E-commerce – effective way to overcome crisis

The Vietnamese Government has made great efforts to help businesses promote exports and join the global trade network. Domestic businesses need to capitalise on the government’s investment in developing and expanding markets.

Deputy Head of the Import-Export Department Tran Thanh Hai says trade liberalisation can remove tariff barriers and create tax incentives for export businesses to penetrate new markets within the framework of trade agreements signed between Vietnam and other ASEAN countries.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade forecasts that despite facing crunch time at home and abroad, this year’s exports will grow by 16.6 percent (still higher than the projected figure of 13 percent) to US$113 billion. This means Vietnam will join the club of exporters exceeding US$100 billion.

Like other export-oriented Asian countries, Vietnam has become the world’s largest coffee and rice supplier.

It owes its successful export business to e-commerce, an effective tool for most businesses to minimise production costs, improve competitiveness and expand their markets.

Vietnam has huge potential for information technology and e-commerce to develop. By the end of September 2012, its Internet users accounted for 35.49 percent of the total population, 12 times higher than nine years ago. Experts say that if a country has more than 10 percent of its population using internet services, e-commerce is bound to grow and flourish.

While the global economic downturn has yet to ease, more and more international clients are moving away from traditional markets like China to ASEAN countries where new markets are emerging with low transport costs. This is a good opportunity for Vietnamese businesses to grasp.

Alibaba.com Group representative Michael Mang suggest they take the initiative to expand their client network through e-commerce channels and gradually adjust their sales and marketing methods to meet customer demand.

Export businesses should evaluate the efficiency of their e-commerce performance on a regular basis to ensure sustainable growth, Michael says.

According to the latest statistics gathered from a survey into export businesses on website B2B, their most favoured items on the e-trading floor are food and beverages and agricultural products (24 percent and 18 percent respectively), followed by construction materials and housing estate (8 percent).

By the end of the third quarter of 2012, the US topped other countries with bulk orders for Vietnamese products (10 percent), followed by China (8 percent), and India (7 percent) and three newly-emerging markets, Russia, Hong Kong, and Australia.

Development hinges on super-computer capacity

Viet Nam should promote the establishment of high-performance computing (HPC)/supercomputer centres so that the country can cope with large-scale societal and economic problems, speakers at a conference held in HCM City said.

Prof. Thoai Nam, dean of the HCM City University of Technology's Faculty of Computer Science, quoted a survey conducted by the International Data Corporation (IDC), which found that 97 per cent of companies that had adopted supercomputing could no longer compete or survive without it.

"Until 2011, Viet Nam had a strategy to develop HPC thanks to international co-operation with many other country partners," Nam said. "But the high investment needed and the lack of HPC application limited the effort."

Other factors had hindered progress, including many small research groups, poor sharing of data and resources, and small budgets for new technology.

In addition, each supercomputer costs US$1-3 million and well-trained and qualified human resources are needed to operate them.

"We already have five Vietnamese Ph.Ds for HPC along with other 20 other doctoral-level staff who are working with global partners. This will ensure that we have enough staff, and we will train more," Nam said.

But he warned that close co-operation with experts in different sectors as well as data sharing would be necessary to ensure the success of HPC.

From 2012 to 2015, Viet Nam plans to create innovative investment and human-development strategies.

For the 2016-2019 period, the country will acquire expertise in developing large-scale applications, and from 2019 to 2022, HPC would be applied to large-scale problems like traffic jams, flooding, climate change and natural disasters.

A campus grid at HCM City University of Technology that includes many single domains and has a high-speed network has already been set up. It will later join an inter-campus grid and the national grid located in the cloud.

The workshop was organised by the HCM City University of Technology in collaboration with the Russian-based Novatte Company.

IT sector increases ties with South Korea

Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Bac Son has pledged to create favourable conditions for firms from the Republic of Korea (RoK) to work in Viet Nam and transfer technology expertise.

The RoK is the first country to co-operate with Viet Nam in developing its telecommunications network since the 1950s, Son said at a conference announcing the partnership in Ha Noi on Wednesday.

He believes the two countries' work together will develop strongly in the future, especially in the areas of State management, human resources and information technology (IT).

RoK Minister of Public Administration and Security, Maeng Hyung Kyu, said that within the framework of the RoK short-term IT training programme, Viet Nam has received the most invitations to take part.

He also revealed that a centre allowing students to work on computers and access the internet - created with US$300,000 of RoK funding - was opened at the university in the northern mountainous province of Thai Nguyen, becoming the second such IT centre that the country has helped build in Viet Nam, following one that became operational last year. It has not built two in any other country.

It has been suggested that in the near future the two countries build an IT international co-operation centre to work on development projects.

The same day, a Viet Nam-RoK ICT business forum was held, attracting 150 delegates from the two countries.

Deputy Minister of Information and Communications, Nguyen Minh Hong, confirmed that more opportunities for agreements between Viet Nam and RoK businesses are starting to occur.

According to Nguyen Thu Giang, Deputy General Secretary of the Viet Nam Association of Software and IT Services, Viet Nam earned $13 million from its IT industry last year.

Web users learn value of security

Viet Nam has tens of millions of internet users but many of them have not known how to secure their personal information and protect themselves from malicious content in the digital world, according to a workshop held in Ha Noi on Wednesday.

Google detects 9,500 malicious sites around the web each day while discovering more than 300,000 phising sites (websites that attempt to trick people into revealing personal information) each month this year, according to Mike Orgill from Google's Public Policy and Government Affairs department for Southeast Asia.

"The internet offers great opportunities and plays a very important role in Viet Nam's economic growth now and in the future," said Orgill. "As more and more activities are carried out on the internet, equipping Vietnamese people with sufficient knowledge to take advantage of the benefits of the web is becoming increasingly important."

