Monthly Archives: March 2012

Low cost tablet war to break out

When BiPad 9, a low cost tablet, hit the market with the attractive sale price of 1.98 million dong, Pi Vietnam also kicked off a price reduction program, so as to “bring the products closer” to popular clients. Businessmen believe that this would trigger a new war among low cost tablet manufacturers.

The “war” benefits consumers

By launching the program on selling 10,000 BiPad 9s at 1.98 million dong (the normal price is 2.9 million dong), the new product distributed by Tri Nam Company could do one thing that could not be done by many other brands – catching the special attention from consumers and warming up the high technology product market, which was then cold.

Nguyen Anh Hoa, Technique Director of Tri Nam Company, said that the program on selling 10,000 BiPads at 1.98 million dong per product, had finished sooner than initially planned thanks to a high number of buyers.

“We are completing the first delivery stage of the program with 2500 tablets to be delivered,” Hoa said.

While BiPad 9 hit the market in a noisy sale promotion program, Pi Vietnam, a company which appeared in Vietnam earlier than BiPad, also launched a price discount program.

Under the program, Pi C003s, equipped with 7 inch touch screen capacitive multitouch, 3G connectivity, Wi-Fi, Samsung Chip 1GHz, ARM Cortex A8, thin, 351 gram in weight, are sold at 3.2 million dong and 3.5 million dong for 4GB and 8GB versions, respectively, instead of 6 million and 6.6 million dong.

Director of Pi Vietnam Pham Hong Tuyen said on Buu dien newspaper that in the time to come, her company would pay the special attention to the low cost tablet market segment, which target popular customers.

Hi-tech experts have commented that the “declaration of the war” made by BiPad when launching BiPad 9 would replied by other manufacturers. It is understandable why Pi Vietnam and other companies have to quickly run sale promotion programs.

The experts have predicted that the market would be even more bustling from March 2012, when more and more companies plan to reduce prices to make the products more affordable to consumers.

FPT Tablet II would be unsalable?

Hoa has revealed that the good sale of BiPad 9 has prompted the company to launch more new products in the time to come. BiPad 3G, for example, is scheduled to hit the market in April 2012, which would be priced at over 4 million dong.

Low cost tablet products available on the market now can be classified into two groups. Some Vietnamese enterprises are distributing Chinese brand tablets at 3 million dong or less (Teclast, Onda, Window or Icoo, Ainol), but the business scale remains modest. Meanwhile, BiPad’s or Pi Vietnam’s products have been distributed through the large networks with good posts-sale services.

Analysts have predicted that the competition in the market segment of the products valued at less than 4 million dong would be very stiff from April.

Nguyen Ha, a client who is interested in low cost tablets, believes that in such circumstances, FPT Tablet II of FPT would be unsalable at the prices quoted at The gioi di dong distribution chain. On March 27, the quoted price of the product at the chain was 4.9 million dong.

FPT Tablet II also has 7 inch screen, but the product’s processing speed is just 800 Mhz and RAM 512 MB, which means that its configuration is worse than Chinese products, or Vietnamese BiPad 9 and Pi Vietnam C003.

Source: Buu Dien

Telcoms merger not a threat to others

The merger of VinaPhone and MobiFone, if it occurs, is believed to create a new power which could be a threat to any rivals, especially Viettel, a member of the trio VinaPhone – MobiFone – Viettel.

Though the Ministry of Information and Communication has denied the information about the merger of the two biggest mobile networks VinaPhone and MobiFone, the plan is considered by experts as the only solution which would take place, sooner or later.

Viettel seems to be the telco which is most interested in the fates of VinaPhone and MobiFone. If the two powerful networks merge into each other, this would create a new legal entity which is even more powerful than they are now.

However, Giao duc Vietnam quoted an executive of Viettel as saying “that there is no need to worry too much about the merger.”

Statistics show that 90 percent of the telecom market is being controlled by the trio of MobiFone, VinaPhone and Viettel. The merger of VinaPhone and MobiFone would create a network with larger market share and bigger network than Viettel. By that time, the competition on the market would be the one between the two main rivals – Viettel and Vina&Mobi.

