Asianux comprises of three Asian software companies -China's Red Flag Software, South Korea's Haansoft, and Japan's Miracle Linux. Along with the event, HCMC's Department of Post and Telematics opened the Software Cooperation Center last Sunday to contribute to promote research and development in the IT industry. The Ministry of Information and Communication's latest figures show that last year the software industry attained total revenue of more than US$350mil, including US$110mil from exports.
There are 750 software firms in Vietnam employing around 35,000 workers. The industry aims to maintain a growth rate of 35-40% per year from now to 2010, with revenue ranging from US$800mil to US$1bil, making Vietnam one of the top 15 software outsourcing and exporting nations. However, industry insiders have expressed concerns about its development when many challenges remain, such as software copyright infringement, poor IT application in Government agencies and enterprises and no transparent policy.
Vu Tan Cuong, director of the Information Technology Center of Hanoi's Department of Post and Telematics, said IT applications by local enterprises were limited. According to a recent survey on Vietnam enterprises conducted by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, only 40% of the local enterprises interviewed said they spend money on software application. About 20% of software applications by local enterprises are simple, mainly Office software.
Only 1.1% of the enterprises use Enterprise Resource Planning solutions, and 97.3% have not make use of e-commerce.
Simon Brown, vice president of Microsoft Corporation, expressed concern with the Daily during his recent visit that copyright violation was the biggest obstacle for Vietnam's software industry development when about 88% of the total software used in Vietnam was pirated.
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