Socialist Republic of Vietnam

Ha Noi, Feb. 15 (VNA) -- Viet Nam's information technology sector plans to earn software and service turnover of USD 229 million and train 50,000 IT experts by 2005. The number of Internet subscribers is expected to increase from 200,000 to 1.2 million in the next four years.

According to the International Data Group (IDG), the country will become a potential market for the world's leading IT corporations by strongly developing IT applications.

Last year, despite a global IT crisis, Viet Nam's IT market sold nearly 200,000 computers and maintained a growth rate of around 28 percent.

Also in 2001, the Vietnamese Government encouraged the development of IT applications in national industrialization and modernization. Viet Nam's Mekong Green, Robo, and Vinacom IT Companies introduced their assembled personal computers bearing Viet Nam's registered trademarks "Pentium III" and "Celeron" in Ho Chi Minh City in mid-November 2001.

Although each company can sell 1,000 PCs per year, they can't compete with the world's leading IT corporations; IBM, HP, Compaq and Acer, which supply not only computers but also IT solutions to their customers.

At present, the software industry provides only installation and maintenance services and guidance to home, office and enterprise computer users. Its turnover reached approximately USD 20 million in 2001, representing 25 percent of the country's IT market or a year-on-year increase of between 10-15 percent.

The software industry has seen a slow development due to fierce competition between domestic and foreign IT companies, and low skill levels among software engineers.--VNA