Vietnam

Vietnam→Published 2011 → July

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PM: IT, an important tool for national development

VietNamNet Bridge – Information technology (IT) and communications were defined as Vietnam ’s leading tools to implement the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), form an information society and shorten the industrialisation and modernisation process.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung made this statement while receving General Secretary of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Hamadoun Toure, in Hanoi on July 19.

He said information technology was also an area of priority in a 10-year development strategy which aimed to turn Vietnam into a strong IT nation, he said, suggesting the ITU support Vietnam in arranging an orbit for the Vinasat-2 satellite and the programme to make Vietnam a strong IT nation, especially in broadband and network security, and encourage Vietnamese experts to work at the ITU.

He spoke highly of the role of the ITU in boosting global IT development and thanked the organisation and its General Secretary for support for Vietnam in IT development.

The ITU General Secretary expressed his impressions of Vietnam ’s strong IT development, especially in internet broadband and mobile phone services.

He affirmed support for Vietnam to become a strong IT nation and for the launch of the Vinasat-2 satellite in 2012, acknowledging the launch’s importance for economic development when Vinasat-1 satellite utilisation reached 90 per cent.

Vietnam , with its young and abundant human resources, was ideally placed to become a strong IT country, Hamadoun Toure said.

He said he wished to see closer cooperation with Vietnam to make the best use of opportunities to boost IT development.

He also expressed a wish that Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung will attend a global IT forum and exhibition to be hosted by the ITU in Geneva , Switzerland from October 24-27. The event was expected to attract 50 heads of state and 60,000 participants.

At a meeting with reporters on the same day, ITU General Secretary Hamadoun Toure highly valued Vietnam ’s IT and telecommunication achievements, saying that Vietnam was one of the ITU’s spotlight countries.

Vietnam had seen a rapid development in telecommunications with the provision of good telecom services to its people, he said, adding that the country now ranked eighth in the world in mobile phone density.

Source: VNA

Domestic software products remain unsalable on home market

VietNamNet Bridge – Most companies and agencies operating in specific fields such as finance and banking, taxation, oil and gas and telecommunication are using foreign software products.

It is estimated that a medium class bank in Vietnam spends about 10 million dollars on core banking software, satellite service software pieces and hardware infrastructure, which is higher than the total turnover a domestic software company can earn within a year, according to Saigon tiep thi.

Vietnam is considered by foreign firms as an “IT intensive market” with a scale of tens of thousands of billions of dong a year. However, the potential market is still not a delicious piece of cake for domestic solution providers.

Challenges in every aspect

Vietnam once had hundreds of software product developers in its booming period, in 2000. However, to date, it still has not had any company powerful enough to lead the market. A lot of companies have “given up the games”, others have shifted to work as the trade partners for foreign companies, or have to change their business strategies by targeting small and medium enterprises.

The few domestic salable software products include the accountancy and management software for small enterprises, agencies and hospitals. There are not many well known domestic software names, except Fast, Misa, Diginet, Lạc Việt, BKAV, FPT and Vietsoftware.

Vietnam has been lagged behind in technology. It is bad at financial capacity, while there is reasonable policy which can encourage investment. Even when domestic firms have good products, the products cannot exist because they need long term expenses, while the market is really severe when the technologies change regularly.

It is understandable why foreign companies, with powerful financial capability and experiences, can dominate the market of commercial products. However, it would be a surprise that domestic firms also fail to exploit the market of products that serve public agencies.

This is considered a fertile soil for domestic firms, because foreign software products cannot satisfy the specific requirements set by different localities or agencies. However, even in the market, where they have advantages, they cannot do anything better.

Dr Mai Liem Truc, former Deputy Minister of Post and Telematics, also said that it is really a risky investment to inject money in developing software, and that not all enterprises are capable to do that. Once joining the software market, enterprises need to see the new market tendencies and accept risks when investing in long term and in-depth programs.

Nguyen Minh Duc, a senior executive of BKAV, a Vietnamese network security firm, when talking about the company’s plan to sell Vietnamese anti-virus software abroad, said on Thoi bao Kinh te Vietnam that it is easier to sell abroad than selling in Vietnam.

“Vietnamese clients favor foreign products. Meanwhile, international clients do not pay attention about where the products come from. They just purchase the products which can satisfy their requirements,” he said.

State agencies could be a big piece of cake?

