This Handbook has been prepared to facilitate delegates at the WITFOR 2009 Hanoi, Vietnam from 26th to 28th August under the theme “ICT for Sustainable Development”. It provides participants with an overview of IFIP, the WITFOR, the ICT industry of Vietnam, and all essential administrative information.
II. General information about IFIP and WITFOR:
IFIP – International Federation for Information Processing
is the leading multinational, apolitical organization in Information & Communications Technologies and Sciences
is recognized by United Nations and other world bodies
represents IT Societies from 56 countries or regions, covering all 5 continents with a total membership of over half a million
inks more than 3500 scientists from Academia and Industry, organized in more than 101 Working Groups reporting to 13 Technical Committees
sponsors 100 conferences yearly providing unparalleled coverage from theoretical informatics to the relationship between informatics and society including hardware and software technologies, and networked information systems
Within IFIP
IT societies’ members find a meeting place for sharing experience, and discussing challenges and opportunities
TCs and WGs contribute to, and often lead, progress in the state-of-the art knowledge and practice
IFIP scientific and technological leadership
is warranted by WG membership, based solely on individual excellence
is asserted by the organization of some 100 highest quality international events, and the publication of some 30 new books annually that are distributed worldwide
Formally IFIP is a non-governmental, non-profit umbrella organization for national societies working in the field of information processing. It was established in 1960 under the auspices of UNESCO as a result of the first World Computer Congress held in Paris in 1959.
WITFOR
WITFOR stands for the World Information Technology Forum, was initiated by IFIP and organized every second year since 2003 in cooperation with the government of the host country and many other stakeholders.
WITFOR contributes to taking the World Summit on the Information Society's (WSIS) Plan of Action a step forward and to helping developing countries to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). WITFOR investigates successful, sustainable ICT strategies in developing countries and examines different initiatives and projects on effective, context sensitive development and use of ICT applications. In particular the WITFOR events are intended to:
- Help put ICT-enabled development initiatives on the agenda of different organizations, governmental bodies, and groups currently involved in information and communications technologies.
- Work with different groups to ensure that the issue of ICT diffusion and sustainable effective use is on the agenda of senior policy makers and political leaders.
- Assist international organizations and donor agencies to build issues of the spread of ICTs and access to information into their loan and funding programmes with adequate financial and institutional allocations.
- Be more pro-active in using new technologies explicitly to reduce existing social tensions and conflicts.
- Encourage scholars, analysts and researchers to put the issue of electronic equity higher on their research agendas.
- Make an analysis in industrialized nations, as individuals and groups, to listen to and learn from colleagues around the world about their unique concerns over access to technology.
- Develop guidelines on these issues and advise governments, to formulate and follow the best strategy for the use of ICT in order to achieve global ICT-equity.
This work is conducted in eight thematic commissions and the result of this preparatory work is presented as policies, initiatives and best practices every second year in the conference.
The inaugural WITFOR was held in Lithuania, in 2003. The second was held in Botswana, in 2005, the third one in Ethiopia in 2007. The 2009 edition in Vietnam will bring together an expected 1500 delegates, including ICT Ministers, senior policy-makers, academics, NGOs and GOs, ICT experts and the private ICT sector.
III. Responsibility for arrangements:
1. Communication on substance matters and inquiries on detail program should be directed to:
Department of International Cooperation – Ministry of Information and Communications
Contact person: Mr. Hoang Anh Tu
Tel: +84 43 8228383 - Fax: +84 43 8226590
2.General inquiries on protocol and transport arrangements should be directed to:
Department of International Cooperation – Ministry of Information and Communications
Recognizing the developmental opportunities offered by digital technologies and the need for developing countries and developed countries to collaborate to exploit such opportunities, the World Information Technology Forum (WITFOR) 2009 is organized by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) and hosted by the Government of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam with the theme of “ICT for Sustainable Development” from 26th - 28th August 2009 in Ha Noi, Viet Nam.
The purpose of the conference is to help implement information development strategies and projects in developing countries. Significantly, it will take the World Summit on the Information Society's (WSIS) Plan of Action a step forward, by converting policy statements to actual, implemental projects that should help developing countries to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The aim of WITFOR is to examine different initiatives on effective, context sensitive development and use of ICT applications, access to quality relevant information, and the development of “fair use principles” in the Internet Age. In particular the WITFOR events are intended to:
-Help put ICT-enabled development initiatives on the agenda of different organizations, governmental bodies, and groups currently involved in information and communications technologies.