There are more than 30 million internet users in Viet Nam, and the number of internet users has been increasing by an average rate of 14.6 per cent during the past five years. The internet has also contributed 0.9 per cent to the country's GDP, according to the global business management strategy company McKinsey.

As part of activities to mark Viet Nam Information Security Day, the Viet Nam Information Security Association (VNISA), Viet Nam Computer Emergency Response Team (VNCERT) and Google are working together to provide practical and useful advice on information security and management.

Internet users are encouraged to use different passwords for different accounts and enable two-layer verification for Google accounts to enhance security. They are also provided with advice on how to protect themselves from malicious and incognito contents.

"When people know that they have adopted sufficient and necessary measures to protect themselves and their family when using the internet, they will comfortably and safely enjoy the benefits that technologies bring about," said VNISA's chairman Nguyen Duy Ngoc.

Websites warned of virus threat
 
Internet security company BKAV has warned several major Vietnamese websites that they might be infected with malicious software.

Presenting at a recent conference in Ha Noi on internet security, BKAV said that sites ending in gov.vn (governmental websites) have been found to be infected with malware. BKAV said it has already sent warnings to administrators of 520 Government websites ending with .gov.vn.

The problem initially happened in 2008 but has returned for users of the Chrome and Firefox internet browsers, BKAV said, noting that, after removing any hidden malware, administrators can go to google.com/webmaster/tools to remove sites from the blacklist.

Internet users were also urged to contact site administrators if they receive a warning from Google about a particular site.

BKAV also warned that a critical flaw in the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) across supported versions of Windows was affecting about 32 per cent of Viet Nam's Government web servers. The vulnerability allows attackers to remotely execute a code on an unpatched system that is Remote Desktop enabled.

Microsoft's Remote Desktop Protocol, which is disabled by default on newer Windows installations, allows users to remotely connect to Windows' desktops or servers and is widely used by enterprises.

Microsoft in March asked system administrators to apply its latest update as a "special priority" given the nature of the flaw, but about one-third of Government web servers in Viet Nam were still vulnerable, BKAV said.

According to the internet security firm, attackers may well develop a code similar to the Morto worm that appeared late last year. Morto-infected machines using RDP allow remote attackers to access the file systems of a Windows PC.

"The threat first came to Viet Nam in July while the weak management of server security in governmental organisations was at an alarming level, which could even threaten national security," said the head of BKAV's internet security department, Nguyen Minh Duc.

According to recent survey by the Viet Nam Computer Emergency Response Team, as many as 53 per cent of private organisations equipped with internet security systems were unable to notice the threats, while the rate in State-owned organisations was 54 per cent.

New Nokia smartphone ready for pre-orders

Customers can pre-order the smartphone Nokia Lumia 920 at 24 stores across Viet Nam starting from next Monday.

William Hamilton-Whyte, Nokia's General Managing Director of Indochina, said "before Viet Nam, Nokia Lumia 920 was sold in some markets such as UK, France, USA, Thailand and we are happy to see many users are queuing and waiting for this smartphone. With the pre-order program, Nokia Viet Nam would like to support our clients buying this smartphone more easily."

Dell launches brand new products

Dell is ushering in the next era of computing with a redesigned portfolio of business and consumer PCs.

The company's new products optimise Windows 8 and make touch computing available to more customers than ever before. Today, Dell is releasing the Latitude 10 tablet, Latitude 6430u Notebook and OptiPlex 9010 All-in-One with touchscreen.

CyberSource and PeaceSoft reach agreement

CyberSource, a Visa company (V) and one of the world's largest providers of eCommerce payment management services, announced an agreement this week with pioneering Vietnamese eCommerce company PeaceSoft to provide secure payment and fraud prevention solutions.

This is a significant deal because PeaceSoft, one of the market leaders in the field of eCommerce in Viet Nam, can now extend secure eCommerce services across its extensive portfolio of sites by using CyberSource.

Under the new agreement, PeaceSoft will adopt CyberSource payment gateway services and implement Decision Manager, CyberSource's global fraud-management portal for eCommerce.

Viettel cuts off EVN subscribers

On January 12, Viettel will stop allowing subscribers of EVN Telecom to use the Viettel network. Those who are using EVN Telecom SIM cards and have not yet switched to the Viettel network will be deleted from the network.

The Government granted Viettel permission to take over the ailing EVN Telecom on December 28, 2011. Customers who want to switch to the Viettel network can contact Viettel agents nationwide until the end of this month.

Luxembourg supports provincial e-Regulations

Luxembourg will fund the development of an electronic regulatory system known as e-Regulations in Viet Nam. The project will be trialed in Ha Noi, Da Nang and HCM City, followed by Vinh Phuc, Hai Duong, Binh Dinh and Phu Yen provinces.

The system will make public all the regulations and procedures related to investment and business performance, such as investment certificates, seals, tax code registrations and construction permits.

The procedures for foreign direct investment in the three cities are listed at http://VIET NAM.e-regulations.org, http://danang.e-regulations.org, and http://hochiminhcity.e-regulations.org.

Online community promotes 3G

The online 3G Citizen community was officially launched in HCM City on Thursday as an initiative to promote usage and increase public awareness about 3G mobile technology in Viet Nam.

The community, supported by Qualcomm, has a fan page on Facebook and Zing Me.

The online communities provide a platform for techies and wireless experts to talk about their experiences in 3G, opportunities and challenges. It is also the place where anyone can read about the latest trends in devices and applications.

The 3G network has been in operation for more than three years and the Ministry of Information and Communications estimates that there are over 16 million 3G subscribers in Viet Nam today.