Nguyen Tu Quang, Director of BKAV, said that state agencies can approve the budget of billions of dong to buy software products, but they do not calculate the values in services, and consider software like electricity, water or Internet. The mechanism does not encourage software companies to make products for the sector.

Analysts have also said that they cannot see more favorable conditions in the market than 10 years ago, though there are more projects. The bigger market does not always mean many more opportunities.

Dr Tran Luong Son, General Director of Vietsoftware, says–if Vietnam does not change the viewpoint about investment and software application, the market of products for public agencies would not be the “home port” for domestic companies, even though it is very big with the value of tens of thousands of dong a year. Domestic companies still cannot see long term and stable potentials. It is very difficult to access projects, while it is very risky to make investment.

C. V

Vietnam ready for int’l robot contest August

VietNamNet Bridge – Members of the Lac Hong University team in Dong Nai Province along with their instructors are busy preparing for the international robocon contest in Thailand in late August.

The Lac Hong University team won the national robocon contest in May and is now getting ready to represent Vietnam at the ABU Asia-Pacific Robot Contest 2011 in Thailand by August.

All the team members are working to improve on their robot’s quality and dream of winning the international event.

According to team leader Nguyen Chien Thang, a senior at the Department of Electrical Engineering in Lac Hong University, the team is trying to upgrade the stability and speed of the robot and eliminate any flaws.

Thang and his teammates are presently in a confident mood. They have all worked very hard during their university years to achieve this confidence.

All members of the present ‘LH-B7’ team have been obsessed with the idea of building the robot since their high school days. While at university, they honed their skills and worked as a group to prepare for the competition.

As a united team, they spent many months creating, correcting and completing four robots for this year’s national contest. Victory was finally theirs as a result of all their tireless efforts.

For students to be better prepared for the upcoming contest, some instructors from Lac Hong University went to Thailand to check on all the facilities being provided to the team like accommodation, transport and other details.

The host team is expected to be a potential future champion but instructors have helped the LH-B7 team to carry out an in-depth analysis of their strengths and weaknesses, stated Lam Thanh Hien, vice president of the university.

This is the second year a team from Lac Hong University has been chosen for the international robot competition. Team LH-LED was chosen last year and won second position at the 9th robot contest in Egypt.

The ABU Asia-Pacific Robot Contest 2011 in Bangkok will be organized by Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union on Aug 28. 19 teams from 18 countries will participate in this year’s contest.

Thailand, Japan and in particular China are being considered as the toughest opponents to Vietnam.

Source: SGGP/TN

3G service providers eye recouping deposits amid capital shortfall

VietNamNet Bridge – Four mobile providers want to withdraw the remaining 50 per cent of their deposits for 3G services to invest in infrastructure.

Viettel, VinaPhone, MobiFone, and EVN Telecom-Hanoi Telecom Joint Venture are seeking approval from the Ministry of Information and Communications for the withdrawal. They complained that they are facing difficulties in mobilising capital to fuel their projects.

According to these providers, investment in 3G services have surpassed their commitments.

After an 18-month development period, the mobile providers have developed eight million 3G subscribers across the country, with network coverage reaching 93.68 per cent.

The firms have built 30,334 BTS stations for 3G services nationwide.

MobileFone said it has invested VND3 trillion ($145.13 million) in the development of 3G services. The funding has helped install 5,400 BTS stations.

Seeking approval for the deposit withdrawal, a MobileFone spokesperson said, “Amid increasing financial difficulties, the deposit is of great significance.”

A Viettel official explained the firm had to take bank loans to cover 80 per cent of the investment in its 3G service. It was also waiting for its deposit.

According to Trinh Minh Chau from EVN Telecom- Hanoi Telecom Joint Venture, the ministry should allow firms that have just completed 70-80 per cent of their commitments to withdraw 70-80% of their deposits.

Minister of Information and Communications Le Doan Hop urged the Department of Planning to speed up disbursement for 3G service projects.

Under contracts signed by the four mobile providers, in the first three years of their implementation, they have to invest a combined VND33.825 trillion ($1.63 billion) in 3G services, along with making deposits worth VND8.1 trillion ($391.87 million) in total. The deposits were sent to either the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) or Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Agribank).

Last December, Viettel, MobiFone and VinaPhone were allowed to recoup half of their deposits, equivalent to VND3.75 trillion ($181.42 million).

