Monthly Archives: January 2011

Businesses in a fix to apply clean technology

VietNamNet Bridge – Many businesses are facing difficulties, particularly financial in applying clean technology.

 

Over the past few years, the industrial sector’s revenue has accounted for more than 70 percent of the country’s export revenue, which has significantly contributed to restructuring the national economy, balancing the structure of all economic sectors, especially foreign-invested businesses and non-State sectors.

However, experts say that changes in Vietnam’s industrial sector have only been made in quantity not quality, because it largely relies on processing and assembling while the proportion of its added value remains low and its technological standards are outdated.

According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), Vietnam’s level of technological innovation makes up just 0.2-0.3 percent of businesses’ annual revenues while this figure in India is 5 percent and 10 percent in the Republic of Korea. The UNDP says Vietnam’s proportion of technological imports accounts for 10 percent of total import turnover while that of developed countries make up 40 percent of their total import turnover.

Poor technological investment has resulted in a huge consumption of energy resources, 1.5-2 times higher than in other countries in the region, and serious environmental damages which greatly affects the sustainability of the economic growth.

In addition, low technological value of products lowers their competitiveness.

Tran Hung, Deputy Head of the Light Industry Department says despite having applied clean technology from 1993, businesses have paid no or little attention to investment in clean technology for fear that their profits would fall. Apart from investment in the production process using clean technology, huge maintenance costs would hinder businesses’ operations, particularly in the case of small and medium-sized enterprises.

The Heavy Industry Department says it is difficult for businesses involved in heavy industry such as metallurgy, mining and engineering to invest in clean technology which involves a great deal of costs because their initial investment in production is also high, while the investment returns are gained slowly.

A representative from the Hanoi Women Association of Small and Medium Business says huge volumes of waste from textile, ceramic and cosmetic sector have adversely affected the environment. However, private businesses find it difficult to invest in financial capacity or pay no attention to clean technology, due to their limited budgets.

Pham Hong Hiep from the Institute for Industrial Strategy and Policy concludes that apart from lacking investment capital, Vietnamese businesses still lack information about the use of alternative technology and human resources. Businesses fail to abide legal regulations on environmental protection and still use outdated technologies which pollute the environment.

Sustainable development goes along with clean technology

Not using clean technology in production has raised obstacles in developing the industrial sector.

Tran Van Hung, Deputy Head of the Light Industry Department says the garment and textile sector is considered the key industry equipped with modern machines. But there are still many issues in its waste treatment as up to 50 percent of waste is released into the environment without any proper treatment. Therefore, the sector is facing difficulties in expanding production areas because of localities’ opposition.

At a recent seminar on using clean technology for the environment and sustainable development held by the Finnish Embassy in Hanoi and the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Finnish Deputy Head of Mission, Elina Poikonen said industrial development must go together with environmental protection which is a primary concern of many countries around the world.

Developing the economy sustainably should go hand in hand with environmental protection. Moreover, building “green brands” for products is the key to the easier penetration of import markets in the world. Vietnamese businesses’ improper application of technology in industrial production will reduce their competitive value and profits, and even consumers will not choose products with low technological value and which harm the environment.

To raise business awareness of environmental protection, it is essential to adopt incentive policies to provide capital and human resources-related assistance.

Finnish experts point out that using clean technology in production will not reduce businesses’ profit but instead, help them increase productivity and competitiveness of their products. This will help Vietnamese businesses overcome stringent barriers of product quality control imposed by developed countries.

Vietnam is striving to become an industrial country by 2020. Therefore, to ensure sustainability of the national economy, using clean technology together with environmental protection is a must.

Source: VOV

Vietnam has 170 million phone subscribers

VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnam had 170 million phone subscribers by December 2010, according to a new report from the General Statistics Office (GSO).

According to GSO, 16.4 million are fixed telephones, an increase of 5.1 percent as compare to 2009, and 154 million are mobile phones users, a rise of 39.8 percent.  

