VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnam strives to be one of the world’s top 40 nations whose Information Technology (IT) students meet international qualifications by 2015.
This is one of the focal issues debated by delegates at a seminar on training IT human resources in Hanoi on December 23.

Nguyen Nhu Thang, secretary general of the Vietnam Electronic Industries Association said that to fulfill the project’s objectives, Vietnam needs to pay special attention to developing high quality IT staff, who would meet the requirements for international integration. Vietnam now ranks among top five nations in the Asia-Pacific region which have good sources of IT officers.

However, universities and colleges in Vietnam have not achieved good results in training IT human resources. Only one-third of schools meet the requirements in terms of the teaching staff and facilities, said secretary general of the Vietnam Informatics Association, Nguyen Long.

He added that the education sector should call on social organisations to invest in students and help them compete in informatics contests and become international computer programmers.

The Prime Minister has approved a project to promptly turn Vietnam into a power nation in information technology and communications by 2020.


* Booming VN telecom sector earns trillions

The telecom sector is expected to earn revenue of VND200 trillion (US$10 billion) in 2010.

The figure was released at a conference to review the implementation of the telecom and Internet development plan to 2010, in Hanoi on December 23.

Addressing the conference, Permanent Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Le Nam Thang affirmed that in the reviewed period, the telecom sector had a rapid development step, becoming a spearhead economic sector of the country with an average annual growth rate of 30-40 percent. Marked achievements - the modern telecom infrastructure system and higher competitiveness in the telecom market - helped narrow service gaps between regions.

The country has 162 million telephone subscribers or 189 telephones per 100 people, including 91 percent mobile phone users. The number of people using the Internet has hit 26 million or 31 percent of the country’s population.

At present, Vietnam has 11 network infrastructure enterprises and 81 Internet service providers. They are operating well in the domestic market and have begun to invest abroad. The military firm, Viettel, has invested in Cambodia, Laos , Myanmar , Haiti and Mozambique, while the National Post and Telecom Group (VNPT) has opened a representative office in the US.


VietNamNet/VOV