Socialist Republic of Vietnam

HA NOI — Policy makers have reiterated the Government’s commitment to protect software intellectual property (IP) rights as the country moves toward joining the World Trade Organisation.

Concluding a roundtable yesterday in Ha Noi, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Bui Manh Hai called for co-operation with countries and agencies with relevant knowledge.

Viet Nam, like many developing countries in the region, faces difficulties as it needs cheap software for development as well as software copyrights. It is also a low-income country with a young generation keen to explore and innovate technology, he said.

"We certainly need help from other countries in the world, especially the United States," Hai said.

"We are calling for more active co-operation from businesses, production organisations and software companies in making the domestic market a piracy-free environment," he added.

The Business Software Alliance (BSA), the only international party at yesterday’s roundtable, said Viet Nam, with up to 92 per cent of software unlicensed, has one of the highest piracy rates in the world.

This figure, however, has raised some questions among the Vietnamese authorities of its accuracy.

"It is true Viet Nam has some software piracy, but we have had no verifications of the BSA figure," said Nguyen Manh Hung, deputy director of the National Office on Intellectual Property.

Nguyen Trung Quynh, an economic and technology officer at the Ministry of Science and Technology, said despite Viet Nam’s top position on the BSA list, the absolute value of piracy damage is tiny at US$41 million, compared with China’s $3.8 trillion or the US’s $6.49 trillion.

Viet Nam’s IT market is quite small, totalling $515 million, of which software accounts for $105 million. The software sector has only 12,000 programmers, mainly sub-contracting software for foreign companies.

Quynh said Viet Nam needs help from multinational firms and countries that own software copyrights, by providing software at a reasonable price for less developed countries.

However, the roundtable found that Viet Nam should continue pushing for public awareness and education on software IP as well as stopping mass reproduction and personal sharing of unauthorised software.

Jeff Hardee, BSA’s vice president and regional director in Asia Pacific, said he wished to see more enforcement of IP rights, a new legal framework for IP protection and people’s changing their thinking about the issue.

"Viet Nam can benefit from a strong, protected IT and software industry driven by jobs and innovations," he told a press conference.

Viet Nam News, March 17, 2005