VietNamNet Bridge – The State plans to budget VND200 billion for the national program on the information technology (IT) application at state agencies (program 1605) for 2014-2015, which is not worth-while.

Phung Van On, Director of the Informatics Center of the government office, said only VND200 billion can be allocated for the program 1605 in the next two years because Vietnam is on tight budget. The Ministry of Finance has forecast the budget shortfall of VND63 trillion this year.

According to Tran Tuong Lan, a senior official from the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), at first, the ministry thought it could arrange VND70 billion only for the program in 2014, though it understood well that the modest investment would lead to the program implementation slowdown.

Later, after a lot of thoughts, the ministry has decided that VND120 billion would be allocated to the program in 2014.

Nguyen Thanh Phuc, Head of the IT Application Agency under the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC), admitted that the allocated budget of VND200 billion is too small if compared with the demanded capital.

The reports showed that trillions of dong is needed to implement the important program, while the allocated budget just can satisfy 1/10 of the demand.

Also according to Phuc, MIC has proposed to extend the implementation of a lot of projects in the program because of the lack of capital. If the proposal is not approved, the projects would have to be “closed” by 2015. And if the big systems cannot be deployed, the program’s target of laying a foundation for the development of the e-government and building the information infrastructure by 2015 would be out of reach

Under the Decision No. 1605 on the national program on IT application at state agencies in 2011-2015, 56 IT projects would be implemented within five years with the expected expenditure of VND1.7 trillion.

However, the disbursement has been in dribs and drabs. In 2011, only VND120 billion was allocated to the program in 2011 and VND100 billion in 2012.

The reports from 8 localities about the budget needed for the program 1605 showed that they need VND206 billion in 2014 alone.

According to Le Van Dieu from the IT Application Agency, it costs VND100-300 billion on average to develop a project of the program, while some huge projects need trillions of dong.

Vietnam even lacks money to implement urgent and important projects, including the ones relating to the information security.

The report by the agency released in July 2013 showed a step-back in the application of the measures to ensure security for the IT app infrastructure.

The number of computers at ministries and branches equipped with the security tools in 2012 decreased by 20.7 percent from 2011. A lot of ministries and agencies reportedly had the surprisingly low proportions, such as the Ministry of Justice 7.7 percent, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism 11 percent, the Ministry of Science and Technology 26.9 percent.

The lack of a qualified labor force in the field has also raised the worry that the program may fail. The 2013 White Book showed that only 61.67 percent of the units belonging to ministries and agencies at the ministerial level have IT staff.

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