Ten highlights for communications sector in 2009

Ten highlights for communications sector in 2009

QĐND – Wednesday, December 30, 2009, 21:45 (GMT+7)

The information and communications sector enjoyed a dramatic growth rate in 2009 amid global economic meltdown, as confirmed by Deputy Minister Tran Duc Lai on December 30.

He highlighted 10 major events in the year as follows:

1/ The law on Telecommunications and the law on Radio Frequencies were passed by the National Assembly and will come into force on July 1, 2010. It is designed to encourage different sectors to invest in telecommunications infrastructure projects and services, promote the use of advanced technologies and the efficient use of resources.

2/ Hanoi successfully hosted a World Information Technology Forum-2009 entitled “IT for sustainable development” from August 26-28, drawing over 1,500 Governmental officials and industry representatives from 70 countries and territories.

3/ A 7th grade student from the central city of Danang, Nguyen Dac Xuan Thao, won second prize at the 38th international letter-writing competition launched by the Universal Postal Union (UPU). It was the highest prize ever awarded to a Vietnamese student during the 20 years the country has entered the competition.

4/ 3G mobile technology was introduced to Vietnam, launching a revolution in one of the world’s most dynamic growing IT markets.

5/ The information technology and communication sector successfully held its first national awards, presenting 21 prizes to mobile information and internet services providers, the IT industry, IT human resource and IT applications.

6/ The Government announced its plans to introduce digital radio and television broadcasting technology. In the first phase, HDTV (high definition TV) and IPTV (Internet protocol TV) were introduced.

7/ The country took part in laying three major international sub-sea optic fibre cables, namely the Asia-American Gateway (AAG), the Trans-Asian Marine Cable System (IACS) and the Asian-Pacific Gateway (APG). As a result, the country has managed to make mobile information services available at sea and to its outer lying islands.

8/ A book on the Thang Long-Hanoi Millennium was published and Dang Thuy Tram’s diary was translated into Spanish and Lao for the first time.

9/ Digital signatures were deployed in Vietnam, helping with administrative reforms and speeding up e-commerce and e-Government.

10/ The first national contest on designs and layouts and an exhibition of the best newspapers and magazines were both held, drawing almost 1,000 entries. Of them 24 won prizes.

Source: VNA

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Experts discuss future trends in IT, communications market

HCM CITY — Foreign and local experts and business executives met at a three-day seminar ending yesterday to compare notes and to discuss trends in information and communications technologies and services.

Organised by the Viet Nam Post and Telecommunications (VNPT) Group and Adsale exhibition Services Ltd, it was part of the 12th international exhibition in Viet Nam on telecommunications, information technology and electronics products.

In a message, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Thanh Hung said grasping the changing trends in technology and building a competitive business environment are essential for a flourishing ICT industry.

Figures tabled at the seminar show the telecom sector had a turnover of VND67 trillion (US$4 billion) last year, 36 per cent higher the previous year.

Since 2004 the telephone market has grown rapidly, with mobile subscriptions doubling every year and landlines growing 18 per cent a year.

As of September 2008 the total number of subscribers was 70.4 million while the teledensity phone was 82.5 per 100 people.

There were 20.5 million Internet subscribers, four times more than at the beginning of this year.

Software sales was $498 million, with $318 million in the domestic market and the rest exported.

The ICT industry employed around 261,000 people.

Trends in technology

Nguyen Trong Duong, deputy director of the Department of Information and Technology (DIT), said convergence is increasing rapidly.

The future would see the convergence of customer electronics, information technology and communications; the Internet, digital content, and mobile communications; and technology and services, he said.

Pham Hong Hai, director of the Telecommunication Department, said a telecommunications bill, to be discussed by the National Assembly at the end of 2009 and likely to take effect in July 2010, would facilitate convergence.

The DIT said the rapid increase in the number of mobile phone and Internet subscribers, introduction of broadband and 3G services and wimax networks, and the improved legal environment would boost the development of digital content services.

Masatoshi Suzuki, senior executive vice president of Japanese telecom behemoth NTT DoCoMo, said Viet Nam has enormous potential in 3G services. The government is set to grant licences to four 3G service providers next year.

Duong, however, said Viet Nam’s ICT industry faces many problems like bad quality of data transmission, information security, and crime.

DIT added expensive technical infrastructure to that list.

The seminar was also attended by information technology and telecommunications ministers of Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar. —

Wireless communications centre to open in HCM City

Hanoi (VNA) – A wireless communications development centre is to be built in Ho Chi Minh City under a 54 million EUR contract recently signed by the British company Harvey Nash and the French telecoms firm Alcatel Lucent.

