Dr Mai Liem Truc, former Deputy Minister of the Information and Communication, and Nguyen Long, Secretary General of the Vietnam Association for Information Processing VAIP had an online discussion with VietNamNet’s readers on “IT and communication – the driving force for Vietnam’s economy. 

Here VietNamNet would like to introduce the first part of the online discussion.

Journalist Binh Minh: The first question for you, Dr Mai Liem Truc. Could you please give a general assessment about the achievements Vietnam has gained in IT and communication over the last 10 years? 

Dr Mai Liem Truc: We can affirm that Vietnam’s IT and communication have been developing very well in the last 10 years. As you may know, 30 percent of Vietnamese population is using Internet, while the telephone network coverage density has reached 180 per 100 people (for both mobile phones and fixed lines).

I worked in this field for a long time, and I also worked on development strategies, but I was still impressed with the strong development of the IT and communication development. I could not imagine such a strong development pace of Internet one of the pillars - in 2000 -  

The second pillar, IT, has also witnessed impressive development in all the hardware, software and digital content industries, especially the three latter industries. The hardware industry has also made great strides, but shortcomings in technology are still pertinent. With the large market of nearly 100 million people, I think that the electronic and hardware industries still need to develop.

I am so glad that by 2010, Vietnamese brand mobile phones had accounted for 40 percent of the market share, which should be seen as a good development step of Vietnam’s electronic industry 

Regarding the IT applications in social activities, which is the third pillar, I can also see good development steps, but at the Government level and management agencies. However, the development is still slower than required.

Though the Government now organizes 2-3 online meetings a week, or more, and more websites of local governments have been launched, I still think that the strength of IT and Internet have not been used fully by government agencies. 

Meanwhile, people and the society have been taking full advantage of communication and Internet industries at work Sometimes we tidy up our house, and if we want to sell some old furniture or books, we just need to call the scrap-iron dealer and they turn up after just several minutes. The scrap-iron dealer said that the mobile phone helps her easily communicate with clients. If my children need to go to school, they can easily contact the taxi motorbike drivers by mobile phone. You see, even scrap-iron dealers and taxi motorbike drivers  use mobile phones

The fourth pillar is the labour force. Local newspapers have many times pointed out that this is one of our weak points and this is one of the biggest challenges for the development of the IT and communication industries in the coming years. 

The IT and communication has reportedly contributed 8-10 percent to the GDP growth. The enterprises in the fields have been paying tax to the state budget. The list of 10 biggest tax payers in 2010 includes two telecom companies.

However, the more important contribution to the national economy, I think, is the impacts on the national economy. You see, the economy will get paralized without IT.  

The main factor that helps develop the industries, I think, is the market opening. Over the last 10 years, we have been gradually opening the telecom market, eliminating enterprise monopoly. The breakthrough was seen in 2000, when Viettel developed the VOIP 178 call service

Thanks to the market opening, over the last 10 years, the service quality has been improved, while the costs have decreased and services have become widespread. 

Journalist Binh Minh: Mr Nguyen Long, as the Secretary General of the Vietnam Association for Information Processing, could you please tell us what are the most outstanding achievements of the IT industry in the last 10 years?

Nguyen Long: The most important target that the Instruction No. 58 of the Secretariat of the Communist Party’s Central Committee mentions is making IT the indispensable tool for the socio-economic development. And it is undeniable that the IT industry has fulfilled the task.  

As Truc has said, when reviewing the development of the IT and communication industry, we can take pride of the great contribution of the sector to the GDP. In recent years, when the global economy and Vietnam’s economy have been meeting difficulties, the IT sector still grew at a two-digit rate. 

What di we do in the last 10 years? We have developed an industry and an independent management agency – the Ministry of Post and Telematics, now the Ministry of Information and Communication.

The second thing we have done is promulgating a series of laws have been, including the IT Law, E-commerce Law, Telecommunication Law, and then High technology Law. All the laws have helped create a good environment for businesses to develop. 

However, a lot of problems remain. The software industry has been going hard, while the digital content industry has not developed. In terms of software industry, though we have reached the targeted figures, but we still cannot make the important products. For example, we still have to spend tens millions dollar to pay for royalties, while China, the country with billions of people, only has to pay several millions dollar.

Regarding the human resource, we made the right decision to develop the human resource for the IT industry, but there are problems in the way of implementing the plan, I think.

Journalist Binh Minh: What are your assessments about the effects of the legal documents on the development of Vietnam’s IT and communication? 

Dr Mai Liem Truc: As Mr Nguyen Long has said, the management ministry has making great efforts to pave the way for the development of the IT industry. Many laws have been promulgated over the last two years.

However, what I want to say is that though we have a good legal framework which fits the WTO commitments, there are still problems in the implementation. 

For example, the laws stipulate that all sectors can join to develop telecommunication and Internet. However, to date, 90-95 percent of enterprises are still state owned enterprises. We still cannot open the market to non-state enterprises. 

Journalist Binh Minh: Do you think that the promulgated legal documents can settle the problems faced by enterprises?

Nguyen Long: As Truc has said, we have promulgated a lot of legal documents, but the important thing is how we implement the laws.

It is very important that we have good awareness, but we still need to find proper solutions to implement the strategies. The figures are “beautiful” in terms of the number of officers using Internet, the number of information gateways, but the quality is not good. 

For example, a local newspaper several days ago reported that businessmen had to queue up to register business in Hanoi.