Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, as the honourable chairman of WITFOR 2009, will attend the opening ceremony on August 26.

In his message to WITFOR, the PM writes: “The Vietnamese government considers information and communication technology a key industry and the basic foundation for the socio-economic development of Vietnam. The Vietnamese government has been investing more in developing this industry.”

This will be the first time the WITFOR is organised in an Asian country. The event is expected to bring about many cooperation and investment opportunities in the field of ICT for Vietnam.

Speaking at a press conference in Hanoi on July 7, the WITFOR organising board said that they have prepared 25 hotels, including ten five-star ones, for delegates. Vehicles for delegates are ready.

The organisers have also selected some professional travel firms and a team of young volunteers, who are students from foreign language and IT universities, to serve attendants.

Besides the official activities, some side-line events will be held, including an ICT exhibition, an international software exhibition, programmes named PCs for Life, ICT Networking, business matching, an ICT job fair and symposiums on IT human resources, business cooperation, Vietnam’s software industry, and others.

With the theme “IT for Sustainable Development”, WITFOR 2009 Vietnam will run from August 26-28 at My Dinh National Convention Centre in Hanoi.