In a recent talk with a couple of media outlets during his trip to HCM City, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan said that the Government will develop more software parks in the next 10 years. He also discussed some issues concerning the development of software and ICT in Vietnam.
...Ten years ago, HCM City authorities decided to build Quang Trung Software City following Government approval. At the time, being a vice chairperson of the city, I led a group on a fact-finding trip to visit Bangalore in India and Bangkok in Thailand to study how software parks were built and developed.

Q: As a member of the steering committee for establishing Quang Trung Software City (QTSC), how do you assess QTSC’s development in the past 10 years?

A: Ten years ago, HCM City authorities decided to build QTSC following Government approval. At the time, being a vice chairperson of the city, I led a group on a fact-finding trip to visit Bangalore in India and Bangkok in Thailand to study how software parks were built and developed. Then, we realized that given Vietnam’s human resources and potential, it was possible to build and develop a software park. This paved the way for the establishment of QTSC, which is also seen as the milestone for building other software parks nationwide. When QTSC was commissioned, it hosted 21 enterprises with 250 people. We expected that 10 years later the number of staff studying and working in QTSC would be 10,000. But, now the number is 22,000.

About investment, at first we requested QTSC to use the initial capital from the State budget to attract investment capital from private investors. QTSC has done this fairly well. Of the current VND1,800 billion in investment capital, only VND200 billion is from the State budget.

Other achievements include the fact that QTSC has been known well in the world, has attracted some giants in the information and communication technology (ICT), and has embraced some of the most advanced technologies in the world. In addition, the management standard at QTSC can be considered equivalent to that in other software parks in the world.

How should the development plan of QTSC in the next 10 years differ from that of the first decade?

In the first decade, the convergence of software, hardware and services at QTSC was not clear. So, from now on QTSC should attend to the convergence. For example, QTSC should focus on embedding, an important part which links hardware with software. In the future, QTSC should attract investors that specialize in both hardware and software, including embedding.

Which experience from the model of QTSC can the Government gain to carry out the plan to build more software parks?

QTSC’s outstanding point is the support for young or small enterprises so that they have a favorable environment for development. The support also involves technological and human resources consultancy. Lately, QTSC has attracted some 50 enterprises, most of them are start-ups. They are expected to grow strongly in the next 10 years.

Besides, QTSC provides a wide range of services from technology, marketing, management standard to human resources training for enterprises. From the experience of QTSC, other software parks will bring into full play the strong points in the future. In the long term, that development will contribute its part to the national economy.

What are the Government’s policies on developing software parks in Vietnam?

At the 11th Party Congress early this year, ICT, including the software industry, was again defined as an important sector in the country’s economic development.

Besides supporting local and foreign enterprises, building more software parks to attract more enterprises is a must. QTSC’s development is the foundation for the development. The Government and the Ministry of Information and Communications and local authorities will support the establishment of more software parks whose initial level must be equivalent to that of QTSC at present.

In general, the past 10 years formed the first part of the 20-year road map of Vietnam’s software development (2000-2020). The biggest achievement we got in the past 10 years was that we have software management at international standards trusted by investors. Vietnam plans to become by the end of the next decade a country strong in ICT and possibly send well-trained software work force abroad ranking after China, India and Russia.

To make the software park model more successful, what issues should Vietnam tackle in the future?

First of all, the management and technical staff must be trained and improved through practical activities and exchanges. The quality of human resources is important. The Government is making human resources planning and the Ministry of Planning and Investment, not the Ministry of Training and Education, will orchestrate in this regard. The reason is that the Ministry of Planning and Investment understands clearly demands of local and foreign enterprises. It will send the demands to training institutions so that the schools open training courses meeting demands of the enterprises. Besides, enterprises can as well place orders directly at schools to meet their demands.

In addition, investment promotion, market exploration and infrastructure improvement should not be ignored.