ICT Business Mission to Vietnam (August 24-25) In tandem with Vietnam’s hosting the World Information Technology Forum (WITFOR) August 26-28--- the first time an Asian nation hosts-- the US-ASEAN Business Council is leading an Information Communication Technologies (ICT) Business Mission to Vietnam, August 24-25. The mission will complement the WITFOR and the US-Vietnam ICT Dialogue as it offers opportunity for small, close, and off the record meetings with senior ministers and officials. This mission comes on the heels of Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan’s statement that the government of Vietnam will focus on developing IT service and software industries to become a key sector of the country’s economy in the next seven years. For more information, contact Putri Alam at palam@usasean.org. Vietnam is ranked among the top 10 most attractive markets for software outsourcing in the world under the 2009 Global Services Location Index (GSLI) published by AT Kearney. However, Vietnam is only now beginning to make significant investments in software and IT services. Investments in human resources, the software and IT service industry, and government IT systems are crucial for Vietnam’s long term growth and development. • The year 2008 witnessed the country's information technology post an annual average growth of 49 percent. Of which, hardware industry grew 19 percent and software industry and services of 87 percent. Revenue from this sector in 2008 was 4.74 billion US dollars. Despite the growth of the software industry, Vietnam still spends 87% of the National IT Budget on hardware development/purchases. • Vietnam’s software and IT service industry is still small, with total revenue of US$648 million, or 0.5 percent of last year’ gross domestic production (GDP). Up to 70 percent of companies in the industry have limited capital of below VND1 billion and less than 10-member staff. • The government plans to spend VND980 billion (US$58 million) from now until 2012 to boost the development of software and digital content industry. • Vietnam's has about 30,000 people working in the information technology sector with an average productivity of US$11,000 per person per year, equivalent to 45 percent of India and 65 percent of China. Due to the lack of IT graduates and accredited / experienced IT staff the churn rate is more than 20% for ICT companies. • By 2015, Vietnam expects to have 600,000 IT experts, and the figure is expected to be up to one million in 2020. • According to the UNPAN E-Government Readiness Report, Vietnam has improved its Government’s ICT capacity but still lags behind other ASEAN members: Vietnam 2008 ranking: 91 • Vietnam has improved its standings in the World Economic Forum’s Global Information Technology Report, yet it is still behind other ASEAN members: Vietnam: 70 Sources Vietnamese Government Visits to the United States The Ministry of Information and Communications is sending a high level delegation to Washington DC and the Bay Area, September 18-28, to learn about E-Government. The Council will work with the delegation to schedule meetings in Washington and the Bay Area for member companies. For more information, contact Mike Orgill at morgill@usasean.org. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Pham Gia Khiem, will participate in the United Nations General Assembly Meetings in New York in September. The Vietnamese Ministry of Health has confirmed that there are 1,454 cases of A/H1N1 in Vietnam. There have been two deaths due to the flu since the first case was reported. Vietnam has temporarily closed schools in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi as a precautionary measure. Vietnam's A/H1N1 flu cases rise to 1,454 Xinhua, August 17 END MEMO
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