The paucity of skilled IT (information technology) workers in the country was highlighted as the FPT Corporation opened its second software village, F-Ville 2, in Ha Noi on February 13.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam noted that Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc had in a recent meeting expressed his wish to have a million people working in the IT and digital content sector in Viet Nam in the shortest possible time.

However, there are just 300,000 employees in the sector now, “so we have much work to do,” he said.

Dam said enterprises other than FPT should also establish software “villages” with tens of thousands employees if the dream of making the hi-tech zone an international software hub is to be realised.

The village was established by FPT Software, a part of the FPT Corporation. It is located in the F-Ville complex that was licensed in 2012. With a floor area of 28,000 sqm, F-Ville 2 can have 3,000 people working it.

The new village’s predecessor, F-Ville 1, opened in 2013, covering an area of 16,000sqm. It currently has 2,000 employees.

“The software village F-Ville is the first and largest software export centre built in the Hoa Lac Hi-tech Zone. FPT is committed to continuing its investment in education, infrastructure development, research and development so that the software village can become a global centre for digital transformation services,” said FPT chairman Truong Gia Binh.

He said the 5,000 employees of F-Ville will work with FPT Software’s staff in Japan, the US, Germany, France, Slovakia, Singapore and South Korea to research and implement projects for Japanese customers.

Tsuyoshi Okubo, managing director of Honda Techno Fort (Japan), one of 100 Japanese customers of FPT Software taking part in the event yesterday said: “Honda and FPT have been co-operating since 2014. I think that the growth of FPT at present is an inevitable result of the vision and strategic thinking of the corporation’s leaders with their experience in many fields.

“In the future, we hope to contribute our efforts along with you towards boosting economic development co-operation between Viet Nam and Japan,” he said.

Japan is the most important market for FPT Software, bringing in revenues of more than US$100 million last year. The company has set itself the goal of being listed in the top 50 IT service companies in Japan this year. 

VNS