Vietnam software industry achieves 17 fold growth

The Vietnamese software industry has grown 17 fold in the last nine years with revenues of over $1.8 billion forecast for 2010. It is no wonder that AT Kearney rank Viet Nam the 10th best location for Software development and Viet Nam have moved up 10 places in the global ease of doing business ranking.

I have had the privilege of sharing in the excitement and energy of this growth. Ambition and aspiration are two vital facets of Vietnamese culture that has driven both the Vietnamese ICT industry and Harvey Nash’s growth in Asia.

Harvey Nash have been developing software and business process outsourcing facilities for ten years and have seen their business grow to over 1300 people with close to 3000 associate IT professionals.

Viet Nam’s ICT sector has seen ten year growth of triple the nation’s average GDP growth, making the ITC Sector one of the most important components of Viet Nam’s economy. Up to the end of 2009 the ICT sector saw revenues of US$13 billion contributing 6.7 per cent of the Country’s GDP. Of this software and digital services contributed $1.5 billion, hardware, $4.6 billion and telecoms $6.9 billion. Revenues of £16 billion are forecast for 2010.

The announcement was made by Deputy Director of the National Steering Committee on Information Technology, Do Trung Ta.

Other important facts announced are:

• Up to 2009, the percentage of households owning computers was 13.6 per cent, five times that of 2002. Households connected to the internet grew by 12.2 per cent a year.
• About 90 per cent of businesses are also connected to the internet, 67.7 per cent of companies have local area networks, and 67.8 per cent of enterprises use accounting software.
• Viet Nam was ranked one of the 10 most attractive countries for the software industry last year, according to global management consulting firm A.T.Kearney.
• Viet Nam now has 24.7 million internet users, accounting for 30 per cent of the population, while the global average rate of internet users is 26.6 per cent.
• There are about 117 phones for every 100 people and there are a total of 115.7 million telephone subscribers.
• All rural communes have telephones and at least 8,025 communes have a post office offering public telephone, postal and internet services.
• Viet Nam jumped 10 places in terms of an improved ease of doing business, from 88th position in 2009 to 78th in 2010.*
• Viet Nam exports are generating an estimated 24-per-cent increase in revenues for 2010 and will reach 70.8 billion dollars, according to government data published Thursday.*

There are of course still a number of challenges the industry needs to address particularly with telecoms infrastructure but with wireless technology more pervasive than fixed line the challenges will be very different to those faced in the West. Education needs to keep pace with the sectors insatiable appetite for qualified people and red tape still slows business down.

Feel free to send me new facts that will enhance understanding of Viet Nam.

*Source: World Bank

December 6, 2010 11:44 AM | Permalink