VietNamNet Bridge – The Vietnam Association for Information Processing VAIP has, for the fifth time, announced its figures of information technology (IT) readiness and its assessment of the IT development environment in Vietnam.

Top 10 provinces and cities show big changes

Da Nang City continues leading the list of top 10 provinces and cities thanks to its high application index, labor force infrastructure, technique and IT development environment. However, Da Nang’s grade for business and production is lower than Hanoi, HCM City, Dong Nai and Binh Duong, belonging to the group of provinces and cities with “relatively high” readiness for IT application and development.

Over the last 10 years, the rankings of HCM City, Hanoi and Binh Duong have not changed, remaining in second, third and fifth respectively. Many localities have successfully upgraded their indexes in order to jump grades and list themselves among the top 10 provinces and cities. Dong Nai province, for example, has jumped from 11^th to the 8^th, Vinh Phuc from 16^th to 9^th, Quang Ninh from 13^th to 7^th, and Nghe An from 12^th to 10^th.

Meanwhile, other provinces, including Dong Thap, Ha Tinh, Lao Cai and Bac Ninh have been muscled out from the top 10. Especially, Bac Ninh has fallen by 17 grades, from 10^th to 27^th. Can Tho has fallen by six grades to 20^th, and Lao Cai from 9^th to 16^th.

Education sector leading ministries and branches

At ministerial agencies, 72 percent of staff have been given email accounts, but only 67 percent actively use email for their work. At the municipal level, 47 percent of staff have been given email accounts, but only 44.7 percent use their accounts.

The Ministry of Education and Training regained the first position in the 2010 index after falling into second in 2009. The last year was a successful year for the education sector, when Internet infrastructure rapidly expanded and was used in grammar schools.

The Ministry of Finance also moved up a rank and now ranks second. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Industry and Trade lost its first position and fell to 4^th, mostly because of its low index for labor force infrastructure at 0.64 points

The big gaps in ministries and localities

This year’s ranking reflects big changes in IT development and applications in public organizations. However, many important targets still have not been obtained. For example, the percentage of state employees using office email accounts for daily tasks remains low.

At present, 100 percent of ministries have electronic information gateways, but only 32.6 percent of belonging units have websites. Vietnam has decided that 100 percent of local authorities must have their own websites. However, to date, the goal remains unrealized. Two provinces still have not built their own websites.

Regarding the degree of using computers, 90 percent of ministerial state employees are able to use computers. Meanwhile, as for local authorities, only 76.4 percent can use computers.  The figure has increased by 18.4 percent in comparison with 2009.

In terms of technical infrastructure, the average number of computers for every officer is 0.86, with 87 percent of computers having an internet connection.

Regarding online public services, on 2008, at the ministerial level, only 47 percent provided online public services, while the figure is now 76.6 percent.

The survey conducted by VAIP also shows the changes in phone and Internet connections among the public. The proportion of families that have TVs has increased from 70 percent in 2009 to 80 percent in 2010. However, the proportion of families with computers has only increased slightly, from 18.2 percent in 2009 to 18.9 percent in 2010. At the same time, the number of families with fixed lines has decreased from 52 percent to 48 percent due to the rapid development of mobile phone services.