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Lenovo launches the first One-Stop Center in Southeast Asia
This LEC is the first of its kind in Southeast Asia region, and the third center to be set up worldwide. The LEC is a combination of three sub-centers of Lenovo Corporate History Center which showcases information and data on the Lenovo Group establishment and development history, Lenovo Product and Sales Center to displays all the latest products and Lenovo Service Center to provide customer support services for all Lenovo computer products and its related software, as well as a hotline for after sales support.
“Vietnam is one of the most dynamic markets with significant potential for personal computer use. This launch of the Lenovo Experience Center in Hanoi reaffirms our long-term commitment to Vietnam and reflects our ongoing efforts to better serve our customers,” said Kyler Tan, country general manager, Lenovo Vietnam.
The LEC is operated by local BEN Computer Jsc., one of the most successful PC retailers in Vietnam. The LEC is located at B14, Pham Ngoc Thach Street, Dong Da district, Hanoi, Vietnam.
The LEC will not only benefit individual consumers, but also small and medium sized business customers who can experience the most advanced technologies and latest business-focused Think products with full support.
According to market research company International Data Company or IDC, the Vietnam PC market grew 6.6 per cent in the second quarter of 2010 compared to the first quarter of this year, an year-on-year increase of 12 per cent against the same quarter last year. The market was predicted to have an increase of 19 per cent in the third quarter against the same quarter for 2009.
It is good to talk
IsatPhone Pro is targeted at professional users who work in extreme conditions such as the government and mining industries.
“We aim to get 10 per cent of the phone market in next two years worldwide,” said Inmarsat director Drew Brandy.
“In Vietnam, we do not target sales in the first year. We want to introduce this kind of phone to Vietnamese audience at first because it is rather specific phone,” said Brandy.
Inmarsat has partnered local firm Vietnam Maritime Communication and Electronics Company to distribute the phones.
Along with satellite phone, the firm also brought into Vietnam with the new 176kbps streaming voice which is the newest addition to the broadband global area network streaming portfolio comprising of broadband global area network X-stream, the world’s fastest on-demand streaming service which delivers a minimum of 384kbps.
“As Vietnam emerges as an economic powerhouse, it would see the evolution of a robust broadcast industry with highly developed infrastructure, variety of content for information and entertainment, and a vibrant reportorial environment which serves the domestic market and connects the country with the rest of the world. This makes Vietnam a very important market for Inmarsat’s Broadband global area network service,” said Brandy.
Research key to IT industry
The HCM City Department of Science and Technology will transfer six semi-conductor intellectual property cores it owns to the Integrated Circuit Design Research and Education Centre for use in industry.
According to a statement released by the centre at the signing of the agreement yesterday, a semi-conductor IP core is a reusable unit of logic, cell, or chip layout design that is the intellectual property of one party.
It can help reduce the time and money required for designing SoC (System on Chip) and other chips.
The semi-conductor cores must be transferred to agencies capable of applying them effectively to improve the efficiency of HCM City's investment, the department said.
At the conference themed "Summary of science research activity: Information technology-GIS programme 2006-2010", Tan also predicted that IC design and Geographic Information System (GIS) would fast develop in Viet Nam in the following years.
Dr Duong Minh Tam said the quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) component designed and produced by his team was the result of a combination of knowledge in chemistry, electronics and informatics.
Tam and his colleagues are planning to market QCM, which, according to the team, promises many applications in areas like agriculture and health.
"Enterprises need to invest more in scientific research for more value adding with local components instead of only assembling products from imported components," said Tam.
Duong Anh Duc, deputy director of the Viet Nam National University - HCM City, said there was not much co-operation between scientists and enterprises and the number of researchers and scientists was small with few connections.
Integrated Circuit Design Research and Education Centre (ICDREC) of the Viet Nam National University-HCM City has 42 intellectual Property (IP) cores worth $34 million and six IP cores to be transfered by the department.
ICDREC director Ngo Duc Hoang wanted the department would support ICDREC's commercially potential projects longer to put some products like QCM on the market.
IT experts discuss support for businesses
The Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) held a meeting yesterday to gather opinions from experts about the second phase of its IT support project for enterprises.
At the meeting, Pham Gia Tuc, VCCI's vice president and general secretary, said this second phase from 2011-15 would be a necessary step to further develop the project after its successful first phase in the 2006-10 period. Many enterprises, especially small and medium sized businesses, expected the project to continue, he said.
Le Van Loi, director of VCCI's Institute of Information Technology for Business (ITB), said the second phase would continue activities from the first phase, solve problems that occurred during the phase one implementation, and add new programmes that were suitable with business developments and information technology (IT) trends at home and abroad.
Key activities during the second phase will include improving awareness of the role and effects of IT application in business; IT consulting for enterprise production and operations; IT training programmes for businesses; development of e-commerce; and proposals on policy and regulations that create advantages for IT use in business.
During the meeting, representatives from relevant ministries, industries and associations expressed their agreement with the plan for phase two activities.
Nguyen Minh Hong, deputy minister of information and communications, said during the second phase, the ITB, which implemented the project in the first phase and would continue in the second phase, should have measures to maintain the State-owned electronic trading floors that it built in cities and provinces.
Hong said the institute should plan to use IT when doing business, including in its management, customer relations and human resources activities.
"The institute should launch an online forum for enterprises to discuss and learn from the IT experiences of other companies and experts to use in their own production and business activities," Hong said.
The representative from the Ministry of Home Affair said the plan currently only focused on small – and medium-sized enterprises, while craft villages and households businesses also needed support from the project.
"So, the project should pay attention to craft villages and household businesses to help them integrate into the world of business as the State targets development of e-commerce in all economic sectors," he said.
The project should include specific targets for different economic sectors, such as State-owned enterprises, foreign-invested enterprises and private enterprises, the representative of the General Department of Tax said.
Loi said the first phase of the project was beneficial to Viet Nam's business community. The project built five national level e-commerce floors and 15 others in cities and provinces.
E-commerce service
Also yesterday, VCCI opened the VCCI E-Commerce Service Provider (VCCI-ESP) which will provide e-commerce services to enterprises.
Offered services include business to business, business to customer, e-payment, e-commerce training, information security for business and digital signatures.
The centre would play an intermediate role between businesses and the centre's partners to help business approach suitable e-commerce solutions and effective online trading support tools, save money and improve their competitiveness, Loi said.
The partners are the Viet Nam Commercial University, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce's Viet Nam Research Institute of Electronics, Informatics and Automation (Vielina), the Viet Nam Datacommunication Company (VDC), SmartLink Card Joint Stock Company, the Hoa Binh Software Solution Joint Stock Company and the McAfee Company.
Source: VIR, VNS
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