VNPT completes fibre optic system

The Viet Nam Post and Telecommunications Group's HCM City branch launched a fibre optic cable system on Thursday to offer multiple telecommunications services to the city ‘s Can Gio island district.

District residents have caught up with other areas and now have access to all telecommunications services through fibre optic cables including Fiber VNN, MetroNET, MegaWAN, Internet Protocol Television and 3G.

Viettel invests in Peru

The Vietnamese military-run Telecommunications Group Viettel has established Viettel Peru S.A.C Company in the Peruvian capital of Lima.

The company was licensed to offer telecommunications services throughout Peru including mobile, internet and wireless services.

The operator said it conducted a survey of 1,500 locations in Peru to prepare for network development.

This is Viettel's fifth overseas company. It already offers services in Cambodia, Laos, Haiti and Mozambique.

FPT to develop driver training software

The FPT Information System (FPT IS) signed a contract with the Directorate for Roads of Viet Nam to develop software to manage drivers' training and licences nationwide.

The system of 12 software programmes would be developed in the next eight months, said general director of FPT IS Duong Dung Trieu.

FPT IS pledges to offer a two-year service warranty for the system.

PeaceSoft, Paypal join hands

PeaceSoft Solutions Corporation's e-wallet www.nganluong.vn is co-operating with international online payment system www.paypal.com to support Vietnamese online businesses in widening their e-commerce market.

Domestic online shopping websites will promptly have the ability to integrate Paypal's payment functions to approach around 98 million accounts in 190 markets worldwide.

Vietnamese firms will be able to open Paypal accounts easily on their websites in only 20 minutes without paying any registration fees.

Nghe An launches web portal

Central Nghe An Province inaugurated its e-portal www.nghean.vn on Monday.

The portal aims to provide residents and enterprises with official information and public services, and ease the information exchange with Government e-portals and those of other provinces.

Siemens launches new software

Siemens Viet Nam's Industry Automation Division yesterday launched its new automation software.

The Totally Integrated Automation Portal (TIA Portal) is an engineering framework that enables customers to design their automation processes from a single computer screen, along the entire value supply chain. The product offers a significant increase in productivity and competitive advantage, according to Siemens.

The product aims to redefine the way automation is used in all engineering applications by making it faster and easier. It enables users to develop and commission automation systems quickly and intuitively, which eliminates the traditional time-consuming and costly integration of separate software packages.

Infor, TRG offer business solutions

Business application software provider Infor and TRG International, a global professional services firm, introduced a new financial management solution this week called Infor FMS SunSystems Enterprise.

FMS SunSystems Enterprise provides a single solution to help financial managers quickly access information and manage internal changes in the business.

The new software is compliant with multiple and changing regulatory environments.

Intel Vietnam looks for domestic suppliers

Intel Products Vietnam is searching for more domestic suppliers to increase the ratio of local content in its products that are assembled at Saigon Hi-Tech Park (SHTP) in HCMC.

Some 50 domestic enterprises joined a seminar held on Tuesday as part of a cooperation program between SHTP and the world’s largest chipmaker to develop a local supply chain for Intel, and supporting industries for hi-tech firms at SHTP and in the city as a whole.

Nguyen Hoai Huong, manager of purchasing at Intel Vietnam, said at the seminar that her company had plans to increase the percentage of locally made materials for its products and spend more on local supply.

Intel Vietnam’s US$1-billion plant that assembles and tests chipsets is designed to produce central processing units (CPU) in future. When in full production, the facility is expected to employ up to 4,000 people and export US$5 billion to US$20 billion worth of chipsets a year.

The company is running just one production line. Three more lines are under construction and may be up and operating by the end of this year. Four more lines will be added from 2012 onward.

Therefore, up to 2015, the facility will need more suppliers to supply spare parts and services to increase the localization ratio and optimize production costs.

“Intel Vietnam is continuing to look for more local suppliers to support its operation in long term. However, it’s very difficult to choose Vietnamese suppliers because they cannot meet demand of our company,” Huong said.

She said Intel Vietnam had to date qualified 55 suppliers in Vietnam but almost all of them are Vietnam-foreign joint ventures and foreign-invested companies while Vietnamese-owned companies make up a small fraction. However, most of the local firms supply simple products and services, so Intel Vietnam still has to import parts to assemble its products.

Speaking to local suppliers at the seminar, the company said it was in need of products such as jigs and fixtures (metal works and high precision) and hardware (hand tools and consumables) and off-the-shelf spares. However, according to SHTP, the seminar is aimed at not only looking for qualified domestic suppliers, but also serving as an occasion for Intel to share its supplier selection process and expectations. This will help gradually enhance the manufacturing capabilities and product quality of suppliers at home.

Intel started commissioning its chip assembly and test plant in the city’s District 9 in late October last year, the largest and most advanced such facility in its global manufacturing network. The plant covers 46,000 square meters, double the size of the next largest Intel factory ever built in Kulim, Malaysia.

Assembly and testing is a critical final step in the end-to-end manufacturing of Intel’s silicon products, according to the company. Production commenced in the middle of last year, starting with production of chipsets for laptops and mobile devices for Intel customers worldwide.

SHTP has built a Supporting Industry E-portal with the aim of providing initial information to investors addressing their needs in seeking suppliers, along with the needs of domestic businesses to expand market share for their products.

SHTP calls for investment into supporting industries

Authorities of Saigon Hi-Tech Park (SHTP) in the city said that it will set aside a large area at the park for supporting industries and call for investment to supply spare parts and accessories for hi-tech tenants in the park.

Vo Anh Tuan, deputy director of the park, said that an area of 14.5 hectares in phase-two development of the park had been reserved for suppliers in supporting industries.

Tuan said that many companies in the park had plans to increase the ratio of locally-made materials for their products and to spend more on local supply. However it was very difficult to choose local suppliers because of the choosy demand of the tenants.  

Nguyen Thi Minh Thu, manager of the Department of Investment Promotion and International Cooperation of the park, said that the park would expectedly be ready to hand over land for suppliers to build factories early next year.

She said that suppliers that invest into the park would enjoy lower land rents compared with other areas in the city including land at industrial parks and export processing zones. They also may approach the funds for technology development of the city for financial support.

Besides, SHTP is supporting its tenants to look for suppliers in the country to increase the ratio of local contents in their products.

Supporting industries play the decisive role in promoting the country’s hi-tech advancement and increasing hi-tech share in the country’s gross domestic product, Tuan said.

The Prime Minister has recently issued Decision No. 842/QD-TTg approving the Hi-tech Industries Development Plan to 2020, with an aim to raise the value of hi-tech products to around 45% of GDP by 2020. Vo Anh Tuan said that supporting industries should help realize this target.

Experts said that competitive supporting industries would help attract more FDI into Vietnam, because multi-national corporations consider them to be an important factor in the decision to expand their investment.

SHTP is home to leading international hi-tech companies. Industrial tenants there include Intel, Japan’s Nidec, Denmark’s Sonion, Allied Technologies of Singapore, Jabil, Datalogic, FPT and EVN Tel. To date, 52 investment certificates have been issued to tenants at the park, with total committed capital of nearly US$2 billion.

In related news, a seminar was held in Hanoi on Wednesday to discuss measures to attract investment from Japanese small-and-medium-sized businesses into Vietnam’s supporting industries. The event was organized by the Ministry of Planning and Investment in coordination with the Vietnam Development Forum (VDF) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Dang Huy Dong affirmed that Vietnam has become an attractive destination for foreign investors thanks to the country’s liberal policy and its ongoing international integration process. He said Vietnam is keen to learn more from Japan’s experience in boosting the development of the support industry.

PV