- Work with different groups to ensure that the issue of ICT diffusion and sustainable effective use is on the agenda of senior policy makers and political leaders.
-Assist international organizations and donor agencies to build issues of the spread of ICTs and access to information into their loan and funding programs with adequate financial and institutional allocations.
- Develop guidelines on these issues and advise governments, to formulate and follow the best strategy for the use of ICT in order to achieve global ICT-equity.
The inaugural WITFOR was held in Lithuania, in 2003. The second was held in Botswana, in 2005, with over 700 participants. The third was held in Ethiopia, with over 1000 participants, in 2007. This year the event will be held in Viet Nam with the Honorary Chair of the Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and participated by about 1500 delegates come from around 70 countries, including ICT Ministers, senior policy-makers, academics, NGOs, ICT experts and the private ICT sector. In line with the integration and development process, Vietnam’s identity is getting promoted better and better in the international arena. It’s the WITFOR 2009 that marks a milestone in developing the country’s Information Technology and Communication industry and helps open up a new way for the leadership & national IT administrators, leading to a common aim that Vietnam is the destination of cooperation and investment in Information Technology and Communication in the region and the world.
General Program Schedule
Day
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Time / Date
26 August 2009
27 August 2009
28 August 2009
Registration
9:00 - 10:30
Plenary 1: opening session, keynotes
Plenary 3: keynotes
Plenary 5: keynotes
Theme:
ICT for Sustainable Development
Theme:
Best practice country experiences with ICT policies
Theme:
Open source software
10:30 - 11:00
coffee break / exhibition visit
11:00 - 12:30
Plenary 2: keynotes
Plenary 4: keynotes / panel discussion
Plenary 6: invited speakers
Theme:
Gender issues
Theme:
ICT for Development Policies
Theme:
Industry contributions
12:30 - 14:00
lunch / exhibition visit
14:00 - 15:30
Parallel 1: commission sessions
Parallel 3: commission sessions
Plenary 7: keynotes / closing session
separate programs for each of the eight commissions /
extra parallel stream for business presentations
separate programs for each of the eight commissions /
extra parallel stream for business presentations
Theme:
Public – Private Partnership
15:30 - 16:00
coffee break / exhibition visit
16:00 - 17:30
Parallel 2: commission sessions
Parallel 4: commission sessions
separate programs for each of the eight commissions /
extra parallel stream for business presentations
separate programs for each of the eight commissions /
extra parallel stream for business presentations
Side Events
PCs for Life Program
In the spirit of the WITFOR 2009, the National Organizing Committee is setting up a fund of PCs to provide people in rural areas, especially the children, with facilities to enhance their studying as well as awareness, thus partially contribute to achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals and implementation the World Summit on the Information Society's (WSIS) Plan of Action.
Not only does focus on providing PCs for people, this program also takes care of supplying other facilities (network equipment & set up) and education measures/curriculum to help upgrade children’s knowledge in a convenient & efficient way as well. Children in remote areas involved in the program may study at home without going to far-away schools. By this way, the significance of sustainable development can be fulfilled.
“PCs for Life” is run on non-profit basis and PC donating mechanism will be done through the following process:
Step 1: Organizing Committee contacts and negotiates with the sponsors
Step 2: Organizing Committee and Sponsors decide where & when to donate PCs
Step 3: All donated PCs will be delivered to local administrative agencies or local social agencies. All PCs will be fully educational software equipped and Internet connected.
By and large, this program is hoped to be socialized and become an annual activity in Vietnam. Up to now, PCs for Life has been carried out successfully in some areas, namely in the following table:
ICT Exhibitions
An international exhibition on ICTs and WITFOR 2009 will take place in Ha Noi, Viet Nam during the time of WITFOR’s main events from August 26th to 28th at the National Convention Center with a total area that can be accounted for more than 2000 m2.
This exhibition will be a great opportunity for technology admirers all over the world to visit and discover state-of-the-art technologies displayed from various famous companies / corporations in the Asian region as well as in the world, such as Microsoft, Huawei, Intel, IBM, Oracle, etc.