Source: Dan Tri

Indochina Telecom keeps ambiguous about plan to join market

VietNamNet Bridge – The delay in launching services of the eighth licensed mobile network in Vietnam – Indochina Telecom – has been blamed on the harsh competition in the market which is believed to have become saturated. To date, Indochina has not made any official announcement about the moment of officially joining the market.

The ceremony on signing a cooperation agreement on personnel training between the Information Technology Institute and Indochina Telecom took place on July 20. The ceremony caught the special attention from press agencies and the public, because people hoped they would hear something about the detailed plan of Indochina Telecom to launch the eighth mobile network in Vietnam.

However, representative from Indochina Telecom declined to make any statements, even though Indochina Telecom obtained the license two years ago, and the Ministry of Information and Communication has granted Indochina Telecom the right to use “golden” prefixes for subscribers’ numbers of the network – 0998 and 0999 – which are easy to remember and believed to bring luck.

Unlike other mobile network operators, which try to launch noisy advertisement campaigns before the day they launch services, over the last two years, Indochina Telecom has not made any announcements about its business plan, though sources said that Indochina Telecom has been making hectic preparations for joining the telecom market. It has been conducting negotiations with partners on purchasing equipments, developing infrastructure and training staff.

VnExpress has quoted its source as saying that with the intensive preparations, the moment of launching services is nearing.

Unlike the other seven operational telecom networks, including VinaPhone, MobiFone, Viettel, S-Fone, Vietnamobile, Beeline and EVN Telecom, Indochina Telecom will be a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO).

This means that Indochina Telecom will build up the network and provide mobile services to consumers, though it does not need to build up an infrastructure base of its own. Indochina Telecom can only cooperate with other telecom companies and share the same infrastructure to provide services.

The telecom company which has been assigned to share its infrastructure with Indochina Telecom is the “big guy” who is holding the biggest market share – Viettel.

A senior executive of Viettel said that sharing network infrastructure is the thing which has been done in many countries in the world, but there is no precedent for such an affair in Vietnam. Therefore, it takes much time to connect and test the network and to negotiate about the profit sharing between the involved parties.

“I think that the negotiations between Viettel and Indochina Telecom would only be wrapped up in two months,” the executive said.

He went on to say that MVNO, by the nature, means buy wholesale for retailing. Indochina Telecom would buy services from Viettel and then sell to customers. Therefore, in order to make the virtual network exist and profitable, Viettel needs to sell services to Indochina Telecom at low prices.

However, analysts have pointed out that selling services cheap would be the thing Viettel needs to consider thoroughly. Telecom networks now compete fiercely with each other on the market, while the service charges have been decreasing continuously, now nearly approaching to the cost prices, which have led to the sharp falls of profits.

The three biggest mobile network operators, namely VinaPhone, MobiFone and Viettel, which have been roaming services to hundreds of telecom networks in the world, have been treating each other as rivals on the domestic market. Every year, the telcos spend billions of dollars to expand the networks, while they can share the same infrastructure in order to save money.

An expert said Indochina Telecom will face a lot of challenges when running the virtual network. The only choice for the new comer on the market is to target niche markets, which “big guys” pay little attention. However, in fact, even the niche markets have also been eyed by the three big guys. A lot of sale promotion campaigns have been run by the three big guys recently who target poor people who have not used mobile phones, who hope to attract the last subscribers in the market.

Telcos call for help to develop 3G services

VietNamNet Bridge – To date, most of the telcos which have got 3G licenses, have fulfilled their commitments. However, they say they still face many troubles.

The report released by the Telecommunication Agency of the Ministry of Information and Communication at the conference reviewing 3G technology application held in Hanoi on July 20, showed that Vietnam has had eight million 3G subscribers so far, while the turnover from the voice services and data transmission via 3G networks had reached 3600 billion dong by the end of 2010.

Mobile network operators all surpass committed targets

To date, all mobile network operators who have got licenses for 3G, have fulfill their plan to build up the network infrastructure and 3G coverage area as committed. To date, 30,334 base stations (Node B) have been installed.

Hoang Trung Hai, Deputy Director of VinaPhone, said that the total number of Node B the company plans to install is 8745, while it has installed 7500, and the other ones would be installed by September.

MobiFone has reportedly built up 5400 base transceiver stations (BTS), while it has committed to build 7600 3G stations in the first three years of launching 3G services. It is expected that MobiFone would have 8500 BTS by December, or 900 BTS more than planned.

