Vietnam advances on global ICT map

VietNamNet Bridge – The latest White Book on Viet Nam's Information and Communications Technology (ICT) outlook shows that it has become brighter on the global ICT map, despite the domestic economic downturn.

The book shows that in relation to offshore services, Viet Nam remains among the top 30 leading countries in the world and in the top 10 in Asia-Pacific.

According to a report by A.T. Kearney business consultants, Viet Nam ranked eighth for offshore services, jumping two places compared to 2009.

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) also reported the country's ICT Development Index had risen five places from 86th to 81st, ranking 4th in Southeast Asia and 12th among 27 countries in the Asia Pacific region.

This year, the Tholons Inc Consultancy continues to place HCM City and Ha Noi among the top 100 outsourcing destinations in the world.

HCM City was ranked 16th while Ha Noi was ranked 23rd in terms of software outsourcing.

The software industry failed to maintain the sharp rise enjoyed in previous years due to the economic downturn, but industry revenue reached over US$1.2 billion, a 3.1 per cent increase compared to 2011.

To Thi Thu Huong, deputy head of the Information Technology Department under the Ministry of Information and Communications, explained the modest growth in the software industry was attributed to declines on the global market which were caused by the economic crisis.

However, she said the Government aimed to promote the industry's development. This year, software products continued to enjoy investment incentives and preferential corporate income tax rates.

Source: VNS

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Quality management in software enterprises…

Quality management system in software enterprises is becoming more and more effective. However, the number of enterprises developing their own systems is still limited...

In order for software enterprises to share experience with each other and exchange some concerns relating to quality management model, HCA and ICT Partnership held the conference “Quality management system in software enterprise” on 16th Aug 2007 in Hochiminh City.

The main topic of the conference focused on how to develop quality management process as well as some criteria and popular software development models such as CMMi, ISO 9001:2000 presented by experienced experts from leading software enterprises like FCG Vietnam, GSC, TMS, PSD, FPT Software and New Millennium.

Not totally optimist reality

Said Mr. Tran Lac Hong, vice-president of HCA, quality management system is the utmost concern of many software enterprises as well as software outsourcing customers because this is an important criteria to evaluate prestige and experience of an enterprise. Nevertheless, according to a survey one year ago, among software enterprise members of HCA, up to 60% did not have certifications and were not interested in quality management system.

“A majority of this kind of enterprise has small size and focuses on domestic market”, said Mr. Hong. According to a survey carried out by Carnegie Mellon University, up to March 2007, Vietnam had only 10 software enterprise using the model for evaluating CMM/ CMMi (Capability Maturity Model/ Integration) software production capacity.
Mr. Hong, however, rest assured that it is not imperative for small-sized to develop Quality management system. They can learn from experience and then apply flexibly into current production process to improve and upgrade their own product quality.

The necessary of flexible application.

Mr. Nguyen Cao Tung (from New Millennium Enterprise) said that quality in software quality management didn’t depend on itself only but also on other factors such as cost, flexibility/efficiency, dependability and speed/ productivity. A software enterprise should take use of all these factors to reach the highest quality and productivity at the lowest cost.

According to him, in order to successfully develop a quality management system, each enterprise needs, first of all, a leadership principle comprehensive with the outlook and long-term business objective. Besides that, an enterprise should know how to balance inner factors (internal capacity ) and outer ones (customers). He emphasized: “Working process must transparency and so do quality. In order to attract customers’ attention, a software enterprise should guarantee for both products and services”.
From the same view point, Mr. Ngo Van Toan (GCS Enterprise) added that an efficient quality management system should have the application and transfer from the top leaders of the company . “To GCS, quality management is an independent system and GSC only applies the main features of rational Unified Process. With the model that GCS is applying, capacity is the key factor and training plays a very important role”, said Mr. Toan.

Mr. Do Van Ngoc (FCG Vietnam) said that the key factor which helped FCG Vietnam reached CMMi level 5 in Jan-2005 ( focused on CMMi Initiative since 2001) was the comprehensive spirit from board of directors to all staff and the most important point was that the company had applied the available software production processes.

Mr. Ngoc told that on average, FCGV reached one-rank higher of CMMi for the period of 10 months. With the quality management FCG Vietnam is using, this is an open-structure in order to adapt with many different criteria and quality management models and a precious experience drawn from applying CMMi is that there is a need to maintain the awareness of Board of Directors. Along with that, FCG itself also develops software and tools to manage the current quality management system.

Mr. Tran Bang Viet (TMA) told that quality management system in general and quality criteria in private are used for all departments and TMA also develops a database system called “ Historical Data/ Project Knowledge Base” to reduce searching time when there’s a need for referencing or using at other projects. He added, “In the up-coming time (estimated Quarter 4/2008), TMA will upgrade into CMMi level 8 for Service 1.0).

