The Saigon Code Tour (SCT), an effort by recruiters to hunt for IT talent, is proof that the ‘price’ of coders in Vietnam has been soaring.v

Even with high pay and allowances, it is now difficult to seek and retain workers for the information technology (IT) industry.

With the support of information technology, teachers are helping students from poor areas connect with friends around the world.

VietNamNet Bridge - An IT engineer with three years of experience can receive monthly pay of VND8-10 million, according to Lam Nguyen Hai Long, director of the Quang Trung Software Park (QTSC) in HCM City.

The Vietnam Tax Consultants Association (VTCA) has completed the draft on the new tax policy for information technology (IT) firms as assigned by the government. It plans to give more tax incentives to encourage the development of the industry.

Vietnam is proud of its strong development in information technology (IT) as it strives to become an IT power by 2020. However, the majority of people still do not enjoy the benefits of IT.

VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnam is one of most competitive choices in the world for ITO (information technology outsourcing), according to market survey from Gartner, thanks to low labor costs, personnel stability and the “golden population” period.

Electronics, hardware and software firms are unsure whether they can qualify for tax incentives offered to hi-tech businesses.

VietNamNet Bridge – Competent agencies, which took an extraordinary inspection tour to 12 enterprises, have found that the unlicensed software products illegally used there were worth VND7 billion.

The initial success in the software industry gives an important reason to Vietnam to continue making heavy investment in developing software products.

Being concerned about the qualification of new IT school graduates, Vietnam now considers setting up new standards for IT skills in an effort to internationalize the quality of Vietnamese IT engineers.

The Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) is thinking of a special mechanism which encourage domestic firms develop Internet services such as social networks or search engines.

The Ministry of Finance plans to put software products onto the list of products subject to the 10 percent value added tax (VAT). If this comes true, this would put big difficulties for software firms.

The goal of building an e-government may be unattainable due to the lack of money, labor force and other problems.