Last year in Vietnam, 44.5 million new telephone subscribers represented an increase of 35 percent, as compared to the same period last year. 

The Viet Nam Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) occupied the largest domestic market share. It announced that telephone subscribers now stood at 88.9 million subscribers, by the end of December 2010, a 25.3 per cent year-on-year increase. 

There were 11.7 million fixed phone subscribers, an increase of 1.3 per cent, against the same period last year. The number of mobile subscribers reached 77.2 million, an increase of 29.9 per cent.

The GSO also announced a growth in the number of Internet subscribers in the country for 2010. As of late December 2010, Vietnam had 3.77 million Internet subscribers, an increase of 27.4 percent against the same period last year. 

The number of Internet users is estimated at 27.4 million, at the end of last year, a 20.2 per cent increase, as compared with late 2009. 

Source:  SGGP

ADSL providers lose subscribers to mobile internet

VietNamNet Bridge – The Viet Nam Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) continues to dominate the market for internet service providers, claiming over 75 of subscribers, with the remainder going to military-run provider Viettel and FPT Telecom.

 

The VNPT had over 2.5 million ADSL users by the end of 2009, compared to Viettel’s 530,000 users and FPT Telecom’s 440,000 users.

Early this year, FPT Telecom set a goal to claim 30 per cent of market share, while Viettel continued to assert it would maintain the second place in the market.

But FPT Telecom general director Chu Thanh Ha admits that it has been losing nearly as many customers as it can add, with the churning of old-to-new customers reaching as much as 40 per cent. Up to 20 per cent of all ADSL subscribers have changed their services several times, Ha says.

The VNPT also admits losing existing subscribers at a rate of 13-15 per cent per year, even as it adds new ones. VNPT’s Ha Noi arm has targeted a million of new broadband subscribers this year alone – and it has been a challenge to meet the goal, says VNPT Ha Noi director Tran Manh Hung.

Viettel deputy director Le Huu Hien admits that growth in the market has been disappointing, noting that a large number of users now accessed the internet using mobile broadband and 3G services rather than through ADSL services.

Sensing which way the winds are blowing, Viettel is now paying more attention to the mobile broadband market than to ADSL development, since it has realised that heavy investment in ADSL infrastructure can no longer be recouped by the number of new customers added.

None of the major ADSL providers has ever released figures on how revenues or profits from providing the services.

The Ministry of Information and Communications has licensed over 40 internet service providers but recently revoked a number of them due to a lack of progress by licensees in deploying services.

Source: VNS

Made-in-Vietnam robots dream of going further into the world

VietNamNet Bridge – The year 2010 witnessed an important milestone in Vietnam’s robot industry, when a made-in-Vietnam robot was warmly welcomed in the world market.

 

Being flexible in operation, doing things quickly and exactly, being able to work in the noxious environment and do everything to replace people all have been cited as the outstanding features of robots. That explains why many countries and enterprises have spent a lot of money to design and manufacture robots.

Vietnam has also encouraged the design and manufacturing of robots by launching scientific research projects to discover ideas and talents for the robot industry. Especially, it has been annually organizing ROBOCON in order to discover a high quality labor force to prepare to help develop the industry in the future.

Ho Vinh Hoang, General Director of TOSY Robot Joint Stock Company, the person who has brought made-in-Vietnam robot to the world, is the designer who has “grown up” from such ROBOCON competitions

To Automatica, the world’s biggest exhibition in this field held in Germany in June 2010, TOSY brought TOPIO, the robot which can play ping-pong. And the appearance of TOPIO immediately caught the special attention from the exhibition’s attendants, because the excellent product comes from Vietnam, a country that has never been known as the robot manufacturer.

Besides TOPIO, TOSY also brought more than ten models of robots which can work in industries and the service sector. TOPIO Dio, the small service robot, which was introduced for the first time, was highly appreciated, because it can operate everywhere thanks to an integrated camera and impediment-inductor.