However, the executive said that the telecom market in Vietnam has become saturated with the development of new subscribers slowing down. All the three big mobile networks now do not focus on developing new subscribers, while their priority task is to retain the existing clients.

He went on to say that in fact, the merger of VinaPhone and MobiFone was anticipated by Viettel when the military telecom group considered the possible solutions for the two networks. Therefore, Viettel has been well preparing for the scenario.

“You should look into the real profit instead of the turnover when assessing the business performance of an enterprise. Meanwhile, Viettel has got ahead of VinaPhone and MobiFone with its strategy to make outward investment.

Vu Dinh Anh, an economist, said that he does not oppose the merger of VinaPhone and MobiFone. In fact, though there are three big mobile networks, the telecom market is being controlled by two biggest rivals – the Vietnam Post and Telecommunication Group (VNPT) which now owns VinaPhone and MobiFone, and the military telecom Viettel. If VinaPhone and MobiFone merge into each other, this would be just a move to legalize the thing which has existed for a long time on the market.

Amid the worry that if the two networks merge into each other, Vietnam would not have a healthy competitive market, Anh said that he does not think that the competition will occur when there are many players.

“I heard that a “tripodal position” has been existing on the market, and the merger would break the position. However, in fact, the tripodal position has never existed. There have been only two main rivals – VNPT and Viettel,” Anh said.

The above said executive of Veittel also said that it would not be a surprise if the State agrees to the merger of the two networks. “This would be a move of restructuring state owned enterprises in accordance with the government’s Decree 25,” he said. “In fact, VNPT would still have the same turnover, same networks and same number of clients.”

Meanwhile, Dr Nguyen Minh Phong has his own reason to advocate the decision to merge the two networks. He said that the merger would create a big power which helps improve the competitiveness of Vietnam in the rivalry with foreign telecom powers.

Besides, Phong said that the merger would also bring economical benefits. Since the two networks can use the same infrastructure items, they would be able to save money for necessary investments.

Small merchants get tired of online markets

nline markets, which were once the favorite destinations for amateur merchants, have become less bustling as many merchants have left the virtual markets.

Virtual booths gobble up too much money

The common thing of the domestic online markets such as Chodientu, 5giay, Muare or Vatgia, is that there is a wide range of products and service available.

For example, if someone needs the products and services for infants, he would find on the websites diversified products and services, from the baby bath service to different products for children, or even the education programs, from popular and low cost ones to high grade ones.

Hoa Le, a merchant on 5giay market, said that it is very easy and free of charge to register a booth on the websites. However, it is very costly to maintain operation on the networks.

The costs to maintain the operation that merchants have to pay include the expenses on maintaining topics and booths on the website, posting their products and introducing the products to consumers.

Le said that it takes her 10 million dong a month to maintain the virtual booths on five websites. The increasing fees for “online retail premises” have made many merchants shrink from difficulties and rethink their e-commerce plan.

Le Binh, a merchant who is running a glass shop on Muare, complained: “As there are too many goods owners, your sales topics would be going down to the next pages of the websites.” Meanwhile, consumers do not have the habit of looking for products and services on the next pages, and they only consider the items on the home or first pages.

Therefore, Binh said, in order to make the products salable, one would have to spend additional money so as to see his topics on the first pages.

With 5giay market, every SMS sent to push the topics to the wanted positions costs 1000 dong, while the cost is 200 dong per push at Muare. However, with Muare, the number of pushes is limited.

Hoang Minh, who is a merchant on Muare, specializing in trading branded goods, said that since the administration board applied new fee policy, his online marketing costs have increased sharply.

“I have to spend 200,000 a day on the expenses, or 6 million dong a month. These do not include the shooting fees or Internet fees,” he said.

On other online markets, the fees merchants have to pay are calculated on the volume of goods posted on the websites. Besides, merchants also have to pay fees to be labeled as “prestigious booths.” This may cost 2-10 million dong a month.

