Overseas Vietnamese Asked to Help IT Development

HCM CITY (August 22, 2005) — Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Khiem has urged overseas Vietnamese to make greater contributions to the development of the country’s information and communication technologies.

Speaking at a weekend meeting with 140 overseas Vietnamese at the Reunification Hall, Khiem said ICT had been recognized by the Vietnamese Government as one of the most important factors needed for the country’s sustainable development.” It should now be the major tool in turning Viet Nam into an industrialized country by 2020," Khiem said.

According to the deputy prime minister, overseas Vietnamese, especially experts, intellectuals and businesspersons in countries with developed ICT industries, possess the experience in application, training, research, and technological transfer sorely needed for the sector’s growth in Viet Nam.
He pointed out that of 3 million overseas Vietnamese, some 300,000-400,000 with university or postgraduate degrees held important positions in agencies, institutes, universities, and large ICT companies in North America, Western Europe and Japan, noting that thousands of such experts and engineers were working in California’s Silicon Valley.

Khiem suggested that such people could use their creative capacities to access the latest technology and establish relations with economic organizations and institutes in their countries.
Many overseas Vietnamese intellectuals, including professors, have returned to Viet Nam to establish ICT companies and take part in research or training courses.

"They are a valuable human resource for ICT development in this country," added Khiem.
Minister of Post and Telematics (MPT) Do Trung Ta said: "MPT highly appreciates the role played by overseas Vietnamese intellectuals, the most valuable part of the Viet kieu community in terms of turning ICT into one of Viet Nam’s leading economic sectors."

Dr Tran Minh Tien from the National Institute of Post, Telecom and IT Strategy (NIPTS) said 50 per cent of Vietnamese businesses had already applied IT in their production and business management, 30 per cent had Internet access and 10 per cent maintained their own websites for business and marketing promotion.

IT application is popular among Party, National Assembly and Government agencies, as well as with provincial authorities, defense and security agencies. More than 50 per cent of ministries and 80 per cent of provinces and big cities have their own websites and online newspapers or magazines.

The NIPTS study predicted that IT application would be the decisive factor for the growth of major economic sectors such as banking, finance, insurance, tourism, telecommunications and aviation.
According to the NIPTS report, Viet Nam’s ICT has an annual growth of 25 per cent. ICT production amounted to US$ 2.23 billion last year, including $760 million for the hardware industry, $1.3 billion for electronic and telecom equipment; and $170 million for the software industry.

June 2005 figures show Viet Nam with 12.17 million telephone subscribers (including 6.17 mobile phones) and 2.97 million internet subscribers. About 7.71 million people or 9.35 per cent of the population use the internet.

Last year Viet Nam had 82 universities, 101 colleges and 108 vocational high schools providing ICT courses. The enrolment of ICT students at Vietnamese universities and colleges has increased by 50 per cent, and post-graduate students have risen by 30 per cent annually, according to NIPTS figures.
All universities and colleges and 93.5 per cent of high schools are connected to the internet. The number of government officials sent abroad for ICT training courses with funding from the State budget has doubled in the past year.

"To better mobilize Viet kieu, both Government agencies and overseas Vietnamese themselves should seek to attract efforts from overseas experts, intellectuals and businesspersons," said Khiem.
He proposed various measures to achieve these goals: issuing policies and initiatives that attracted Viet kieu to the country’s ICT sector, creating a more favorable and equitable environment that made Viet kieu feel safe doing business in the country, and encouraging Viet kieu experts to establish good relationships with universities, institutes and companies specializing in the ICT sector abroad, thus enabling the transfer of technical know-how and human resources.

In order to implement the Government’s action plan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is considering issuing incentives to Viet kieu inventors or those who can provide management consultancy.
The ministries of foreign affairs and science and technology have also encouraged Government agencies, institutes, universities, hospitals and enterprises to invite Viet kieu intellectuals to work for them as well as build policies to invite qualified individuals to work for co-operation programs and projects between Vietnamese and foreign partners.

About 140 Viet kieu intellectuals, experts and businesspersons attended Saturday’s conference, which was jointly held by MPT, the National Committee for ICT Development, and the HCM City People’s Committee. — VNS