Anh Khoa Reporter

(Source: PC World VN )

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PCs in Vietnam still at risk before Microsoft ends support for Windows XP

VietNamNet Bridge – Microsoft today reminded business and consumers in Vietnam with PCs still running Windows XP that it will officially retire service and support for Windows XP in six months’ time, on April 8, 2014.

With half a year left to this crucial milestone, there are over 5.3 million PCs in Vietnam, or four in 10 PCs, which are still running on Windows XP, an 11-year-old operating system no longer capable of handling sophisticated cyber-attacks and demands for more data privacy and productivity.

After April 8, 2014, Microsoft will no longer provide security updates, non-security related fixes, there won’t be a number to call for technical assistance, or online technical content updates for Windows XP. This means that users will no longer receive the updates that help protect PCs from harmful viruses, spyware, and other malicious software. This may result in downtime and software compatibility issues.

Microsoft urged all business and consumers still using PCs running on Windows XP to upgrade to either Windows 7 or Windows 8. According to the findings of Microsoft’s Security Intelligence Report, Volume 14, released in April 2013, Windows XP with SP3 is up to 56.5 times more vulnerable than Windows 8 RTM.

StatCounter figures for September 2013 show that Vietnam has one of the highest Windows XP installed bases in Asia Pacific. Windows XP still accounts for approximately 44 per cent of PCs in Vietnam. That’s equivalent to an alarming figure of 5.3 million PCs, which is roughly the population of Singapore. On the bright side, as of September 2013, consumers and businesses have been slowly upgrading to newer versions of the operating system, and at least 48 per cent of PCs are now on Windows 7 and 8.

Director of SMSP, Microsoft Vietnam, Pham Tran Anh said: “Clearly, there’s still a lack of urgency in organisations in Vietnam to make migration a priority. While no one likes change, consumers and businesses need to consider newer operating systems like Windows 7 or 8 in order to modernise their computing devices and to address sophisticated threats which can compromise the safety of their personal information.”

“This could result in additional costs associated with support and business continuity. With the typical deployment times for upgrades spanning from three to six months for small businesses, and more than six months for mid-sized businesses, we are really worried that companies in Vietnam are cutting it too close to the end of service date.

We’re committed to helping Vietnam upgrade,” he added.

Industry analysts have been advising businesses to move away from Windows XP over the past years. With six months to go before the end of service for Windows XP, IT analysts are stepping up their education efforts to drive a greater sense of urgency.

"Time is running out," said Handoko Andi, manager of Client Devices Research at IDC Asia/Pacific. "In order to make sure that PCs continue to be securely supported and operational, both consumers and businesses alike should be migrating to newer versions of the operating system now, given the termination of extended support for Windows XP in just six months’ time."

Source: VIR

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Vietnam dreams the software dream

VietNamNet Bridge – The initial success in the software industry gives an important reason to Vietnam to continue making heavy investment in developing software products.

Experts believe that Vietnam should learn the experiences of building up the software industry from India, where most of the information technology firms are software firms.

India has been gathering its strength on developing the software industry, while it has been outsourcing hardware projects to the partners from Vietnam and China. The result of the strategy is that the country’s software industry has been developing very strongly, now making up 17 percent of GDP of the country.

At present, software is not the big advantage of Vietnam, and it is not the sector that brings the highest turnover in the information technology. However, experts believe that software should be seen as the industry of the future.

Though Vietnam is not a big name in the world’s software firms’ map at all, made-in-Vietnam products, to some extend, have successfully conquered the world market. CMCSoft, FPT IS, Hanel, Misa or Tinh Van are the Vietnamese well known names in the international market, while BKAV, CMC InfoSec, FPT IS, Lạc Việt, VTC Mobile, AVSoft Corp. have been famous for utility software.

Developing the software industry is the way the government tries to drive information technology firms to.

Truong Gia Binh, President of FPT, the country’s biggest technology group, said FPT IS, a subsidiary of FPT, has been setting up most of the big information systems of the nation, including the personal income tax payment management system and the e-customs clearance system. The manufacturer is the author of more than 60 percent of the national software systems.

Also according to Binh, software export is not the sector which brings the biggest turnover to the group, but brings the second biggest profit, while having created 5,000 jobs.

CMC Soft, another big guy, has also marketed a series of application software products, including the ones for document management eocman Plus, the corporate information management C-Office and the one-stop-shop administration management eDocman One.

Experts, when affirming that the right way for Vietnam is to develop the software industry, said that Vietnamese are capable enough to make software products. VNG with its successful Zalo, showed that Vietnamese can create the software products competitive with the big guys in the world.

The success of BKAV, FPT IS showed that Vietnamese have sufficient grey matter to create high quality products.

Why software, and not hardware?

Hoang Manh Cuong, a well-known information expert, said that since Vietnam lacks capital for R&D, lacks supporting industries, it cannot make the products with the low prices like Chinese products.