Thu Thanh, an office worker, who is also an amateur online merchant, said that the sky high fees make amateur business unprofitable. Therefore, Thanh has decided to cut down expenses on ads and focus on retailing to earn modest money.

Online merchants not protected

While merchants still have to pay fees to be able to maintain their booths, they are not protected by the law in case of disputes.

Quynh Trang, a merchant, said that she sells high end products and she can show documents proving the origin of the products. She also pays high to be able to use VIP booth. Meanwhile, other shops, which sell counterfeit low quality products, are using the images of Trang’s goods to advertise for their products.

Tran said she complained about this to the board of administration. However, she did not get any reply except an oral message that the involved parties must negotiate to settle their problems themselves, while the board of administration will not intervene the cases.

Android 4.0 attractive, but it’s not easy to gulp

Android 4.0 has the code name “Ice Cream Sandwich.” Google once announced that the official version of the product would appear in early 2012. However, to date, except some product lines which have the right to install the official version, most of the Android 4.0 products available on the market are just the alpha and beta versions.

A source from Sony Ericsson Vietnam has affirmed that the official version of Android 4.0 would hit the market by early April 2012. In general, the official version would have many new functions, but there would be no big changes in comparison with the beta version.

The operation system for a mass

The previous versions of the Android operation system showed differences on different product lines. The previous versions of Android, from the 2.3 GingerBread version and earlier, were mostly used for mobile phones. Meanwhile, Android 3.0 Honeycomb is the operation system only used for the group of tablets running on Android operation system made from 2011 onwards.

However, according to Google, Android 4.0 would be the operation system used on both mobile phones and tablets. In order to run Android 4.0, according to Engineer Nguyen Thanh Binh from Halo Company in district 1 of HCM City, in theory, the processors with the minimum speed of 1GHz, 1GB RAM could be powerful enough to run the operation system. However, Binh said, in many cases, it takes a lot of time and effort to install the operation system into the phones.

“They still can run, but troubles occur sometimes,“ Binh said.

Samsung Galaxi Nexux is the first mobile phone in the world that the manufacturer forces to run on Android 4.0. The Motorola RAZR manufactured after January 2012 would be installed with Android 4.0 directly. Meanwhile, the previous versions of products would run on 2.3.5 GingerBread.

Sony Ericsson Vietnam has aid that in early April 2012, when the official Android 4.0 comes out, it would install the operation system to the compatible products, mostly the products belonging to Xperia group.

HTC has also announced that it will support the installation of Android 4.0 to the product lines that can satisfy the requirements on configuration. Optimus 2X, Optimus 3D and Optimus Black of LG would also be upgraded into 4.0.

Faster, more sensitive, but…

A lot of clients using Samsung Galaxy S2 in Vietnam have upgraded the operation system GingerBread into 4.0. Do Tuan Anh, Director of Appota Company, has affirmed that the operation system of Samsung Galaxy S2 and Kindle Fire to the 4.0 version.

“With the same configuration, but if running on the old operation system, users would feel uncomfortable, because a lot of apps run very slowly. Meanwhile, with the new operation system, the apps have become more attractive,” Tuan Anh said.

Bui Anh Kiet, a 12th grader of AIS School in HCM City, also said that after he successfully upgraded the operation system of Motorola Xoom – Honeycomb – to the 4.0 version, the tablet has become more friendly.

“The interface has become more friendly and battery saving to users, at least by 30 percent,” Kiet said.

Quynh Anh in district 1 of HCM City said: “In my opinion, the capacity of the Android 4.0 web browser is faster than other versions.”

However, despite a lot of advantages in comparison with the previous versions, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich still has a big shortcoming: it needs a certain configuration power. This means that the people using the mobile devices with less powerful configuration would not be able to enjoy the wonderful features of the operation system.

Source: SGTT

The New iPads cheaper than expected in Hanoi

The sale prices of the third generation iPad products in Hanoi are 2.3-2.5 million dong lower than the initial estimates.