Viettel had got nearly 8000 stations by the day it launched the services, while it hopes to have 3000 more stations more by the end of the year, far exceeding the committed figure.

The joint name of EVN Telecom and Vietnamobile has committed to have 7500 stations by the end of 2012, while EVN Telecom alone had had 6300 by the end of the third quarter of 2011.

The turnover from 3G services in the first period of development has satisfied service providers. MobiFone’s Deputy Director, Nguyen Dang Nguyen said the revenue from data services has increased significantly since the beginning of 2010, which has encouraged MobiFone to push up 3G services.

The representative from Viettel said that it plans to replace 2G with 3G, while 3G would gradually replace voice and SMS. Therefore, Viettel has decided to make heavy investments in 3G and reduce the investments in 2G.

Difficulties exist

Telecommunication companies complain that the biggest challenge for them now is the installation of more stations.

The representative from EVN Telecom said that local people have been trying to hinder the installation of new stations, especially in the districts of Thanh Xuan, Hoang Mai, Tu Liem in Hanoi and in Bac Ninh province.

VinaPhone has also complained that it is very difficult to lease premises to expand the wave coverage, especially in advantageous positions in big urban areas such as Hanoi and HCM City.

According to MobiFone, though 3G equipment have small sizes, local people still require higher land leasing fees and ask to reduce the number of masts. Nguyen has emphasized that enterprises would face great difficulties unless they can get support from relevant ministries, and that the plan to develop 3G would get stuck because of the problems.

“Some households get jealous with other households who can earn money from leasing land for installing stations and they try to hinder the installation. In fact, the stations do not influence human heath,” the representative from EVN Telecom said.

Besides, telcos have also complained that they need capital to develop 3G network infrastructure, having requested to take back the deposit money they had to pay as a commitment to provide 3G services.

Do Vu Anh, Head of the Telecom Division of the Vietnam Post and Telecommunication Group VNPT, said that in order to provide high quality 3G services, VNPT will need many stations. Now VNPT has 20,000 2G stations, while the number of 3G stations should be 50 percent higher, which will need a huge sum of money for the investment.

TBKTVN

Software parks lack strategies, but future is bright

VietNamNet Bridge – Software parks were the key to developing the information technology and communication sector but they lacked united management and detailed strategies, an IT forum heard recently.

To Thi Thu Huong, an official from the Ministry of Information and Communic-ations’ Department of Information and Technology, told the forum in HCM City earlier this month that Viet Nam now had seven IT parks and software service centres.

She said the parks had attracted 700 enterprises employing about 30,000 workers and generated 40 per cent of the country’s total revenue.

However, Huong said, the parks lacked united management and detailed strategies to reach their potential.

To help resolve the problem, Huong said a draft plan was in the pipeline to establish centralised IT zones in a move to help software parks develop sustainably, to reach an expected turnover to US$500-700 million by 2015.

Vietnamese software parks mainly supplied IT products and services for domestic use, processed software for overseas markets and trained human resources.

With good technology infrastructure and convenient business environment, software parks had managed to attract investment and create networks among companies operating in IT zones.

Quang Trung Software City director Lam Nguyen Hai Long said that besides the attraction of foreign investment, software parks would also help build the image of the nation.

The development of software parks would contribute to the nation’s socio-economic growth while ensuring land was used efficiently, Long said.

Long said his company would duplicate the Quang Trung Software City model in provinces and cities selected to develop centralised IT zones.

Source: VNS

Google+ may top 10 million users: report

Google+, the social networking service Google unveiled only two weeks ago, is estimated to surpass 10 million users on Tuesday, possibly becoming the fastest growing product in the history of the Internet.

According to Ancestry.com founder Paul Allen (not the co- founder of Microsoft), after passing 10 million users, Google+ ” could reach 20 million users by this coming weekend if they keep the Invite Button available.”

Allen looks for last names on Google+ and compares them with U. S. Census Bureau data on the popularity of surnames to statistically project the number of Google+ users.

“Since I have been tracking this same cohort of surnames from my first day, I am able to accurately measure growth over time,” he said in a blog post on Google+ website.

Google so far has not released any details about the Google+ users or the number of users. Speaking at a press event last Thursday in Sun Valley in the U.S. state of Idaho, former Google CEO and current Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said there are ” millions” of users.