The development of the Vietnamese hardware industry, like the automobile industry, would reduce to a nonplus. Vietnam has been trying to develop the automobile industry for the last many years, but until now, it has been just assembling cars instead of manufacturing cars.

Cuong believes that Vietnam should go the easier way – the software industry development – which is more suitable to its capability.

Chu Tien Dung, Chair of the HCM City Informatics Association, said the hardware enterprises should think of shifting to other types of business, though it is not an easy task. He thinks that it’d be better for them to make the supporting products to provide to foreign invested enterprises.

NCDT

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Mobile users to change providers, keep digits

VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Information and Communications has announced that mobile phone users will now be able to change network providers without swapping their mobile numbers from January 1, 2017.

Customers shop for mobile phones in Ha Noi. The Ministry of Information and Communications has announced that mobile phone users will be able to change network providers without swapping their mobile numbers, but not yet ... from January 1, 2017.

The ministry previously planned to apply the project in mid-2014 but said it would need more time to prepare comprehensive policies to allow the new method to run smoothly.

According to deputy head of the ministry's telecommunications department Le Thi Ngoc Mo, despite mobile carriers agreeing in principle to apply the method, most of them were not willing to do it on schedule.

If applied, all mobile phone numbers will be centrally managed by MIC's telecommunications department, instead of being partially managed by each network provider. This is a policy already applied in as many as 70 countries worldwide.

The new policy would give subscribers greater choice in selecting their network providers, while creating fairer competition between telecommunications companies.

In addition, it would allow telecoms authorities to measure the development of the mobile market, especially in terms of e-commerce.

Mobile phone subscriptions in Viet Nam have skyrocketed in recent years, rising from 19 million in 2006, to 25 million in 2007, 74 million in 2008, 98 million in 2009 and most recently, 120 million in 2012.

Source: VNS

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Businesses keep indifferent to domain name registration

VietNamNet Bridge – Instead of spending several hundreds of thousands of dong to register and maintain domain names every year, enterprises have to spend hundreds of millions of dong to buy back domain names from others.

According to Tran Minh Tan, Deputy Director of the Vietnam Internet Network Information Center (VNNIC), Vietnam now has 500,000 operational businesses, but there are only 200,000 websites.

In a report released in early 2012, the agency said that only one-fifth of 500 enterprises in Vietnam had registered for a “.vn” domain name.

According to the VNNIC, Viet Nam currently has 181,000 registered “.vn” domain names belong to 124,000 organizations and enterprises.

Dying of indifference 

The southern province of Binh Duong is believed to be the locality with the highest number of businesses having registered their domain names in the country. 

However, Lai Xuan Thanh, Deputy Director of the provincial Information and Communication Department, said the number is just modest. There are 15,000 operational businesses in Binh Duong, while there are only 3,200 websites using the domain name “.vn”, and 1,500 using international domain names (“.com” or “.net”).

Not only small enterprises which were not aware of the importance of registering domain names, but big Vietnamese technology groups and general corporations also once lost their international domain names. The domain name “VNPT.com” was once registered by an institution in South Korea in October 2010, while “VNPT.net” has been owned by a South Korean institution since 2001.

Most recently, local newspapers reported that BKAV, the Vietnamese leading network security firm, had to spend VND2.3 billion to buy back the bkav.com domain name from a US company, which was “agile” enough to register the domain name before.

Also according to Thanh, competent agencies are dealing with a lot of domain name disputes, including the anz.com.vn and ibm.vn which now belong to domestic and foreign individuals. 

In Vietnam, Nguyen Trong Khoa has been known as a big domain name trader, who has got rich by speculating domain names and selling to the enterprises which have the demand for the domain names with the worlds relating to their brand names or enterprises’ names.

It’s still unclear how rich Khoa is, but people believe that he owns the domain names worth multi billions of dong. Khoa was wise enough to register the domain names relating to or similar to the names of the famous enterprises and then sells the domain names back to the famous enterprises.

The domain names owned by Khoa prove to be invaluable, which enterprises have to spend big money to obtain them.

Nguyen Trong Tho, Director of iNet Company in HCM City, which provides Internet solutions, said a lot of businesses had to pay a heavy price for “forgetting” or for getting late in registering domain names.

“In many cases, the domain names were sold at the prices 1,000 times higher than the initial price. If you are lucky, you can buy a domain name at VND1.5 million only. However, in other cases, you may ask to pay up $20,000,” Tho said. 

Especially, domain names may become invaluable, when some enterprises buy the domain names which coincide with the names of the rivals and then connect the domain names to their addresses in order to scramble for customers.

VNNIC has granted 1.1 million domain names with “.vn” so far.