Just seven hours after iPads hit the market in Singapore, the first new iPads appeared in Vietnam which were imported through unofficial channels (the products were either carried to Vietnam by travelers, or imported from different sources, not from the genuine manufacturers).

The first shop which had the new iPads for sale was CellphoneS at No. 117 Thai Ha Street in Hanoi, now selling at 19.3 million dong for 16GB product with 3G, 21.3 million dong for 32GB and 23.5 million dong for 64GB.

The sale prices of iPads quoted by the private shops in Hanoi do not show big differences. Techland Shop on Hang Khay Street, for example, quotes the price of 18.9 million dong for 16GB, 21 million dong for 32GB and 23.1 million dong for 64GB product.

According to So hoa (digitalization) newspaper, the prices of the new iPad are “very reasonable” if noting that the first iPad 2 was priced at 30 million dong when it first appeared on the Vietnamese market.

However, the current prices in Vietnam are still much higher than the original prices. In Singapore, Apple Store now sells 16GB iPad with 4G at 13.7 million dong, including tax. In 2011, an iPad 2 was sold at 14.3 million dong, when the price got stabilized.

Buu dien newspaper has also reported that the sale prices of iPad 3 of between 18.8 and 23 million dong for 4G models are “acceptable” and “not shocking.”

In HCM City, MuabaniPhone.vn shop stated that it owned the first new 16GB wi-fi iPad in Vietnam on March 13. The owner of the shop said that the product was sourced from the US which he bought from a foreigner. The shop owner said on Buu dien on March 17 that the shop was selling wi-fi products at 13.68 million dong, 15.68 million dong and 17.68 million dong for 16GB, 32GB and 64GB, respectively. Meanwhile, it has not announced the expected sale prices for 4G models.

Buu dien has also quoted high technology experts as saying that the above prices are not overly high for a product which is catching the special attention from the technology community like iPad.

Despite the launching of the next generation iPads on the market, iPad 2 prices remain unchanged, though analysts predicted before that iPad 2 prices would plummet once iPad 3 appear.

However, the well-known private shops such as DigiWorld Hanoi, PhoneGee, Nhat Cuong, TechLand and iShop on March 16 all still quoted the unchanged prices at 12.99 million dong for iPad 2 1GB 3G, and 14.89-15.2 million dong for 32GB 3G products.

The shop which is believed to offer the lowest sale prices now is MuabaniPhone.vn, where iPad 2 16GB 3G is selling at 11.99 million dong, iPad 2 32GB 3G at 13.99 million dong and iPad 2 64GB at 15.9 million dong.

However, analysts believe that if the new iPad are imported in big quantity to Vietnam, the prices of iPad 2 will decrease in two or three weeks.

However, other local newspapers have reported a different situation. Ngoi Sao online, for example, late last week reported that the iPad 2 prices have dropped sharply to 9 million dong, or 500,000 dong lower than the price quoted prior to March 8.

The newspaper quoted high technology product distributors as saying that the demand for iPad 2 is not big in Vietnam. Those, who wanted iPad 2, bought the products already, while those who want to buy now, would rather to wait some more days to get better prices.

Vietnamese people enriching Facebook

What has helped the giant social network Facebook, which has just been operational for eight years, collect a huge sum of 30 billion dollars at the initial public offering (IPO)?

The answer is that the personal information of millions of people accessing to the network everyday has been enriching the founder of Facebook – Mark Zuckerberg.

While European law makers are trying to deal with the giants Facebook and Google–by releasing a set of rules on personal information protection in the Internet environment, Vietnamese people keep spontaneously providing personal information when joining the networks.

The rapid development of the information technology has helped turn the decade-dream of the most superb intelligence agencies, such as CIA, KGB, MI6 hay Mossad, into reality, when the owners of the leading information technology groups in the world have the personal information of billions of people around the world.

It is estimated that Facebook alone has tens of thousands of servers which contain a huge volume of data collected from 500 million people–sharing their information on Facebook every day, from 800 million visitors every month, billions of images and tens of billions of entries.

