Vietnam will become a full member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) soon. The WTO entry will bring opportunities and challenges to Vietnam at both enterprise level and national level. The information and communication technology (ICT) is no exception and will soon be taking part in the global market.
After joining the WTO, Vietnam will have to cut import tariffs on industrial products, including computers, digital devices and electronics components. In addition, non-tariff barriers against service providers will also be removed, including software production services. Software companies of member countries will have more chances to export software and related services to Vietnam. Vietnam will also have to join the Information Technology Agreement (ITA). Accordingly, Vietnam has to impose zero percent on products from WTO member countries. Hence, at an enterprise level, when protective tools no longer exist, enterprises will face numerous difficulties. According to Mr. Ngo Quoc Viet, a representative of VNPT Group, this will cause more difficulties for enterprises in the integration process.
Mr. Nguyen Trung Chinh, Director of CMC (Computer Communication Company), said, foreign companies are dominantly supplying products and services while Vietnamese IT firms are mainly installing and building infrastructure. When Vietnam joins the WTO, foreign firms will have more rooms in the IT market and this will cause more hardships for Vietnamese firms to expand the market. Under the open-door roadmap, foreign firms will be allowed to set up wholly foreign-owned companies in Vietnam from 2009 and they are permitted to do the same business scopes as Vietnamese firms from January 1, 2007.
At present, dozes of potential and experienced telecom firms in the world have expressed their keen interest in investing in Vietnam. According to experts, local telecom firms will find it hard to keep the market. The Vietnam Mobile Services Company (VMS), which is operating the MobiFone mobile phone network, is one of the top concerns of foreign investors. Although VMS has not gone public, five foreign giant telecom firms such as Comvik (Sweden), Telenor (Norway), France Telecom (France) and two UK companies, are ready to invest large sums of money to buy shares in VMS.
However, Vietnamese companies will enjoy a lot of opportunities. The WTO entry will create cooperation opportunities between Vietnamese and foreign companies. Apart from attracting investment capital, Vietnam will have chances to expand consumption markets in other countries. The ICT of Vietnam will also have opportunities to gain technology transfer and develop human resources.
In 2006, Vietnam ICT Golden Cups were considered for seven areas : solution-product, Vietnamese brand computer, packaging-product software, website, e-commerce, network and irregular training. As no adequate document was submitted, irregular training was not considered. Vietnam Association for Information Processing have awarded six Gold Cups, 9 Silver Cups and 15 Bronze Cups on the occasion of IT Week.
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Areas
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Solution-Product
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Company
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Solution-product of applied sector
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Management system for securities company BOSC
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FPT Software Solutions Co.
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Packaging-product software
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ILib 4.0 software
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CMC Soft Co.
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Network
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VNN Messenger service
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VASC Software and Media Co.
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Vietnamese brand computer
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FPT Elead brand computer
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The Corporation for Financing and Promoting Technology (FPT)
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Electronic commercial product
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Online Sales Centre btsplaza.com.vn
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The Hanoi Broadcasting Television Service Co.
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E-press website
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VN Express
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FPT
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Nguyen Thoa
Vietnamese
