LookAtVietnam Bridge – Denmark on Wednesday cut a deal with Vietnam's software association Vinasa, providing 4.8mil Danish krone, or nearly US$1mil, to help improve Vietnam's software industry, especially the manpower for this sector.

Danish Ambassador to Vietnam P.L Hansen (L) and Vinasa chairman Truong Gia Binh sign the software development agreement in Hanoi.

The financial support is expected to establish the foundation for strategic cooperation between Vietnam and Denmark in software development, said Danish Ambassador to Vietnam Peter Lysholt Hansen, who inked the agreement with Vinasa chairman Truong Gia Binh in Hanoi.

The agreement to finance Vinasa's capacity building is expected to make Vinasa the leading software association in Vietnam, which in turns will help member companies to expand production and bolster international cooperation in software. This project will be implemented in three years, with the foreign partner being the Confederation of Danish Industries (DI) and ITEK, which is a division of DI grouping IT-related companies.

Key components of the project are to map out an overall development plan for Vinasa, build up its institutional capacity, and bolster Vinasa's capacity in providing development services for member enterprises.

Other activities under the project include building an information portal for promoting cooperation between Vietnamese software enterprises and Danish partners, and organizing training workshops for Vietnamese enterprises.

Pham Tan Cong, general secretary of Vinasa, said at the signing ceremony that the insufficient human resource is the major impediment to Vietnam's software development, although the local industry has been growing by 30% annually. Vietnam's software revenue last year was put at some US$500mil.

Cong said the global software industry is facing a shortage of some 1.5mil IT workers, which will double to three million IT employees by 2010, as developed countries are increasing their IT outsourcing industry, targeting countries with lower labor cost like Vietnam.

"If Vietnam focuses its efforts on developing IT manpower, the country will have the opportunity to become a leading software producer in the world in the coming years," Cong said. He added that "this agreement with Denmark will help Vinasa work out the strategy of turning Vietnam into a strong software producer in the world."

Ambassador Hansen said that Denmark as a developed country in the software industry, but software enterprises mere are also facing costly and insufficient manpower. Therefore, cooperation with Vinasa is expected to bring about opportunities to address the man power shortage, he said.

Although the project is a medium-term one, "the Danish government is studying how to foster long-term cooperation with Vinasa. We expect to soon establish a foundation for IT cooperation, helping enterprises of the two countries to promote cooperation," he said.

Vinasa chairman Truong Gia Binh hoped that the project would help Vietnamese software enterprises to expand business to Europe via Denmark.

(Source: SGT)