The important things that helped Facebook earn the huge profit in the IPO, were the 100 millions of billions of bytes of images and videos stored in the servers

Europe proves to be the continent which has realized that personal information has become the thing that enriches the US social network owners. China, the country with the highest population in the world, has also quickly applied the policies to strictly control some websites, including Google. Especially, it once prohibited the access to Facebook.

In Vietnam, the millions of people using Internet and accessing social networks every day do not read the terms carefully. They have not realized that Google, Yahoo or Facebook have their personal information about the age, sex, emails, files and images, political viewpoints, private relationships.

A lot of people believe that they can erase the personal information easily. However, in fact, the data will survive permanently in the servers of the social networks.

What will the information be used for? The simplest answer is that the information would be used for surveying the market after considering the taste of consumers. Besides, the information could also be used for many other purposes that many people still cannot think of.

It seems that Vietnamese people are ready to provide personal information everywhere. In many cases, they would provide personal information just to get a shampoo product.

Nearly all the Vietnamese people, especially urbanites and office workers, have become the victims of the information violations. The spam emails that invite people to take insurance policies or buy consumer products appear in their email accounts or mobile phones everyday.

Vietnamese enterprises do not think that they need to keep customers’ information confidential, because they have never faced the lawsuits, under which people sued them for damages for personal information disclosure.

If someone deposits money at a bank, or he opens a new account for securities transactions, his personal information and email addresses would be provided to other businesses. The man would receive a lot of calls later which persuade them to buy goods from the businesses.

Experts have called on to carry out serious surveys on social networks. Why doesn’t Vietnam think of asking the giants to share the huge profits they can get from the personal information of millions of Vietnamese people using Google or Facebook?

Source: Dai Doan Ket

Facebook’s, Google’s agents suspected of evading tax in Vietnam

The HCM City Taxation Department has found some signs of Vietnamese companies lending a hand to international social networks, such as Google, Facebook and YouTube, to evade tax or to make wrong declarations about the tax sums to pay.

Le Thi Thu Huong, Deputy Head of the HCM City Taxation Department has announced that the department is checking data to find out the tax evaders, impose punishment and collect tax arrears.

Huong said that the taxation body is trying to find out how many enterprises in the city which are working as the agents for social networks. The decision to take the large scale inspection in the field has been made, after the taxation body discovered some enterprises making wrong tax declarations and lending a hand to others to evade tax.

Also according to Huong, many enterprises working as the agents for social networks such as Facebook, Google and YouTube have been making tax declarations and paying tax. However, it is still unclear if they are honest while declaring tax, or deliberately lower the tax sums they have to pay.

The HCM City Taxation Department has recently discovered some enterprises which act as the agents for social networks, but have not registered business, or played tricks to evade tax. They also do not pay contractor withholding tax for the advertisement sales of social networks.

A lot of businesses register their business in many business fields, including online ads, but they do not mention the revenue from the business field when declaring tax.

A leader of the taxation body has admitted that it will take time to check the list of the enterprises acting as the agents for social networks, but he has affirmed that the task must be fulfilled.

Among the social networks, only Yahoo has set up a representative company, registered its business and declared tax in Vietnam.

Meanwhile, in response, Google’s ad partner in Vietnam – CleverAds – believes that Vietnam and Ireland, the host country of Google, have a double taxation avoidance agreement, therefore, Google does not have to pay contractor withholding tax in Vietnam.

Nguyen Khanh Trinh, Director of CleverAds has affirmed on VnExpress that the enterprise has always been obeying all the tax duties since its establishment in 2008.

He said that for the ads on Google, CleverAds does not have to pay the contractor withholding tax in Vietnam as stipulated in the double taxation avoidance agreement signed between Vietnam and Ireland.

The same treatment is being applied to the Vietnamese enterprises which do not have offices in Ireland, but still do business in Ireland. They do not have to pay contractor tax.

