The conference on "Overseas Vietnamese Community with the Development of Information Technology - Telecommunication" has attracted the participation of nearly 200 overseas Vietnamese (or Viet Kieu) entrepreneurs and intellectuals who are working in or visiting Vietnam.
The conference was jointly held in Ho Chi Minh City on August 20 by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, the National Steering Committee for Information Technology and the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee. At this event, authorities of the Quang Trung Software Park and the Ho Chi Minh City Hi-tech introduced investment and business opportunities to participants.
At the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Khiem affirmed, “This is a chance for the Viet Kieu community to share concerns and show legitimate aspirations to contribute to the development of IT and telecommunication industries of the country. This is also a chance for the Government, ministries, branches and local authorities to identify potentialities and abilities of the Viet Kieu community for the national IT and telecom industry.
According to a report, about 300,000 overseas Vietnamese intellectuals are working for important agencies, institutes, universities, companies and groups in North America, Western Europe, Japan, Australia and other countries. A large number of them are working in the IT-telecom industry. Particularly, thousands of Vietnamese originals are working in the Silicon Valley. This young, creative and enthusiastic workforce is equipped with the best training backgrounds in the countries where they are permanent residents. Their contributions to Vietnam are an invaluable resource.
In recent years, many Vietnamese-originated intellectuals, including leading professors, have returned to Vietnam to help locals to train, carry out researches and open companies engaged in IT-telecom industry. More and more Viet Kieu have invested in the Saigon Hi-tech Park, for example, Mr. Nguyen Van Sau, who founded Saigontech School, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Thinh, who invested in PSV Company, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc My, who invested in Sports Marketing Software Company and have invested in nine other projects in other localities nationwide. Professor Nguyen Chanh Khe has cooperated with the Saigon Hi-tech Park since 2002, Mr. Nguyen Huu Le invested in TMA Software Company with over 500 programmers. In Ho Chi Minh City, there are some 4,000 enterprises operating in the information technology - telecommunication industry, including 187 enterprises run by overseas Vietnamese.
The Vietnamese Government has suitably realised potentials and abilities of Viet Kieu and introduced sound policies and incentives to attract them to invest in the country. Besides, the Government also encourages Viet Kieu to contribute their ideas to the construction and completion of investment processes and mechanisms and incentive policies and encouraged them to propose incentives that go in line with their contribution capacities.
Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee Nguyen Thien Nhan has received great applaud during his presentation on “Current situations, targets and solutions to 2010 and contribution capacities of overseas Vietnamese.” His soft, friendly and attractive presentation made Viet Kieu feel closer with authorities in the country and encouraged Viet Kieu to share their thoughts and ideas with government leaders and local authorities. Nhan’s story about an investor who arrived in Ho Chi Minh City two years ago to seek investment opportunities in a high-tech project but encountered hardships in finding competent workers with fluent English “without discrimination from locals”. Then, he returned to organise a free training course for 30 people in six consecutive weeks and got satisfactory results. However, after initial difficulties were resolved, another hurdle was raised, that is, extremaly high transmission charges. And if the State supported to reduce transmission charges to the same levels as in other regional countries, he would carry out a project with 945 experts by early 2006 and if there were no drastic changes, he would expand the scope to 3,000 experts.
As grouped, overseas Vietnamese intellectuals actively and straightforwardly contribute their ideas to three subjects: policies, investment opportunities and capacities of Viet Kieu’s contributions to the IT and telecom sector. Many participants at the meeting expected the State would have more detailed policies to encourage IT small and medium-sized enterprises to merge into strong and large groups. These policies would help IT firms in the country to grasp strong positions and compete with other countries. Many Viet Kieu intellectuals and enterprises also proposed practical measures to improve the poor IT workforce in Vietnam and put forward plans to set up new IT schools. Mr. Nguyen Tu Nguyen, director of Linet Software in Khanh Hoa Province, said his company has trained 500 computer technicians (at high school level) for small and medium-sized enterprises which want to apply IT to control and manage tourism activities. Prof Vuong Thanh Son of the University of British Columbia, Canada, wanted to provide consultancy or teach for an IT school in Vietnam. Viet Kieu also showed their annoyances in administrative formalities, especially investment-licensing and land-leasing procedures. Some French Vietnamese said the biggest deficiency of the Vietnamese IT industry was poor experience in approaching to large-scale projects but reassured that Viet Kieu could help the nation with this field because this was a strong point of Viet Kieu. Another urgent matter of Viet Kieu was unsound income tax policies. They said a newly graduated computer engineer in the US has an average annual salary of US$50,000, he/she needs to pay 10-15-per cent income tax rate (because this tax is discounted when his/her salary is spent on insurance, daily activities, housing, learning, etc.) while the rate is 60 per cent in Vietnam.
Mr. Ngo Duong Hoang Thao, vice chairman of the Overseas Vietnamese Enterprise Club and director of Indochina Consultant Co., the friendly atmosphere of the meeting helped Viet Kieu IT firms and authorities go closer and closer. They exchanged views in policies and expectations. Thao also provided Vietnamese IT-telecom development opportunity research results for Viet Kieu.
At the end of the meeting, the organising committee pledged to open rotational annual meetings in Hanoi, Danang and Ho Chi Minh City, build online markets to reduce input costs and increase advertisement, summarise and update all investment-related laws and policies, build a specialised website, reduce transmission costs and simplify visa procedures. To effectively carry out these pledges, Mr. Nhan asked Viet Kieu in the US, France, Germany and Japan to help Vietnam list all overseas Vietnamese IT engineers, paving the way for future exchanges and mergers.
Song Phuong
Vietnamese
