HCM City is waiting for approval from the Government to expand a chain of software parks including into other provinces following the success of its Quang Trung Software City.

Vietnamese technicians of a Japanese company at Quang Trung Software City in HCM City. HCM City is waiting for approval from the Government to expand a chain of software parks into other provinces following the success of its Quang Trung Software City.

Since the first QTSC was built in District 12 more than 13 years ago, it has grown into a chain that includes QTSC 2, which is now awaiting land allocation, and others at the Viet Nam National University of HCMC in Thu Duc District, the VNPT complex in District 10, and the HCM City University of Technology.

Le Thanh Liem, deputy chairman of the city People's Committee, who spoke yesterday at a ceremony to confer the Labour Medal, second class, on the department of Information and Communications, said creating the chain would be significant to the city's development.

Under the proposed programme, the city together with some southern provinces will set up and upgrade infrastructure for IT development.

Another Quang Trung Software City is planned in Da Lat.

All the parks in the chain would be expected to follow the standards of the first QTSC.

Nguyen Duc Chung, head of the city Department of Information and Communication's planning section, said preparations for a QTSC in Da Lat were complete and waiting for approval from the Government.

Asked about QTSC 2 in HCM City, Chung said though surveys had been done at several places, the location had not been decided.

The venues considered include a 41ha plot in Tan Binh District, the Thu Thiem New Urban Area, Long Phuoc Island in District 9, and Cu Chi District.

Le Thai Hy, director of the department, said 120 companies with total registered capital of VND2.4 trillion (US$109.5 million) operate in QTSC.

They include four leading global companies — HP, IBM, KDDI, and HITACHI – and 10 others nominated among the top 50 companies in Viet Nam.

The companies employ 18,260 people, and last year had combined revenues of US$220 million, an increase of over 30 percent year-on-year.

VNS