At present, the regulations about tax duties, applied to foreign institutions and individuals who do business in Vietnam or have income in Vietnam, can be found in the Circular No. 134 by the Ministry of Finance. The circular stipulates that the foreign institutions and individuals who provide services to Vietnamese institutions and individuals (the services are carried out in foreign countries), including advertisement, marketing, trade promotion and investment, are not the subject of the Circular No. 134.

Trinh, when citing the legal document, has affirmed that not only Google, Facebook, but the other e-commerce websites which have income sources from Vietnam will not have to pay tax, because they are not covered by the circular.

Taj Meadows, Asia Pacific Foreign Relation Director of Google, has affirmed on VnExpress that Google always gives prominence to obeying local laws, including the tax regulations.

Huong from the HCM City Taxation Department has said the department would reconsider the case. If Google pays tax in Ireland, where it sets the headquarters, it will not have to pay tax in Vietnam. If it has not paid tax yet, it will have to bear the contractor withholding tax.

Da Nang inaugurates internet station

The Viet Nam Internet Network Information Centre (VNNIC) has announced the inauguration of the Internet Network Centre Station in Da Nang City.

Minister of Information and Communication Nguyen Bac Son said that the completed project would certainly bring many benefits to the development and improvement of internet service quality in the central region or the whole country.

The station, located in the Da Nang Industrial Zone, is a project under the VNNIC master plan for infrastructure development in the 2011-15 period.

VN-USA online portal set to begin operations

The Viet Nam Association for Information Processing (VAIP) has announced that the Viet Nam – US enterprise portal was expected to begin operating in June to promote investment and trade in products and services of both countries.

The enterprise portal will publicise information about Viet Nam – US enterprises such as logos, profiles, product portfolios, solutions and services. VAIP has called on ICT enterprises in Viet Nam and the US to enrol in the portal and to assist with finding partners to provide software systems for its operation.

HDBank, Microsoft Viet Nam sign agreement

Microsoft Viet Nam and HDBank have entered into an Enterprise Agreement (EA) which strengthens the relationship between the two companies.

Under the agreement, HDBank will implement Microsoft products and technical solutions into its operation with the aims of improving operational efficiency, saving costs, strengthening information security as well as providing premium banking services to customers. HDBank will upgrade to the latest versions of Microsoft software in the next three years in the aim of helping its IT systems meet international standards.

FPT earns $176 million in January, February

FPT Corporation announced last Wednesday that it earned approximately VND3.6 trillion (US$176 million) in revenue for the first two months of 2012, a 15 per cent increase compared with the same period last year and accounting for 102 per cent of the target.

Pre-tax profit reached more than VND354 billion ($17 million), growing 20 per cent when compared with the same period in 2011 and exceeding the target by 2 per cent.

FPT started selling home electronic appliances in February with the Electronic Product Trading Centre (PCE) of FPT Trading Group importing the first batch of home appliances to start this new venture.

Vinaphone opens SMS Online service

Vinaphone has launched an online texting service using Google SMS.

SMS Online is a service that allows Vinaphone subscribers to send text messages to other mobile subscribers, including VinaPhone clients or other network, domestic or international services, from http://smsonline.vinaphone.com.vn.

Vinaphone subscribers can also receive text messages on their mobile phones or their internet-connected computers via the service.

Vinasa to set up alliance with FPT, Viettel

The Viet Nam Software and IT Services Association (Vinasa) has announced plans to set up a business alliance between FPT Software and Viettel Software in 2012.

The alliance will operate under the “clustering” model which connects member enterprises and allows for closer association. Vinasa suggested that big enterprises should share their work with smaller enterprises once they obtain large contracts.

Vietnamese IT firms seeking the way to export mobile apps

VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnamese information technology (IT) firms have been trying to export mobile applications following the good news about the smart phone consumption increase around the globe.

A report released by Canalys earlier this month showed that the number of purchased smart phones has increased by 63 percent in the last year. Meanwhile, according to Gartner, also a survey market firm, there were 17.7 billion downloads of mobile apps from international app stores, bringing the total turnover of 15 billion dollars to suppliers. The figures are expected to increase to 185 billion downloads and 58 billion dollars by 2014.