The exhibition’s attendants were really attracted by the robots made in Vietnam. Many attendants expressed their surprise when hearing that the robots, which have a high efficiency and impressive operation, were made in Vietnam, a country that has never been a big name among the biggest robot manufacturers. Even the “big guys”  in the robot industry in the world were also surprised with the robots from Vietnam, because the robots have the quality that is par with the robots made by modern countries in the world. Meanwhile, the prices of the robots made in Vietnam are just equal to half the price of the robots with the same functions in the market.

Explaining the low production cost, which is considered the most outstanding feature of TOSY-made robots, Hoang said that TOSY undertakes every phrase of the manufacturing process, from setting ideas, designing to carrying out production. A lot of important parts of robots, including the control unit and management software, have been designed and manufactured by TOSY itself. Besides, TOSY also does not have to pay large amounts of money for labor.

The low prices have helped TOSY to sign a lot of valuable contracts.

“It is very difficult to successfully manufacture high-quality and low-cost robots, but it is even more difficult to persuade clients to trust the Vietnamese brand,” Hoang said.

Also according to Hoang, the robots manufactured by TOSY have to satisfy a lot of requirements in quality in order to be distributed by big partners from the US, Japan and Germany.

In its development plan TOSY is considering a lot of factories in the near future that will serve the manufacturing and testingcof new products. “We will not only manufacture industrial robots, we are planning to bring service robots to every family and help improve the life of people,” Hoang said.

Source: Nguoi lao dong

Vietnam to invest more on hi-tech development

VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnam will focus on developing hi-tech industries such as information and communication technology (ICT), biotechnology, automatic technology and new material technology. 

 

The programme, entitled “Developing High Technology Till 2020”, has been approved by the government.

Under the programme, the country by 2020 will have some 500 enterprises specialising in producing hi-tech products and supplying hi-tech services, and about 200 agricultural entities applying high technologies operating in key economic zones.

The programme is also aimed at raising the proportion of hi-tech value in the industrial production to 30 per cent by 2015, and 40 per cent by 2020, and doubling that value in the agricultural production by 2015.

Regarding ICT, the programme focuses on microchips, basic software and technologies that ensure the setting up of modern telecommunications infrastructure, and new-generation internet.

For biotechnology, the programme focuses on gene technologies which will be applied in the diagnosis, assessment and treatment of diseases, and production of recombinant vaccines and protein, genetic modified plants, and microorganisms that have high economic value.

Implementing the programme, 500 leaders of hi-tech production projects, 10,000 engineers and researchers will be trained intensively, while 500 voluntary foreign experts and 1,000 overseas Vietnamese experts will be called for.

Source: VGP

Telecoms push use of fixed lines, 3G for Lunar holiday

VietNamNet Bridge – Customers should use 3G and fixed phone technology to avoid network congestion during the upcoming Tet (Lunar New Year) festival, telecommunications companies have said.

Demand for mobile phone services would increase by between 3 and 5 per cent over Tet, so customers should use 3G technology to avoid overburdening the 2G network, said Tao Huu Thang, Viettel deputy director of Technology.

Mobile phone providers also recommended that customers should not send multi-media messages during the busy points of the holiday such as new year’s eve and the first day of the new year.

If calls or messages failed, customers should wait a few minutes before trying again, they said.

Turning off "delivery reports" was also another way customers could support the networks during the busy period.

To encourage customers to use fixed phone and 3G technology, providers have introduced promotional programmes, including cutting the cost of fixed phone services. For example, Viettel has cut fixed phone service costs by 40 per cent.

In addition, providers have also made investments in their infrastructure.

VinaPhone widened and upgraded its infrastructure and invested in more base transceiver stations to meet the increasing demand for the Tet holiday, said head of VinaPhone’s Sales Department Pham Ngoc Tu.

Tu added that his company had 22,000 stations nationwide with a further 10,000 3G stations covering the country.