Industry watchers think the estimate may not be completely accurate, but Allen should be capturing the growth trajectory of Google+, which shows that a social network could undergo an exponential growth in its early days.

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet

Danang seen becoming first e-city in Vietnam

VietNamNet Bridge – Danang is striving to become the nation’s first e-city by 2020, said Pham Kim Son, director of the Danang Department of Information and Communications.

An e-city is where information and communication technology (ICT) is applied in the city’s operations such as providing public and medical services, and controlling transport.

For Danang to realize its dream it has chosen ICT as a base and penetration measure.

The city has been involved in building a connecting base such as an establishment of e-administration consistent with requirements of modern management, using ICT measures to manage resources, supervising and handling environmental pollution smartly, towards also becoming an environmentally-friendly city by 2020.

Danang is the major city in central Vietnam’s key economic region. The city has gained outstanding socio-economic achievements, in particular, in upgrading and developing urban infrastructure in the last 15 years.

In 2008-2010, Danang was the top performing province in the country’s Provincial Competitiveness Index.

However, Danang has faced many challenges in the process of urbanization. To overcome the challenges, the city has researched and learned from some global advanced models, including a model of developing a sustainable ecological city, called Eco2Cities proposed by the World Bank.

Source: SGT

Digital data market set to boom in VN

VietNamNet Bridge – The digital data market is tipped to develop exponentially in Viet Nam amid demand from e-government, education, health care and business, representatives of foreign companies have said.

A number of these companies entered Viet Nam in mid-2000 and opened digital data centres in Viet Nam, providing business process outsourcing services (BPO) primarily to foreign clientele.

Digital data covers a wide range of areas, including the entering of data, outsourcing business processes, managing and storing data, and providing content services and customer care, among others.

Two German firms, Digi-Texx and GHP, have been in Viet Nam for the last decade, providing digital data services to Vietnamese and German customers.

GHP specialises in digitalising audio-visual data for storage and transmission, and research data and customers’ bills.

Digi-Texx enters data and designs reports for German clients, and digitally stores data for newspaper offices and libraries.

In recent years, Digi-Texx has expanded operation in Viet Nam.

Its HR Manager, Vu Thanh Nam Duc, said that despite initial difficulties, the company’s operations have enjoyed more favourable conditions thanks to rising market demand, with revenue in this year’s first-half up 160 per cent over last year’s.

Their customers are mainly multinational firms and a number of State-owned companies.

Local pioneers in digital data market are Lac Viet, FPT, CMC and Tinh Van, all of whom are carrying out major projects based on learning resources, investigative materials, documents, and online trading data.

Since 2000, Lac Viet Informatics Joint-Stock Company has handled library management procedures for learning resource centres in the central cities of Hue and Da Nang, and has so far expanded the service to libraries in southern provinces of Dong Nai and Binh Duong.

In anticipation of market potential, FPT, a Vietnamese information technology group, opened a centre for business process outsourcing in central Da Nang City several years ago.

The group has recently signed an agreement with Ha Noi National University to build an open library system called OpenBook Viet Nam that is expected to provide users with 200,000 free material sources.

The system is part of FPT’s long-term programme to digitise learning resources and teaching and research materials at universities that can be uploaded onto the internet and mobile devices.

Prof. Mai Trong Nhuan, director of Ha Noi National University, said that OpenBook would help create a learning environment where many people can access knowledge more easily.

IDC Viet Nam estimates that revenues from business-process outsourcing services from Viet Nam’s State sector last year reached US$23.6 million, a modest figure which indicates the market promises big opportunities to many suppliers.

The Government Office signed a memorandum of understanding in 2009 with South Korea’s Ministry of Public Administration and Security on a project on the Information Centre for Government Digital Data.

US-headquartered Laserfiche, a global group in digital data solutions and document management, as well as digital data technology firms, such as Kodak, ABBYY and InfoConnect, and big data management and software suppliers like IBM, Oracle, and Microsoft are all present in Viet Nam.

The General Department of Taxation (GDT) said the department would hire a company to gather information on payment of personal income tax.

GDT statistics showed that nearly 400,000 forms to declare personal income tax were sent to the department in 2009, or 20 per cent of the total number of forms.

This year they are expected to receive an estimated 10 million forms on declarations of 2010 personal income tax, according to the GDT.

A GDT representative said hiring a company to process tax-related data would help ease pressure on the recruitment of more employees, and cut costs on training, administration and equipment.