High road for Vietnam-US ICT cooperation
VNECONOMY: 21/09/2007
Vietnam is one of the fastest-developing technology export markets in Asia; Vietnam is the number-one destination of American businesses; and Vietnam’s ICT market will see stable growth in the future were the major opinions of US representatives at the Vietnam-US information and communication technology dialogue held in Hanoi on September 17-18.
David Gross, officer in charge of information and international media of the US Department of State, said that Vietnam was an important country to the US. The relations between the two countries have been expanded and deepened in many fields, including cooperation in technology.
Jamie Estrada, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Manufacturing of the Department of Commerce, said that in recent years, Vietnam had attracted attention to its ICT industry and had become one of the fastest-developing technology exporting markets of the US in Asia, and an attractive destination for hi-tech investment of US businesses.
After five years implementing the Vietnam-US Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA), Vietnam’s ranking on the list of trade partners of the US has jumped from 66th to 43rd. In Asia, Vietnam ranks third after China and India.
In terms of ICT, the US’ export turnover growth to Vietnam has surpassed China and India, to become the most rapid developing export market (20%). The US’ imports of ICT products from Vietnam also grow by 62% a year on average.
Three major factors in Vietnam that are attractive to American ICT equipment producers are low tariffs, positive investment environment and improving standards.
The report of the US International Trade Committee released in September 2007 praises Vietnam as the new border post for trade in Asia of the US.
Robert Pepper, a high-ranking lawyer of Cisco group, told VietNamNet that the goals and expectations of ICT companies of the two countries were quite similar. It is necessary to speed up the cooperation process.
Deputy Minister of Information and Communication of Vietnam, Dr. Vu Duc Dam, said that the US was a significant partner of Vietnam in the field of ICT. Cooperation in this area between the two sides is quite satisfactory but needs to be promoted.
According to Mr. Dam, this is the first time government agencies and businesses of the two countries have had a dialogue on ICT and he emphasised that the dialogue atmosphere helped strengthen mutual understanding and open many opportunities of cooperation between enterprises, governments and governments and businesses.
Mr. Gross told VietNamNet that in the field of ICT, Vietnam was in the top group of countries with whom the US needed to promote dialogues because of the great potential for cooperation and the great interests of American businesses in the Vietnamese ICT market.
According to a report of the US Department of Commerce, this country’s total foreign direct investment in Vietnam in 2006 was $10 billion and this number can double in 2007. Two-way trade revenue increased very quickly from $1.5 billion in 2001 to $9.7 billion last year.
These figures demonstrate the effective economic cooperation between the two countries and great potentials for cooperation in the future, especially as Vietnam has joined the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
At the dialogue, Nguyen Lam Thanh, Business Development Manager of Intel, revealed that Intel was developing well in Vietnam thanks to the Vietnamese government and Vietnamese partners.
Ho Thanh Tung, General Director of Oracle Vietnam and Indochina, said that the task that Oracle had to do in Vietnam now was seek opportunities and expand its Vietnamese market.
At the dialogue, Vietnam and the US talked about problems and difficulties that they have been facing during the process of cooperation.
Representative of the Corporation for Financing and Promoting Technology (FPT), Dan Phuong, mentioned three problems which had appeared during the process to infiltrate the US market of FPT: difficulties with getting visas to go to the US, international payment and the regulations on double taxing avoidance.
Hoang Tien, a representative of the Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT), asked: what American businesses and government agencies have experience in managing and developing a developed NGN-based telecom market?
Mr. Tien said that in Vietnam, the NGN (next generation network) technology infrastructure was ineffective. All telecom service providers in Vietnam have their own NGN, causing waste.
The US Department of Commerce’s Jamie Estrada presented six key issues that need to be improved to strengthen bilateral trade on ICT between the US and Vietnam: ICT infrastructure, network security, skills and training, software infringement, e-commerce, and government procurement.
“Positively dealing with those issues, Vietnam will deliver a strong message to the US and the world that it is serious about defining a strategic position in the globally-connected economy,” he emphasised.
After 15 hours of discussion, the dialogue closed at 4pm, September 18. Vietnamese and American attendants said that it was a creative, opening and effective form of dialogue.
Before attending this dialogue, the US side gathered more than 20 issues based on the feedback of American investors in the ICT field in Vietnam and those issues were solved at the dialogue.
At this dialogue, the goal and the determination of the Vietnamese government and businesses was expressed: Vietnam is ready to become another Malaysia in developing ICT and it is ready to reach the success of China and India in ICT.
Source: VietnamNet
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