With this investment, VinaPhone could meet 200-300 per cent of the daily demand, Tu affirmed.

To avoid network congestion, Vinaphone has also installed 30 mobile stations in crowded areas such as Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi and District 1 in Ho Chi Minh City.

Like VinaPhone, Vittel has also invested in infrastructure. The telecoms giant has installed 186 new base transceiver stations which will be supported by 35 mobile stations during Tet.

Mobifone said it would have to invest a large amount to avoid network congestion.

Other small telecoms companies such as Vietnamobile, S-Fone and EVN Telecom have also completed upgrades.

Source: VIR

Bluefone enters the market

VietNamNet Bridge -  On January 12, CMC Distribution unveiled the company’s first series of locally-made mobile handsets under the brand-name Bluefone, which is aimed at the medium- to low-end market segment in Vietnam.

 

The five models are E151, E161, U121, U122 and U123 and vary in price from VND890,000 to VND1.3 million ($44.5 to $69.5). The products are assembled abroad and distributed nationwide through CMC Distribution’s network.

Of these, the U121 and U123 handset are being integrated with four SIM cards at a price of $44.5 each and the E161 is being integrated with three SIM cards at a price of $64.5.

Pham Hong Hai, general director of CMC Distribution, said the new phones benefited from mass and low-cost production from original equipment manufacturers in the world so as to provide local customers with a low price phone.

CMC Distribution is now also distributing Sony Ericsson mobile handset in Vietnam. With Bluefone handsets, CMC Distribution now joins domestic rivals such as ABTel company with QMobile handset and FPT with Fmobile who are competing for the medium- to low-end mobile market segments in Vietnam.

Source: VIR

Kindergarten assessments ‘unworkable’

VietNamNet Bridge – Kindergarten principals in big cities say the quality assessment standards drafted by Ministry of Education and Training last month are nice in theory, but unworkable.

Teachers feed children lunch at Muong Than Primary School in Than Uyen District in northern Lai Chau Province. (Photo: VNS)

The quality standards are expected to apply to both public and private kindergartens. They look at school organisational and management structures, teachers and staff, infrastructure, relationship between kindergartens, parents and the community, and assess the results of teaching activities.

 

The standards require that teachers listed as permanent staff be responsible for no more than four children three to 12 months old, no more than 20 children aged 13 to 24 months old and no more than 25 children 25 to 36 months old.

It also sets maximum class sizes of 25 for children aged 3 to 4 years old, 30 for 4 to 5 years old, and 35 for 5 to 6 year s old.

Chairman of the Ha Noi Educational Psychology Association Nguyen Tung Lam said these new rules on class sizes could lead to remarkable improvements in quality but the current situation made implementation very difficult.

He said that while kindergartens in urban areas suffered from overcrowding, there was still a severe shortage of teachers as well as limited infrastructure which could be traced back to the comparatively low investment in pre-schools over a long period.

Minh Quang Commune public kindergarten in Ba Vi District is an example of the problems faced.

The principal of the kindergarten Nguyen Thi Hieu said: "The number of children attending the school is 504. We have 22 classrooms, but there are only 26 teachers. Some classes have to share rooms."

She said the new regulations would see the school needing to recruit many more teachers and build more classrooms which was simply impossible in the near future.

When it comes to facilities, the new standards say that kindergartens must have a 60-square-metre gym and arts room. Outdoor playgrounds should be equipped with at least five types of toys and surrounded by greenery.

If this was the case, said Hieu, her school and other kindergartens in the district would not be able to comply.

An Thuy Ha, principal of private kindergarten Misha in Thanh Xuan District, said: "Unlike public kindergartens, private kindergartens often have to lease their premises and the total area is fixed. My school could meet the other new requirements but finding room for a large playground would be a real challenge for us."

Ha said she thought only a few kindergartens in Ha Noi, including international schools and those which received special investment from the municipal authorities, would be able to meet all of the criteria.