This event will also provide a wonderful platform for scholars, national entrepreneurs and international corporations to exchange thoughts, experiences and ICT application related to diversified fields as well as to achieve commercial cooperation in the future.
As estimated, there’ll be more than 100 exhibition booths in this event.
ICT Industry Dialogue with Government of Viet Nam
Being a side-event of WITFOR 2009, the “High Level ICT public-private dialogue” is an open talk among representatives of Vietnamese government, senior officers of the world’s leading ICT Corporations along with Vietnamese and international ICT enterprises’ CEOs and students. This event will be held in National Convention Centre and broadcasted live on VTV1 – Vietnam Television at 4pm, August 26th, 2009.
The dialogue is expected to have an attendance of around 1500 delegates as well as millions of audiences via television. It is considered to be one of the most highlighted among a series of events on the sideline of WITFOR 2009, such as ICT Networking, International Software, ICT exhibition and Job fair 2009, seminars…to name but a few.
ICT Networking
ICT Networking is a significant side event in WITFOR 2009 of which the criteria is to build a network connecting Vietnamese and international ICT enterprises, organizations, training centers. This network especially provides members with chances of business exchange and cooperation opportunities. There are two main activities: Business Matching Online and Business Matching Onsite.
Business Matching Online: Under the supervision of MIC, VINASA (Vietnam Software Association) has designed and developed the website www.ictnetworking.vn. With each account provided, the user can upload, share company profile, search for favorite events and more importantly, use profiles to book matching schedule with desired partners.
Business Matching Onsite will be held in National Convention Centre where WITFOR 2009 is officially conducted. Vinasa arranges and coordinates meeting schedule among companies based on registered meeting schedule of companies at www.ictnetworking.vn.
Individuals, organizations and companies who wish to join business matching can register directly with VINASA or visit www.ictnetworking.vn for detailed information and online registration.
V. List of Diplomatic Missions in Hanoi, Viet Nam:
After more than 20 years of renovation, along with the important achievements in all socio-economic sectors, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector in Vietnam have made progress in all the aspects such as improving capabilities, continuous modernization, shortening the gap with the countries in the region and in the world in about decades, creating active conditions for economic integration process, consolidating security and defense and serving for the industrialization and modernization process of the country. Atpresent, when the world is turning itself into a new era of knowledge-based economy, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is considered as an effective tool for the development of all nations and people are more and more aware of ICT significance for sustainable development of the society, nation, community, enterprises and daily life.
Being aware of the ICT importance, Directive 58/CT - TW on 17 December 2000 of Political Bureau of Vietnam's Communist Party confirmed that 'ICT is one of the most important motivations to the development'. The Government of Vietnam has realized and articulated its commitment to boosting the development of the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry, particularly in software production, Internet infrastructure, IT education promotion, and other forms of human resource development. Vietnam ICT is developing more broadly. The first “The Strategy of ICT development” was approved by Minister Phan Van Khai in 2004, in which it states the targeted growth rate is 25%-30% per annual and then the Decision No.246 of Prime Minister on the approval of the strategy of ICT Vietnam till 2010, vision till 2020 was signed on 06/10/2005.
IT industry in Vietnam was actually given birth in Vietnam in the last years of 90s decade and represents one of the fastest growing sectors. There are many IT applications in the fields such as bank, statistics, research, education, training, post, telecommunication, oil exploration, construction and aviation etc. About 50% enterprises have utilized IT in business, production management and service. Above 30% enterprises have got Internet connection, 10% enterprises have their websites for business, marketing in the local and international market. IT applications has been implemented both in the deep and broad scale.
Regarding the application of IT in government, there are above 50% of ministries, government agencies and above 80% of provinces, cities having websites. Electronics newspapers, web pages together with IPTV services have considerably contributed to the communication tasks, especially for the external information providing. The ICT sector is not only making contribution to improve the working quality of government agencies, enterprises and people’s daily life but also an important sector of the national economy. It is estimated that the turnover of the ICT sector reached USD 7.1 billion in 2007, accounting for 10% of GDP.
Vietnam’s ICT growth rate was kept being promising from its first 5-year plan (2001-2006). Although Vietnam ICT market cannot keep the growth pace of 2004 (33%), growth rate still reached 20.9% in 2005, compared to 9% of Asia and 7.1% of the world. The growth rate of software/service and hardware market is 41.4% and 15.6% respectively – with total market value of USD 828 million in 2005. The growth rate is 44% and 38% at the value of USD 360 million and USD 498 million in 2006 and 2007, respectively.
