LookAtVietnam Bridge – Denmark will be giving the Viet Nam Software Association (Vinasa) financial and technical assistance in a 4.8mil DKK (about US$1mil) project signed yesterday in the capital.

The project, which will be implemented over three years to 2011, will help Vinasa realise its goal of one day making Vietnam an international software power.

Denmark will support Vinasa and software enterprises in measures that will ensure stability and development in the software industry. The project will help develop Vinasa’s strategy and assessment of the country’s software industry, develop policy dialogue, build Vinasa’s portals (specifically portals for information exchange) and co-operate with Danish software enterprises and training programmes.

"In recent years, Vietnam’s software industry has posted high annual growth rates of over 30%, and has strong potential for future software development," said Pham Tan Cong, vice president and general secretary of Vinasa.

"The world software industry is now short of 1.5mil IT engineers, and could be short 3mil by 2010 and 10mil by 2020. This world shortage forces developed countries to seek workers in developing nations to balance and speed up their outsourcing activities.

This gives the Vietnamese software industry a chance to expand its international co-operation based on the capacity of the country’s software workforce."

Cong noted that if Vietnam could focus on IT human resource training, it has a good opportunity to be one of the world’s leading suppliers of software human resources and could become an international software power.

During the event, the Danish Ambassador to Vietnam Peter Lysholt Hansen said that by co-operating, sharing experiences and promoting business links and trade within the software and IT industries, Denmark could help the country create a firm foundation for software enterprises.

There are currently around 15 Danish software enterprises doing business in Vietnam and 15 other firms expressing interest in seeking business opportunities in the country, he added.

(Source: Viet Nam News)