Socialist Republic of Vietnam

(01/02/2004 -- 17:10GMT+7)

HCM City, Jan. 2 (VNA) - IBM Vietnam Co. will focus its business interests on Viet Nam's small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by providing them with cheap software solutions in the years ahead.

"SMEs account for nearly 90 percent of the total number of companies in Viet Nam, therefore targeting these customers will be a new focus for IBM," said Rahman AB Mizan, Country General Director of IBM Vietnam Co.

Previously, IBM only developed software for large companies with minimum price of 10,000 USD. This price range is out of the reach for most SMEs in Viet Nam.

Acknowledging the development potential of SMEs in the future, IBM has turned to developing software products with prices and utilities suitable for them. With this new trading strategy, IBM will make the products at the demand of buyers.

"IBM will seek to provide customised solutions to potential customers, especially SMEs, because this helps boost to IBM's development, " Mizan said.

IBM has worked out a plan to launch software products with prices ranging from hundreds to less than 10,000 USD for SMEs in the coming time, he said.

The software will help businesses expand their online trading activities such as designing websites, building database or integrating the applications of different software solutions. IBM will also provide customers with advices on its products.

"Our software solutions are suitable for SMEs to use," Mizan said, adding his company was forecasting to sell its software to 3,000-4,000 SMEs this year, compared to almost naught last year.

"Viet Nam is a great potential market for our software solutions for SMEs. I hope that IBM's software will become more familiar to Vietnamese companies."

The US-based information technology group IBM, famous with its products such as desktops, servers and laptops, and software solutions, has affiliates in some 170 countries and entered the Vietnamese market ten years ago.