ICT for Development in Vietnam Meeting the Challenges on Digital Gaps 4-5 February 2004, Jakarta, Indonesia Le Duy TIEN Ministry of Posts & Telematics, Vietnam

Agenda Country Background ICT Facts & Figures Challenges Objectives Solutions Action Items

Country Background

Vietnam at a Glance (2003) Area: 329,560 sq km Population: 81 Million (est.) Literacy: 94% GDP per capita: USD 400 (est.) NRI: 3.13 (68/102 countries) Telephone density: 9 lines/100 inhabitants Percentage of Internet users: 3.99% Percentage of PC: ~ 1% ICT Labor: ~ 70,000 skilled people

ICT Facts & Figures

ICT spending (% of GDP) vs NRI

Policy Environment 2000: Politic Bureau issued Directive No : Decision of Government No : Post & Telecom Ordinance 11/2002: Foundation of MPT - an independent regulator 2003: Draft of National ICT Strategy : Law on Electronic Transaction : Law on Information Technology

IT Industry (2002) 90% of PCs assembled domestically PC assembly: 80% market, $ 325 M revenue 400 software companies with 8000 workers 2,500 companies working in ICT field Outsourcing Productivity: ~ USD 9,400 Software Revenue: USD 75 M Software Parks: effective operation (eg. Quang Trung SP consists of 52 companies with 2,400 labors)

Telecom (2003) 100% digital equipment : average growth rate: 32.5% Open market for several companies Fixed & Mobile growth: 32.5% & 87.3% Fixed phones double Mobile phones NGN Direction Transport Layer: High capacity with DWDM Access Layer: xDSL, Wi-Fi, WLL, HFC, etc. Telephone lines in 93.53% of communes

Internet (2003) In service from 1997 to now: 6 IXP, 20 ISP Internet international bandwidth: ~ 1Gbit/s Average growth rate: % ~ 3 M Internet users (3.99% population) Broadband Internet Access: ADSL, Wi-Fi Internet access to all universities, colleges, vocational & upper secondary schools

Internet Domain (12/2003) 5,653 others

ICT Human Resource Telecom: 50,000 people IT: 20,000 people (Software Labor: 8,000) Number of training unit increases rapidly Non-formal education is increasingly important Close links with foreign partners From 2003: 10,000 IT students annually Low work performance: $ 222/line Many graduates unemployed (haft) The ICT training quality is quite low

Competitive Environment Active transition from monopoly to open market: 5 Mobile phone licenses 5 Local fixed phone 3 Long distance phone 3 International phone 12 Domestic & International VoIP 10 Internet phone, etc. VNPT is an incumbent ICT provider (91% revenue) Service charges reduction

ICT Applications E-Government (WAN of Party & Government) 61 Provinces & cities; 52 Ministries & Sectors 1,000 LANs; 1,200 Servers 50,000 PCs; Basic Office Applications Several Web portals were in service last year E-Commerce: 3 e-commerce portals E-Bank: 80% of bank business, ATM emerging E-Learning: EduNet Project ($ 445, est.) Many press websites: 2,000 (~40%) ICT for Agriculture: 6,755 tele-centers

Vietnamease NGOs Actively involved in the ICT development Vietnam Software Association (VINASA) Vietnam Association for Information Processing Members from 31 provinces and many areas Vietnam Automation Association Vietnam PC Trademark Association Youth Union: Second powerful Organization Government establish close link with NGOs

Challenges Poor policy environment Lack of legal frameworks Poor ICT infrastructure: Low tele-density, PC Small number of Internet users Limited Competitiveness Limited attraction of investment capitals Lack of Skilled Professionals Software Copyright Violation

Objectives

National ICT Strategies

Visions to 2020 ICT as a main driving force, Vietnam will basically become an will basically become an industralised country in the direction modernisation; an intellectual Vietnam will be built, belonging to Advance countries in the ASEAN region in terms of ASEAN region in terms of Information Society and ICT

Objectives to 2010 Vietnam will reach the upper-middle ranks in ICT development and application among ASEAN countries

Objectives to 2005 Vietnam will reach the average level of ICT development and application among ASEAN countries

Solutions (1) Awareness improvement National support in socio-economic ability improvement Ability and effectiveness improvement of national management of ICT Raising and effectively using funds, attracting foreign investment Human resource development for ICT

Solutions (2) Develop the research and implementation system Gradually complete the environment for domestic ICT application and development Strengthen the cooperation and relationship internally and internationally ICT market development

Proposed Programs ICT applications Promotion ICT industry Promotion Telecom & Internet infrastructure Promotion ICT Labor Promotion

Proposed Projects 1 million cheap PC for the community E-literacy for 20 million citizens Training 1000 Chiefs of Information (CIO) 30,000 IT skilled experts Electronic ID card for all citizens 50 percent of businesses utilize ICT to improve the competitive ability 100 percent of high schools use Internet in education Digitalization of 50 percent of official documents in government sector 1 million websites for the public interest 50 percent of basic public services online

Thank you