Vietnam gets recognition that they really have an important part to play in international security and economics and seriously represent the ASEAN’s view. Taking their seat at the UN Security Council will really lay to rest some of the perceived ghosts of the past particularly in the USA.

The UN General Assembly cast a near unanimous vote in favour of Vietnam becoming a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council on October 16^th .

This is real recognition of the diplomatic prowess of the Vietnamese people and that Vietnam is becoming a real force in the global economy.

http://www.energypublisher.com/article.asp?id=11729

Outsourcing software development to Vietnam is now considered one of the best decisions that western management can make. In other words a real safe bet. There are a whole number of factors that support this view.

Firstly a recent survey by PWC put Vietnam at the top of the list as the “best destination to outsource to”, then Ho Chi Minh City comes in at number 6 in a survey on the best cities to develop software in. Of course the fact that the country has consistent GDP growth of plus 8% second only to China and stood third on the podium at the 2007 mathematics Olympics has also had a tremendous influence.

It is really no surprise to see the Vietnam Software development industry ranked 6th in a worldwide survey of outsourcing cities. Specifically, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) ranked 6th after cities like Chennai, Hydrabad and Pune. Not a mean achievement, but why so very impressive.

Low staff churn, an inviting government, deregulation, great English, French and even German and Japanese language skills, a burgeoning science graduate population are some reasons.

Software development in Vietnam is now becoming really attractive to western and eastern companies to gain price advantage and IT professionals who will see projects through to a conclusion. Harvey Nash have been developing software in Vietnam and providing outsourcing services to UK, USA and European companies for nearly eight www.harveynash.com/software/. Just recently we have worked had some real success with Australian, Singaporean and Japanese companies. Indeed we punch well above our weight. Our HCMC and Hanoi software development facilities achieved CMMI Level 5 over three years ago enabling us to deliver multi million $ projects to our clients world wide.

http://www.globalservicesmedia.com/Content/general200709172875.asp

Andrew Cahn, Chief Executive of UK Trade Investment led a delegation to Vietnam to identify the commerce and investment opportunities as well as to explore Vietnam’s policies in encouraging investment activities.

In his 3-day-visit (from 26-28 September), Andrew met Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Planning and Investment, and had a talk with British enterprises in Vietnam. During his tour around the Harvey Nash Software Development Centre operation on 28 Sept., he gave a short interview.

1. Why did you choose Harvey Nash Offshore Development Centre (ODC) for your visit? What is your overall impression about it?
   
   I was very delighted to visit Harvey Nash because it is a centre of excellence here in Vietnam. I wanted to come here partly to learn what it is like operating companies in Vietnam, partly to hear how its software and IT industry are developing, and partly to talk to its customers because my organisation is responsible for helping British companies globally and develop their business. And, obviously Harvey Nash is a British – based one. I am CEO of UK Trade and Investment. It is a government’s department. I run the department of over 2,300 staff. We have staff in over 100 embassies in the world and about 20 locations in United Kingdom. Our mission is to promote the interests of British companies exporting overseas and to attract foreign direct investment into UK, including Vietnamese companies, and also to help the globalization of the world’s economy.

2. Do you think it is a good co-operation model that British enterprises can apply? Why?
   
   I think it is a very good model. What you have here is essentially a Vietnamese operation and I think that is quite right that in Vietnamese economy, it should primarily be Vietnamese run. I welcome it and I think it is a right way to run a company. I was also impressed that there are a lot of effort put into staff development, staff training, staff appraisal, and providing career development for Vietnamese staff and also offering international opportunities. Therefore I think it is a very good model for how work should be done.

3. How do you think about the co-operation potential between Vietnam after Vietnam’s WTO accession, especially in software industry?
   
   Well, this morning I led the British delegation to join the Economic and Trade Commission talk. We were discussing precisely that question about possibility of how to deep the commercial relationship between Vietnam and Britain. I saw a huge of opportunities. Let me give you an example, my organization recently now is on global exercise to identify top 16 markets and Vietnam is of course one of the top 16 markets. The result that now we are shifting our staff out of Europe and America into Asia and into Vietnam as an example. Therefore, we have more staff in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City and few staff in Europe. I think there is a great opportunities for co-operation for Vietnam in software sector. We have already had a lot of co-operations with India and China and I think Vietnam is another location which has a very intelligent and educated workforce, and a very strong commerce culture. And I think Vietnamese people are really created by nature and created by instinct. And they are also very hard-working and intellectual and those will set the policies you need for successful software development and I think Vietnam is a nature thing for software business to grow.

4. Can you provide us some information about IT industry trends in UK? Could you give some advice to promote the co-operation between the two countries in terms of IT industry?
   
   Well, Britain is a one of the leading countries for IT industry globally. We have a number of IT clusters for example around Cambridge, the biggest one; another one in Bristol; and others around the country. We have our own domestic IT companies plus companies like Microsoft; Google has a major operation in UK. We have a very strong R&D base, properly the 2nd strongest in the world after US. The key component to develop IT industry is that you must have a strong IT university system, skilled base among the workforce and you must invest in the future. I do not think I want to adviseVietnam because it has been doing very successfully by itself but I would say that accession to WTO is a very wide move for Vietnam. It will provide many opportunities as well as acquire some disciplines and changes.

   This is my first visit to Vietnam I had wondered before I came if all the talk about Vietnam are correct. And I have been here to clearly witness a very impressive country, economy and workforce. Therefore, I am very optimistic about Vietnam’s future.

On the sidelines:

-UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) is the UK’s government organisation that provides integrated support services for UK companies engaged in overseas trade, and foreign businesses.For more information, visit www.uktradeinvest.gov.uk.

-Andrew Cahn, 54, is the Chief Executive of UK Trade & Investment. He took up his position on 27 March 2006 and is responsible for the worldwide operations of UK Trade & Investment and of its staff, and is the Principal Accounting Officer for the organization’s programme expenditure.

-Harvey Nash has received many VIPs from UKTI such as the visits of

-Lord Digby Jones in 2004, who has appointed Minister for Trade and Investment, Prince Andrew in June 06; the delegation of UK Independent Microsoft Software Vendors (ISV) in May 07, and the CEO UKTI in September 07.

-The UK is one of major European investors in Viet Nam with commitments of foreign direct investment reaching 1.4 billion USD by June 2007. Two-way trade between Vietnam and the UK hit 1.8 billion USD in 2006, a 12 percent year-on-year increase.