VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnamese software outsourcing firms can now compete with rivals in many other countries in Asia Pacific for customers when the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement takes effect.

A speaker shares lessons about software outsourcing at VNITO 2015 – Photo: FPT

Lam Nguyen Hai Long, CEO of Quang Trung Software City (QTSC) in HCMC, said the TPP will enable Vietnamese software enterprises to expand markets, because China and India, which are Vietnam’s rivals in the field, do not join the TPP trade pact.

Long spoke of the opportunities at the Vietnam IT Outsourcing Conference (VNITO 2015) in HCM City last week. He said the conference was held shortly after trade ministers of 12 Pacific Rim countries struck a deal to conclude TPP talks and that the trade accord would benefit Vietnamese enterprises in the industry.

Nearly 400 representatives of local and foreign enterprises gathered at the major event organized by QTSC and the HCMC Computer Association (HCA).

However, Long said with the TPP, local software enterprises must follow strict rules including those related to intellectual property rights, and this might be a big challenge for domestic companies.

Yuko Adachi of IT research and advisory firm Gartner said Vietnam has been recognized as a level-one emerging market in terms of software outsourcing in Asia and had had the same ranking as China, India and Malaysia.

According to Gartner, some countries in Southeast Asia like Indonesia, Bangladesh and Thailand are also posting rapid growth in software outsourcing. However, Vietnam has proved its high competitiveness in the region.

A 2014 report of Gartner showed that in terms of software outsourcing Vietnam was among the top ten countries in Asia-Pacific and the top 30 in the world.

Nguyen Cong Ai, deputy general director of KPMG in Vietnam, is upbeat about the development potential of Vietnam’s IT sector.

KPMG has recently conducted a survey of directors and representatives of big software outsourcing companies in Vietnam and around 70% of 80 respondents said they expected to achieve growth of 20% next year, according to Ai.

Meanwhile, Hoang Nam Tien, chairman of FPT Software, said the advantage of Vietnamese software companies is their ability to quickly learn from new technologies and technological trends on global markets.

That is why FPT Software has successfully implemented some services and solutions based on cloud computing for foreign customers, Tien said.    

SGT