Vietnam ranks 7th in Asia and 18th worldwide in terms of Internet usage, according to the 2014 White Book on Vietnamese Information and Communication Technology.

More than 33 million Vietnamese used the Internet in 2013, an increase from 31 million in 2012,

Vietnam ranks 7th in Asia and 18th worldwide in terms of Internet usage, according to the 2014 White Book on Vietnamese Information and Communication Technology.

More than 33 million Vietnamese used the Internet in 2013, an increase from 31 million in 2012,

The country ranked eight among 148 countries in term of lowest communication and Internet charges, according to the White Book, released this week by the Ministry of Information and Communications.

Roughly 37 percent of the country’s population are online -- that's 22.3 million broadband subscribers and 17.2 million 3G subscribers, the White Book said.

In 2013, more than 100,000 new .vn domains were added to the 226,000 existing domains, making .vn the leading national domain in Southeast Asia, it said.

Information and communication revenues topped US$39.5 billion in 2013, a 55.3 percent increase over the previous year.

The impressive increase was attributed to rapid growth in the hardware and electronics sector.

Exports of information technology last year hit $34.76 billion--a 51.7 percent increase over 2012, of which 63 percent were cell phones.

Total export revenues surpassed imports by nearly $8.4 billion.

The industry attracted more than 440,000 workers, 65 percent of whom were employed in the hardware sector.

Vietnam has eight information technology parks with nearly 300 companies.

The field has witnessed significant changes in management structure with the establishment of the National Committee on Information Technology Application chaired by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.

The Politburo, the decision-making body of Vietnam's Communist Party, issued a resolution on July 1 to expand the application and development of information technology to foster sustainable development and international integration demands.

Prior to that, technology researcher Gartner ranked Vietnam among the top ten countries in the Asia Pacific region and the top 30 countries worldwide for offshore IT ourtsourcing.