VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Information and Communications has reported to the Prime Minister about Vietnam’s low IT competitiveness index, but the ministry affirms that this is a positive sign for the sector.

After the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) under the Economist media group ranked Vietnam 61^st/64 countries and economies in terms of IT competitiveness index, the Prime Minister instructed the Ministry of Post and Telematics (now the Ministry of Information and Communications) to report about this and suggest solutions to improve the country’s competitiveness in this field.

The Ministry of Information and Communications’ report shows that the IT competitiveness index is closely related to per capita GDP.

Meanwhile, Vietnam has per capita GDP that is 8-15 times lower than that of 22 countries and economies and from 2-7 times lower than 30 countries. Therefore, it is easy to understand why Vietnam ranks 61^st of 64 countries and economies.

It is important that the 64 countries and economies named on the rankings list of EIU are those with the highest competitiveness of IT so it is a positive sign for Vietnam.

The EIU also ranks Vietnam on the list of ‘rising stars of tomorrow’, with Malaysia, Brazil, Russia, Poland and Hungary.

According to EIU, Vietnam’s strong points are its human resources, especially the team of Vietnamese people who are working in the IT sector abroad, and the government’s efforts to develop information infrastructure.

In addition, up to 50% of the data that EIU used in its survey is from 2004, so its report, though released in 2007, is actually for the 2002-2006 period.

However, the ministry said that there were two notable indexes in EIU’s survey: the one on IT infrastructure and research and development environment, both of which are extremely low for Vietnam.

To further improve the competitiveness of the IT sector, the ministry has asked the Prime Minister to instruct other ministries, sectors and provinces to focus on IT application.

The ministry also suggested that the government create more favourable conditions for IT research and development and to enact preferential policies for foreign investors to establish a hardware industry in Vietnam that will provide goods for the global market.

Source: VNN