2005 is the first year when Viet Nam ICT import and export turnover was above the threshold of USD 1 billion – which is greatly contributed by some 100% foreign-owned enterprises. ICT sector continues to grow at high rate of 49.6% in 2005 of which software outsourcing export value rose by 55%, reaching USD 70 million and the total value of the software/service industry reached USD 250million. The software industry was kept grow with 30-40% in 6 years from 2002 to 2007, slowdown in 2008 at the rate of less than 20%. Total turnover of the software industry reached USD 500 million in 2007 and one-third was from outsourcing services.
Currently, there are about 4,000 ICT companies and less than 300,000 employees working in the ICT sector in Vietnam as the whole. The number of software companies is estimated about 800 with more than 45,000 employees. Most of software enterprises are small and there are only about 20 enterprises with more than 100-500 employees. In terms of certificate achievement, about 20 enterprises have obtained international quality management certificates such as CMMI-5, CMM-4 or 3 and more than 40 enterprises have been certified with ISO 9001 and ISO 27001.
As for Vietnam’s ICT, cost-effectiveness, fast and keen on learning labor force and strongly committed government to the ICT development are considered as its key strengths. With new policies to encourage private ICT University/Training Institutions, to attract foreign investment in ICT and to design a legal framework for e-business, the government has been well prepared for ICT development in the future. Therefore, IT labour force gradually meets and ensures human resource demand of IT companies in terms of quality and quantity. Relevant regulations for e-business will be also a factor to facilitate the business/ investment.
Despite Vietnam has researched and designed several electronic spare parts and accessories for export, the hardware industry mainly depends on assembling. The Intel’s project with USD $1 billion in 2006 could be considered as the highest ever foreign investment in ICT in Vietnam. Furthermore, many other investors known as giants in the industry like Canon, Fujitsu, Sony, NEC also contribute a major part of total hardware export turnover.
Regarding tax for ICT sector, the import tax for component hardware is going down from now (0-10%) to 0% in 2012. Meanwhile, the software product and service are imposed an export tax of 0% and enjoy VAT exemption. The corporate income tax for IT start-up companies is much lower than other companies (10% in 15 years from the first year with revenue) in comparison with 25% for other businesses.
Mapping Vietnam into the IT world, there could be a brighter view due to the improvement in terms of ranking. International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has announced the ranking list of the global ICT (Information and Communication Technology) index during the period of from 2002 to 2007 based on universal indices such as fixed telephone, mobile phone, wide broadband, and ratio of using computers, number of Internet users. In which, Vietnam ranked among top ten countries with the quickest ICT growth. Vietnam jumped 15 grades compared to the ranking list of 2002 and now stands at the 92nd position among 154 surveyed nations. However, there are still challenges for Vietnam’s IT industry in the IT world as there is coherence with economic development of the country and quality of the growth.
Labour force
With the number of more than 15,000 university graduates every year, and another of 10,000 college graduates, IT labour force is fully sufficiently in terms of quantity but there is need to improve IT training quality, especially at tertiary level. In fact, there are a large number of IT candidates whom human resource managers of IT companies can recruit, but quality of applicants in terms of namely English competence, team work and professional working attitudes is of concern.
In terms of salary, IT professionals are regarded as one of the “head hunted”., Thus, their salary is considered relatively high compared to the salary in other professions at the rate of USD 250-300 for the starting level, USD 400-500 for the middle line level and USD 550-900 for the first line level.
IT Training has flourished with over 400 Universities/ Colleges/ Institutions as a result of government policies to encourage the establishment of new IT Universities, Colleges and Institutions. In order to compete with other IT training establishments, IT training centers are gradually aware of the importance of English skills to their graduates and the necessity of improving training curriculum to have IT qualified graduates as outputs...
In short, despite many policies have been adopted by the government of Vietnam to make a premise for sustainable growth in order to cope with the situation that IT application is further enhanced in government, enterprises and daily life and IT outsourcing market and foreign investors in Vietnam are demanding, IT training outlook in Vietnam is quite chaotic. It is necessary to have basic changes to meet the professional requirements domestically and internationally.