Lam said the new standards would act as a reference for schools and local authorities to improve the quality of kingergardents in the long run.

"To make this set of standards work, we need time and a concrete roadmap with more attention and investment from local authorities," he said.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News

Vietnamese young entrepreneurs can be examples for Harvard students to follow

VietNamNet Bridge – In the afternoon of the last day of 2010, December 31, Professor Regina Abrami from Harvard Business School was present at VietNamNet’s Vietnam Economic Forum, a roundtable talk where she shared her thoughts about MBA training and gave advices about how Vietnam can exist and develop next to China, fields in which she is very knowledgeable.

 Professor Regina Abrami

Her primary area of expertise is comparative political economy. Her current research is focused in three areas: (1) the politics of industrial strategy; (2) the impact of historical institutional differences on political economic development; and (3) doing business in emerging markets, focusing especially on China and Vietnam where she has lived and conducted research for many years.



She is now also a member of the Advisory Council of the VietNamNet’s Vietnam Economic Forum.



VietNamNet would like to introduce the first part of the roundtable talk.



Journalist Lan Huong: Thank you for joining us today to talk with VietNamNet’s audience in the last afternoon of the year. As far as I know, you have led a group of Harvard’s MBA students to Vietnam for an internship. I also know that MBA students always want to visit big companies in big countries. Why have you decided to lead your students to Vietnam this time?



Professor Regina Abrami: Thank you for the very interesting question which I would like to consider as an opportunity to introduce our program in detail. Our team includes a group of MBA students who have special interests in the link between the globalization process and the business situation in different countries in the world.



With the questions that concern them, I think that Vietnam would be the perfect destination for them to seek the answers to their questions.



As you may still remember, several years ago, there was a trade dispute between the US and Vietnam, relating to tra fish. This could be seen as a typical example showing the relationship between Vietnamese enterprises and the process of Vietnam more deeply integrating into the world’s economy. This also shows that when joining the global economy, every country will have to face challenges and risks.



Such cases will help students learn from entrepreneurs about the impacts and influences of the economic globalization on their business opportunities, and they also help seek the link between the knowledge they get at school and business practices.

And there is also a personal reason behind the visit to Vietnam: the country is very close to me personally. Therefore, I want my students to come and see with their eyes the country that I think holds a very important role in the world. I hope my students will also love the country as much as I love it.



Journalist Lan Huong: This is not the first time you are bringing your students from Harvard School of Business to Vietnam. What have your students learned from Vietnam? What are the things in Vietnam’s economy and Vietnam’s business environment that they think is most interesting here?



Professor Regina Abrami: Before arriving in Vietnam, many of my students thought that Vietnam is a small and underdeveloped country with a closed society. Therefore, when arriving in the country, they have been impressed when seeing that Vietnam is really open with a dynamic economy and bustling business.



The most interesting observation for me is that some students asked me if they should spend their internship at some Vietnamese companies, if it is easy to find jobs in Vietnam and what to do to live and get adapted with the conditions in Vietnam.



Some students have returned to Vietnam to live and work after they graduated.



My students all say that they have been impressed by the entrepreneurship of Vietnamese people, no matter they are working for state-owned enterprises, private run or Viet Kieu invested businesses. Another thing that has impressed the students is that the most successful Vietnamese entrepreneurs are very young, and many of them are aged between 30-35. These Vietnamese young and successful entrepreneurs have become examples for my students to follow. 



Journalist Lan Huong: What significance does the practical experience have for the students in the MBA program?



Professor Regina Abrami: The aim of the MBA program is to produce the people who want to and can succeed in doing business. When I bring my students to Vietnam and create most favorable conditions for them to talk with Vietnamese businessmen and foreign businessmen doing business in Vietnam, I can help them understand the difficulties and challenges in running businesses. This will be a priceless experience.



