VietNamNet Bridge – Concentrated information technology (IT) zones in Vietnam will enter a new development period when the plan on developing IT zones by 2020 and the draft decree on IT zone management are approved. This will encourage the increase in the number of IT parks in Vietnam will increase in order to turn Vietnam into a Silicon Valley in South East Asia.

Quang Trung Software Park

Tran Minh Tuan, Deputy Head of the Institute for Information and Communication Strategies, said that the establishment of software parks has created favourable technical infrastructure and business environment for IT businesses to develop. IT zones will serve as the labour force training centre for IT industry, and encourage the establishment of new businesses in new technologies and nurture existing enterprises.

Existing software parks efficiency still low

Article No 51 of the IT law stipulates that IT zone is a high-tech zone, which gathers or associates research and development centres, the production, training and business workshops related to IT industry. There are two types of IT zones, including 1/ concentrated IT zones with geographical boundaries, which gather R&D, production and training centres, and 2/ the combination of R&D, production centres with no geographical boundaries, specializing in software industry and digital content technology, located in separate buildings.

As such, concentrated IT zones should be understood as high-tech zones and software parks.

There are now seven software parks across the country, including the Hanoi Information Technology Transaction Centre (HITTC), Quang Trung Sottware Park, Saigon Software Park, HCM City National University’s Software park (VNU-ITP), Refrigeration Engineering Enterprise (e-Town), Da Nang Software Park and Can Tho Software Park.

The total investment capital for developing the infrastructure items of IT zones in 2006-2008 was two trillion dong, a four fold increase in comparison with 2000-2005 (470 billion dong). In 2005, there were only 116 companies operating in the field, while the number has increased to 499.

The number of 100 percent foreign owned enterprises account for nearly 50 percent of IT firms. In 2008, the number of enterprises with more than 100 employees increased fivefold compared to 2005.

Currently, the total number of employees working at IT zones is 30, 608, including 12,700 people working in IT firms,
However, the problem is that most of the IT zones still cannot meet the technical? requirements. Surveys have pointed out that 3/7 of software parks cannot meet the requirements set for concentrated IT zones (have at least 300 employees working at IT firms…). Only 3/7 software parks have parks and landscapes for relaxiation, while 5/7 do not have the land fund and the clean air required? to be expanded.

Meanwhile, the area of some IT zones has been narrowed from 930,000 square metre in 2005 to 737,589 square metre in 2008.

The operational IT zones have only focused on software industry and digital content, while they have not been able to attract big IT firms in hardware industry, such as Canon, Fujitsu or Samsung. Especially, the role of IT zones is not really clear and they have not made big contribution to the development of IT industry in both turnover and technology.

Still cherishing hopes

Despite these problems, the Ministry of Information and Technology still sets ambitious goals for the development of IT zones by 2020.

Under the draft strategy on IT zone development which is awaiting approval, by 2020, operational IT zones will be upgraded, while 3-5 new zones will be built by 2015, and 5-10 zones will be built by 2020.

The zones will be built in HCM City, Hanoi, Da Nang, Thua Thien-Hue, Nghe An, Dong Nai, Can Tho and Lam Dong.

Dr Phan Anh, Chair of the Radio Electronics Association of Vietnam, has stressed that Vietnam should learn the lesson from Hoa Lac High-tech zone which is a typical zone for unsuccessful investment. The zone, covering an area of 5500 hectares, has attracted enough investors to cover an area of 17 hectares.

“We need to find out why Hoa Lac, a priority investment item of the state, has not succeeded, while the software park in HCM City has been very successful in its operation,” he said.

Source: Thoi bao Kinh te Saigon