Infrastructure
Vietnam has made significant achievement in the development of telecommunication network and Internet. The development could be recognized through the capacity enhancement of the network and the increase of telecommunication subscribers, mainly subscribers for fixed phone lines, mobile phones and Internet.
Internet broadband has been strongly developed in last recent years, especially since 2006 with the booming of ADSL broad band Internet. As of August 2008, international Internet connection capacity reached 40.100 Mbps and has increased up to 52,902Mbps in March 2009. The bandwidth has met requirements of new services such as on-line video, games.
The installation/subscription and monthly fee for Internet access have gone down dramatically in favor of users due to fierce competitions among Internet service providers. The installation fee is USD 25, monthly fee ranges from USD 22 – 85, and fee per MByte from USD 0.25 - 0.28 cent. Among Internet service providers, VNPT remains a dominant one with the biggest market share, leaving the second player – FPT, the third player - Viettel and the others like EVN, Telecom, SPT, Netnam lagging behind.
Over the years from 2003 to May, 2008, percentage of Internet users in total population has increased remarkably from 3.8% to 23.5% or 3.1million and 19.8 million users, respectively. The number of internet subscribers has been double in 2009 in comparison with the number 2006.
Hardware and Technical Support
Hardware industry went over the threshold of 2.9 billion USD in 2007, in which USD 2.178 billion is from export turnover of electronics and computers and about 800million USD for domestic market. A great contribution to export turnover belongs to 100% foreign owned companies. The years 2005 and 2006 witnesses’ investment by multinational companies in the hardware industry in Vietnam such as Intel’s project worth USD 300 million to build an assembly and testing semiconductor lab in Hochiminh City and Canon’s project worth USD 110 million to set up its world biggest inkjet printer factory in BacNinh. However, it is a fact that ICT products for export are just been assembled from imported spare parts. 90% of the products are assembled by enterprises located in Hanoi, HaiDuong, BacNinh and HungYen in the North and Hochiminh City, Dong Nai, BinhDuong in the South.
As number of users of IT application increase rapidly in last several years, technical support is indispensable service. Technical support establishments have mushroomed. They could be an IT service company or an integral part of IT hardware providers or hospitals for computer (i-care) with 24/7 service delivery or convenient repair/ service shops. In general, technical supports are perceived at satisfactory level and they are available all over the major cities.
According to a survey conducted by the researcher at some hardware providers, prices of hardware products vary depending on the technical features and brand names for example a price of one PC with famous brands is ranging from USD 650 to 1,370 and USD 200 (unbranded); a standard server branded IBM costs from 1,270 to 3,960 USD, and a HP server costs from 1680 – 2940 USD.
Key competence areas
As mentioned earlier, labour which is cost effective, fast and keen on learning is one of the most precious resources. With the large and potential labour pool, Vietnam is very confident as one of the ideal destination for software outsourcing and in competing with India and China. This is also an area that Vietnam can develop by itself without any supporting industries (e.g. mechanic engineering).
A young populated country as Vietnam has a great advantage for hardware assembling.
Moreover, Vietnamese IT professionals are all capable to customize, or even develop much application software in management, accounting, design, games.
Local market opportunities
As an Asian country with young population and the economy is fast growing, software service and digital content industry including mobile equipment, e-newspaper, online database, and the online games are forecasted the most growing areas.
As the member of WTO since Jan 2007, Vietnam expects to receive a lot of foreign investment to develop the infrastructure in general, and the technological infrastructure in particular. More business in Vietnam also means more potential for ICT market.
Furthermore, with the strong reform strategies proposed by the government, all of state owned enterprises or government agencies are bound to apply IT in management in order to improve their efficiency. This indicates more opportunities for ICT Vietnam.
Market threats
Copyright infringement is perceived as the major threat for ICT in Vietnam. Strictly compliance to the Intellectual Property Laws is a must for all businesses in Vietnam. If then, there is no longer in Vietnam the concept “cheap & free” for software products/ services.
“Brain drain” from local IT companies to foreign owned companies for higher payment and more opportunities of training is inevitability.
Moreover, it may also occur the collapse of some small companies who are inefficient in management and lagging in reaction to such fast changes of technology.
VII. ICT Associations
Association: Vietnam Association for Information Processing (VAIP)
Address: No.1 Han Thuyen St., Hai Ba Trung Dist., Hanoi, Vietnam
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