In the teaching curriculum, we also pay special attention to teach students theories about how to succeed with business. However, theories will only be valuable if they can be applied in reality. When talking to Vietnamese businessmen about arisen problems, students will have the chances to reconsider the theories we have taught them and find out if the theories are useful. If not, I myself want to know why.



Journalist Lan Huong: As far as I know, MBA is a very valuable degree which can serve as the guarantee for its holder to find the jobs with high income. Did you meet many MBA students in Vietnam and do you think they are capable to work in an international environment? And how about Vietnamese students, who graduate from schools in the US, will they be capable to fulfill their works well?



Professor Regina Abrami: You ask if the MBA degree can guarantee that students find jobs with good pay at big companies, and my answer is “no”.



The MBA program is like a competition of drawing up business plan, while the people who have the best plans may get investment capital from companies.



There is a saying in English "Failing to plan is planning to fail".



I did not have many chances to meet Vietnamese MBA students. I sometimes met them when they finished studying and went working at companies. However, as for the people I met, I really have an impression on them.



However, I met many Vietnamese students following MBA programs in the US, especially at Harvard Business School. I myself have two Vietnamese students following the MBA program at Harvard. It is really wonderful to have Vietnamese students, and they are really wonderful too.



Vietnam Economic Forum

Cloud computing – the technology of the future

VietNamNet Bridge – The terminology “cloud computing” has been mentioned by more and more Vietnamese enterprises recently. Experts believe that cloud computing would be the choice of enterprises and government agencies in the near future, because the model is especially suitable for Vietnamese enterprises.

 

At the recent workshop on fostering the potentials of Asia-Pacific held in Singapore in mid December, Orlando Ayala, a senior executive of Microsoft talked about the big benefits that cloud computing can bring to enterprises and users.

 

He stressed that the development of cloud computing in the last 15 years has brought good opportunities to many countries, helping restructure the national economies by removing the barriers for the business development, allowing to exchange information more quickly, fostering the technology renovation, minimizing expenses and helping save energy. Besides, cloud computing also allows governments to provide information services more effectively.

 

Cloud computing is the ideal solution because it allows to settle the problems and difficulties that enterprises are now facing, such as the lack of information technology capability. Especially, with cloud computing, enterprises do not have to spend much money on initial investments or on maintaintenance of cumbersome labour force.

 

According to experts, from 2011, at least 35 percent of medium enterprises in the US will use cloud computing solutions, and 40 percent of small and medium enterprises in the world will use the cloud computing-based applications. A Gartner’s survey on the rights and responsibilities of cloud computing users, released in October 2010, showed that to date, Microsoft has been considered one of the most suitable cloud computing service providers.

 

Currently, big countries, including the US, UK, Canada, Brazil and India are all using the services of the provider. A high ranking executive of Microsoft has revealed that more than 7000 enterprises are using its cloud computing solutions, including AP newswire, Dell, Ebay, Coca Cola and Siemens.

 

The users have released good feedbacks about the solutions they are using. Coca Cola, for example, said it has found the right solution to manage the labour force with more than 70,000 workers from 431 branches worldwide. Meanwhile, AP said that with the cloud computing solutions, the news can be transmitted more easily and is more accessible to readers.

 

In May 2010, Vietnamese FPT (Corporation of Financing and Promoting Technologies) and Microsoft reached an agreement on the cooperation to research the opportunities of cloud computing in Vietnam and to carry out commercial services on the trial basis. The agreement was reached during the working visit to Vietnam by the foreign group’s CEO Steve Ballmer.

 

A lot of Vietnamese enterprises have shown their interests and willingness in using cloud computing services. Le Viet Hung, Strategic Director of Techcombank said that cloud computing has become a “Fashionable model”. The model has been highly appreciated for its flexibility in treating data. The model proves to be effective for both big and small enterprises.

 

“With most enterprises having branches located in different, Vietnam will gain big benefits from cloud computing solutions,” Hung said

 

Source: VnMedia