Vietnamnet.vn

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10th year anniversary of K&G Technology

K&G Technology is pleased to celebrate 10 years of operation today, March 7th  2013.
K&G Technology  would like to say thank for the trust of our clients and the contribution of their employees in the success through its 10th years and beyond.
The next 10 years will be no doubt as challenging but we are confident in continuing to deliver good IT outsourcing service for our clients.

Thank again for all supports and we hope that all members and clients will accompany with us in our next journey.

K&G Technology

Software firms fear value added tax

VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Finance plans to put software products onto the list of products subject to the 10 percent value added tax (VAT). If this comes true, this would put big difficulties for software firms.
 

The Ministry of Finance is drafting the amended VAT and corporate income tax laws, planning to make big changes in the tax rates on software products and the business in the information technology sector.

At present, software products do not bear VAT, but this may change when the new laws take effects. The law drafters have planned that the 10 percent VAT would be imposed on software products.

The ministry has pointed out that the zero VAT rate is only reserved for export products, while the five percent tax rate is only reserved for some kinds of essential goods.

The taxation is believed to affect the operation of software firms because it would make the production costs higher. Meanwhile, enterprises still have to struggle hard to survive in the current economic downturn.

The Ministry of Information and Communication is collecting opinions from information technology firms about the attempted taxation, having requested the firms to provide deep analyses about the possible impacts of the taxation on their activities.

Also regarding to the tax policies, the regulations on corporate income tax draft law has raised controversy. At present, software production can enjoy the corporate income tax incentives. They can enjoy the tax exemption for the first time for years of operation. They have to pay the preferential tax rate of five percent in the next nine years. After that, they have to pay 10 percent in tax for the next two years.

However, the tax incentives have not been appreciated by domestic firms. The director of an information technology firm said that the current policy only benefits joint ventures and foreign invested enterprises. Meanwhile, a lot of Vietnamese enterprises have been taking loss, and they don’t have to pay tax to enjoy the tax incentives.

The attempt to tax software products has raised worries about the future of the software industry in Vietnam. Some experts have pointed out that while the government shows its determination to turn Vietnam into an information technology power, the tax policies do not encourage the development of the software industry.

The experts think that instead of offering corporate income tax incentives, it would be better to offer personal income tax preferences to the workers in the software industry. For example, foreign programmers or experts working in Vietnam bear lower personal income tax rates.

They have stressed that this is an important solution that helps attract high quality labor force for the Vietnam’s software industry.

In fact, it is not easy for the Ministry of Finance to make decisions on raising or reducing taxes. Disagreements always exist among the enterprises in the same business fields.

In the information and communication industry, for example, computer part manufacturers insist on higher tax rates in order to protect domestic production. Meanwhile, assembling enterprises want the tax rates to go down to make the input part imports cheaper, thus helping make their products more competitive.

In related news, the software firms which have been earning their living in mainly in the domestic market have experienced a tough year in 2012, with the turnover down by 30 percent. Many of the firms have to stop operation because of the sharp cuts of the orders from the State and domestic consumers.

Meanwhile, the firms are believed to “live better” than the software firms which target foreign markets.

Buu Dien

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Views split over IT public investment

HANOI – There are many different opinions about the present structure of public investment in IT at home.

As per a recent report of the Information Technology (IT) Department under the Ministry of Information and Communications, the Government spent about VND1.25 trillion purchasing IT products last year. The sum included VND351 billion for software and up to VND904 billion for hardware.
There are some saying that the Government is heavily focusing on developing hardware infrastructure and purchasing equipment like desktop computers rather than services and software and the investment is not proportionate.
However, Nguyen Duc Toan, director of EMC Vietnam, a provider of IT infrastructure solutions such as information storage and security, said Vietnam’s structure of investment into the IT industry is suitable.
In the first phase of IT investment, the investment ratio set aside for hardware will be higher than that of software, he said, explaining that infrastructure is always in need of investment first. It is like the traffic industry in which roads will be developed before vehicles are purchased.
“Besides, the fact that whether investment and deployment of software is successful or not depends on suitable process and awareness of users. New software cannot necessarily change the IT system for the better,” Toan said.
He underlined the importance of taking a long time to change the industry for the better. Previously, software projects were for addressing micro issues, but lately software schemes with considerable impacts like public financial projects have also started.
Toan asserted the current IT public investment is not misleading. Statistics of Gartner indicate an investment ratio of 18% for software is the common structure for IT investment in many other countries but the figure of VND351 billion out of a total VND1.25 trillion is not small, he clarified.
“Moreover, when looking at the overall IT investment picture, we can see that a lot of public services have become much more convenient compared to a decade ago thanks to IT investment,” he added.
Regarding the issue, Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Minh Hong agreed that public opinion tends to pay attention to the investment ratio between hardware, software and services in comparison with the total investment value. However, Hong said the ministry will adjust the ratios in accordance with reality in every specific development period.

By Van Oanh - The Saigon Times Daily

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