Therefore, Vietnamese firms have every reason to believe that they would be able to prosper with mobile app exports.

Great potentials

Le Duc Bao, Director of AntTek, specializing in making apps for mobile phones, said the firm began making apps for export since April 2011, while enjoying the steady monthly growth rate of 30 percent in turnover. Its main markets are North America and Europe which consume 80 percent of the firm’s export value. The other 20 percent comes from South Korea and Japan.

Blacklist, the application allowing to block spam messages and calls, alone has been sold to 15,000 clients. Meanwhile, AntTek has more than five apps with the total number of buyers reaching 30,000, according to Bao.

Bui Viet Thanh Phong, Head of the Technology Division of KMS Technology, said that KMS has got a lot of orders on mobile app design, mostly in the fields of education, management and amusement, 70 percent of which came from new clients.

Dao Quoc Tuan, Director of Mobisoft.com.vn, said that his firm specializes in doing the outsourcing of mobile apps in business management, including ERP (enterprise resource planning) or CRM (customer relationship management).

“The EU is our main market. Orders also come from other markets including North Europe, but the number of orders remains modest,” Tuan said, adding that since mid 2011, the demand for outsourcing mobile apps has increased by 50 percent in comparison with the same period of the previous year.

However, Tuan said the value of the orders does not increase, while the turnover may decrease by 30 percent in comparison with the previous years, due to the global economic difficulties.

How to approach foreign markets?

Bao of AntTek said that the mobile apps of his firm have been exported mainly through international apps such as Google, Amazon, or through the cooperation with the telecom networks in the import markets. For example, AntTek has cooperated with Orange France Telecom to introduce its products to the French market.

The orders the firm gets are usually the ones to protect the privacy of users, for example Ultimate App Guard or Ultimate Secret Box which allow to secure important information, such as bank accounts or insurance accounts saved in mobile phones.

He said that before marketing products, AntTek would ask the experts with deep knowledge about the markets to help introduce the firm’s products on some websites and forums with high number of visitors.

He went on to say that in 2012, AntTek would target some other potential markets in Asia such as Singapore, Japan and South Korea. When asked about Chinese market, Bao said that he is not interested in the market because of the high piracy level.

Meanwhile, Tuan of Mobisoft has decided to cooperate with an enterprise in the UK to sell its apps and games at international stores under the brand MeYuMe.

Phong of KMS said that besides making products to orders, KMS also develops mobile apps itself to serve the demand on the market and sell at international stores such as Apple, Google and Amazon. He said that entertainment apps would be in the focus, because users spend 70-80 percent of their mobile phone using time on entertainment activities.

Source: TBKTSG

Vietnam reactor to be clear of highly enriched uranium by 2013

Vietnam will send all the highly-enriched uranium (HEU) fuel at its reactor in the Central Highlands resort town of Dalat to Russia by May, 2013, the VnExpress newswire quoted a local minister as saying Saturday.

Nguyen Quan, Minister of Science and Technology, made the statement at the signing ceremony of an agreement on the fuel transfer between Vietnam and Russia in Hanoi on Friday.

The agreement was signed between Deputy Minister Le Dinh Tien and Nikolay Spassky, deputy director general of the Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation (Rosatom).

Quan said together with previous agreements on building Vietnam’s first nuclear power plant and a center for nuclear science and technology, the latest covenant highlighted the countries’ cooperation in the use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes and security, and their commitment to the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.

Vietnam started transferring HEU fuel in 2007 from the Dalat reactor, which was built by the US in 1963 and later upgraded by the former Soviet Union, to low-enriched uranium (LEU).

In September that year the country shipped back 35 HEU fuel sticks to Russia in exchange for 36 LEU sticks. The program continued in 2010 with the shipment of 66 LEU sticks from Russia.

Last year the Dalat reactor successfully started operating with the new fuel, VnExpress said.

According to the newswire, the program, which was initiated by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the US and Russia, aims to manage HEU fuel at reactors built by the two countries so that it is not used for non-peaceful purposes.