Vietnam’s software exports to Japan and Asia Pacific have maintained high growth, representing the current bright spot for Vietnam's ICT industry, said deputy director Nguyen Thien Nghia of the Authority of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Industry.

Asked why total revenue of the industry in the first six months of 2023 fell by 8.66 percent compared with the same period last year to VND1,614,206 billion, Nghia said the ICT industry makes up 90 percent of total revenue of the information and communications sector and export value depends mostly on foreign-invested enterprises. 

In the first half of 2023, the supply chain was disrupted as it was impacted by global economic woes and the Russia-Ukraine conflict. 

In addition, the IT labor force cuts around the world led to a sharp fall in IT services and service exports. Hardware and electronics exports dropped by 9.6 percent. The difficulties in the US market and Europe have affected Vietnam’s IT industry.

However, Nghia said software exports to Japan and Asia Pacific continued to grow well in the first half.

In the first quarter, FPT’s revenue from IT service exports increased by 32 percent, and the number of newly signed contracts increased by 44.1 percent. 

The Japanese market and APAC made the greatest contribution with revenue accounting for 31.2 percent and 65.7 percent, respectively, thanks to the wave of investing in digital transformation.

However, the figures remain modest compared with the whole industry. As the yen depreciates, the revenue of the ICT industry dropped by 9.8 percent compared with the same period in 2022.

Nghia believes that the decline in the market for hardware electronic parts occurred worldwide. The revenue from electronics exports makes up 90 percent of revenue from the ICT industry in Vietnam.

In the second half of 2023, Vietnam will focus on maintaining positive growth of software exports, especially to the Japanese, American and EU markets. 

Garner predicts that global spending on software in 2023 and 2024 will grow by 12.3 percent and 13.1 percent, respectively, which will be a great opportunity for Vietnam.

According to the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC), Vietnam strives for the revenue of $2 billion from software exports by the end of 2023.

Nguyen Thi Thu Giang from the Vietnam Software & IT services said that the cooperation with the Japanese market has been witnessing high growth rate and the market potentials are great because of the lack of human resources in Japan. 

In addition, the IT systems in Japan have been running for many years already, therefore, they need to be updated with new technologies and maintenance. Therefore, Japan now has a high outsourcing demand.

Van Anh