong said in her speech yesterday that enhancing the role of female MPs in the process of lawmaking was an important goal for every country and had been on the AIPA agenda for many years.

Phong told the conference that Viet Nam had made significant achievements in promoting women’s involvement in the lawmaking process, state management and socio-economic development. She noted that the achievements aimed to reflect the standards present in the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) convention.

"This is highlighted by the number and level of female deputies in the National Assembly, as well as in elected organs at all levels," she said.

Viet Nam, like many other countries in the world and the region, is facing challenges in improving its judicial system, especially in regards to protecting the rights and legal interests of women in production, business, jobs, healthcare and social insurance, according to Phong.

AIPA, which was formed in 1977, aims to contribute to the attainment of the goals of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) through inter-parliamentary co-operation.

Phong expressed her hope that through the forum, female parliamentarians from AIPA members would compare notes and share their experiences on their role in lawmaking in order to boost mutual understanding. They were also expected to discuss future co-operation plans and to contribute to improving their role and position in political and socio-economic activities, said Phong.

The two-day conference is discussing a variety of relevant issues, and the establishment of a regional co-operation mechanism for female parliamentarians to exchange information and experiences concerning lawmaking and gender equality.

Female MPs from Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Viet Nam were among the participants. The AIPA’s acting general-secretary I Gusti Ayu Darsini, representatives from the UN Development Programme, international organisations and embassies in Ha Noi were also in attendance. — VNS

27/11/2009 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge - The National Instruction Board for Information Technology convened a meeting November 25 in Hanoi to discuss developing Vietnam’s information technology. Human resources in the sector should be prioritized, experts agreed.

Professor Vu Minh Giang from Hanoi said it was critical for the government to develop personnel resources to strengthen the field. The president of the National Instruction Board for Information Technology, Prof. Do Trung Ta from Hanoi, agreed, saying that it was even more important than developing IT infrastructure in the country.

Participants said it was wise for the government to focus on the burgeoning IT sector and that Vietnam had received recognition for its strength in the field.

However, there is much room for improvement, the meeting heard, and the IT sector must be analyzed in terms of strategic socioeconomic growth to 2020.

Discussing a project to fortify the country’s IT, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Nguyen Quan said the allocation of funds for the project was unreasonable.

Total funding for the project is estimated at VND144 trillion (US$7, 8 billion), of which VND131 trillion (US$7 billion) (91 percent), is allocated for implementing broadband infrastructure. The remaining VND210 billion is slated for developing human resources.

The divisions should receive equal funding, he said. IT experts at the meeting agreed, saying the actual cost of developing a strong human resources sector to 2020 is closer to US$1-2 billion.

Following the meeting, a proposal was submitted to the Ministry of Information and Communications, and policymakers, outlining the strategy and projected costs of the project.

In addition, Prof. Ta said the project should focus on training and foreign language skills rather than simply churning out large numbers of IT graduates. Furthermore, the government should concentrate on integrating IT into other fields like security and national defense, rather than treating it as an exclusive sector.

If the project is successful, it will be a boost to the country’s socioeconomic development to 2020, said Prof. Ta. Moreover, the implementation of the project must have the participation of ministries like Science and Technology, Education and Training, Planning and Investment, and Finance in addition to the Ministry of Information and Communications

Source: http://english.vietnamnet.vn/ITTelecom/200911/Developing-human-resources-critical-to-IT-growth-experts-say-881211/

Source: http://devdata.worldbank.org/ict/vnm_ict.pdf

The Hanoi Times -  To quickly become a powerful country in information technology, Vietnam should build up the reputation of its domestic IT brands within both the local and world markets.

29 Oct 2009

The wireless technology company and the non profit enabled wireless computer labs with 3G CDMA broadband Internet connectivity on 20-25 computers. The labs will serve as many as 50 students during a class period. Aside from training for students in basic computer skills, each lab also plans to use technology to teach other subjects such as English, math and science.

Source: http://www.eetasia.com/ART_8800588018_499488_NT_80310a97.HTM