According to Harvey Nash, the centre, which will be connected with Alcatel’s software research and development centre in Germany centre in Germany , will provide wireless telecom solutions that meet international standards. It is expected to create more than 200 jobs.

Harvey Nash’s Global Managing Director Paul Smith said the company’s decision to establish such a centre was based on the intellectual competence of the young generation of Vietnamese in the IT and telecoms sectors.

He also said he believed that the project would help promote Vietnam as a centre for advanced software research and development.

Harvey Nash has been operating in Vietnam since 2000 and has built up a list of blue-chip clients, including Honda, Vielife, Reliance Globalcom, The Discovery Channel and most recently, Prudential.-

Minister holds online communications Q&A

HA NOI — Minister of Information and Communications Le Doan Hop held an online Q&A session yesterday on strategies to develop information and communications.

He answered questions such as: What should the ministry do to develop information and communications into something that contributes largely to the country’s GDP, and to the formation and development of an intellectual economy?

Hop also talked about raising the quality and development of press and publishing, and about modernising organisations and infrastructure of these agencies.

The minister said that his five deputy ministers had recently organised five online Q&A sessions on topics related to the ministry’s State management aspects such as posts, telecommunications, information technology (IT), press and publishing.

He said that from now to 2010, the ministry had identified its primary aims and goals as follows:

– First, to build and complete a system of legal documents to boost the development of the information and communication sector while the country integrates into the world.

– Second, build and complete key programmes, plans and projects such as the National Programme on the Application and Development of Information Technology and Communications.

– Third, complete plans to renew and rearrange State-owned enterprises, to raise their capabilities to compete in and integrate into the world.

– Fourth, help localities solve difficulties, and help local departments of information and communications to consolidate their organisations.

– Fifth, actively integrate into the world following the Party and State’s policies and orientations.

Asked to speak briefly about the country’s first satellite, Vinasat 1, he said that it was being used for security and national defence, and would greatly benefit the public.

On internet management to prevent social evils from impacting adolescents, the minister said that his ministry had worked with the Ministry of Culture and Information to issue a Joint Circular on the Management of Online Games, asking game suppliers to limit gamers, especially children, from playing too much and spending too much time in internet stores.

Many people also asked Hop why the country’s electronics industry had remained weak compared to other countries in the region.

Hop said the ministry had worked out many mechanisms and solutions to develop IT, including the electronics industry.

“The ministry will propose to the Government some projects to develop IT zones and some priority mechanisms to attract foreign enterprises. The ministry will propose to the Government a Decree on Investment in IT,” he said.

He said that the ministry had organised many conferences and seminars to study the difficulties that hardware and software companies faced so that it can improve legal frameworks in the area.

He said he believed that in the near future, IT in Viet Nam, including the electronics industry, would develop rapidly.

He admitted that the development of e-Government was still too slow compared to the demands of socio-economic development and administrative reform.

He said the ministry had proposed that the Government approve Decree No 64 on applying IT in State-owned offices, which would also identify the responsibilities of ministries, sectors and localities in applying IT for 2008.

Truong Quoc Phong from Quy Nhon City, in the central province of Binh Dinh, asked the minister why the application of IT in State management activities still faced roadblocks.

The minister answered by pointing out the reasons leading to the situation.

First, awareness on IT’s role and applying it to activities of State offices was still very limited.

Second, investments in the application of IT were not adequate.

Third, there were shortcomings in the regulations that managed investments in the application of IT.

And last, a shortage of human resources was still a problem in the application of information technology. —

Communications aid bio-diversity preservation

HCM City (VNA) – More than 100 representatives from southern preservation zones and national parks discussed the role of communication and education programmes in preserving bio-diversity in Ho Chi Minh City on August 2.

Hoang Nghia Son, Director of the Institute of Tropical Biology (ITB), which organised this discussion, told the participants that the country’s 10-million-ha natural forests boasting immense potentials in economy, bio-diversity, and scientific values have been shrinking rapidly because of the human-beings.

For the ITB, preservation zones should work with scientists to protect genes, raise awareness of dwellers in forests and nearby, and encourage other organisations and research institutes to engage in education programmes to protect forests.

Representatives from Mui Ca Mau, Tram Chim, Cat Tien national parks, the Can Gio bio-reserve and other preservation zones shared their experiences on building action plans to implement bio-diversity preservation on the back of communication mainstreaming programmes.-