Entrepreneurs, in particular young ones, play an important role in the country's development. Vietnam Business Forum interviewed with Master Nguyen Vinh Tam, Chairman of Management Board of the Tam Dat Company and young entrepreneur with experience on doing business in Japan and a desire to build Vietnamese trademarks in information technology.
Japan has been considered as home to many hi-tech products. Why did your company choose it as a major market?
In 1995 I went to Japan to study within the Japanese government's scholarship programme for Vietnam. During my study in Japan, I discovered that Japan had source technologies, such as automated production. After my study, I worked for Japanese firms and realised that Japanese information technology would shift well to the Vietnamese market. Therefore, I returned home and established the Tam Dat Company in the hope to catch the potential and transfer Japan's source technologies to Vietnam.
What do you think about the potential of the market?
Potential for Vietnam-Japan co-operation in information technology is huge but it is combined with challenges. According to statistics of the Japan Information Technology Service Association (JISA), software in Japan accounts for over 60 per cent of the information technology market. Embedded system, according to official figures, accounts for 40 per cent of the market. The financial sector accounts for 40 per cent of the software market of Japan.
In addition, games account for a high proportion. The 2000-2005 period was a peak development period for Play Station games. The future belongs to mobile phone and online games.
Vietnamese enterprises should focus on embedded systems and financial and banking software, and games, as they will have huge markets.
How should Vietnamese enterprises prepare to exploit the potential effectively?
The requirements of Japanese enterprises are not so hard-to-please but Vietnamese enterprises still face certain difficulties. Japanese enterprises highly evaluate partners who can meet the requirements for long-term development strategies, which are depicted in their five or ten-year development orientations, healthy financial status to pursue the implementation of projects and information security. They do not want to give contracts to companies which lend or borrow their staff members to or from other companies. This may lead to an information leak. Also, language and culture are important factors when enterprises work with Japanese partners.
As a dynamic young entrepreneur, how have you planned your company's development in the future?
My desire is to build up Tam Dat into a large and prestigious PM company, thus making a contribution to building Vietnam's strong trademark in information technology in the five coming years. To that end, we have developed a long-term strategy, from ensuring financial sources to technology investment, human resources development. Initial successes with the winning of contracts, in particular a contract with the medical service of Japan, in which we beat three Chinese opponents, prove the right track of our strategies and our high potential.
Reported by Quoc Hung
Vietnamese
