Pham Tan Cong, Vinasa general secretary, said that the door of opportunity to tap the Japanese market is wide open for Vietnamese software producers. Everything depends on how much advantage Vietnamese exporters would be able to take of this opportunity, he said. He said that recently, many Japanese companies have asked Vinasa to help them forge tight relationships with Vietnamese companies for long-term stable cooperation. Noting that the Japanese economy is recovering, Cong said the most important thing is that Japan wants to have more partners to supply software products instead of just China and Vietnam is an ideal destination. According to the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, the country poured about 30 billion USD into software outsourcing per year and 75-80 percent of this goes to China. The outsourcing orders that Japan sends to Vietnam at present are just one thirtieth of the volume that China received. Therefore, the new trend in the Japanese market to look for suppliers outside China is a huge opportunity for Vietnam, Cong said. Last year, the export turnover of Vietnamese software producers to Japan had significantly increased. According to Vinasa, thanks to this trend, some companies recorded annual growth of up to 60 percent. The leading software producer in Vietnam, FPT, has reported a 44 percent growth in its Japan business last year. Other companies exporting software products to Japan have seen a minimum growth of 20 percent. With Vietnamese companies catching up with global trends, it is expected that software exports will increase significantly in the coming year. This year, Vinasa expects total software export turnover to increase by 30 percent, but more details have not been released.