Sagging IT parks seek investment

The Quang Trung Software City in HCM City - Photo thesaigontimes.vn

There are four concentrated IT parks in Viet Nam, at present – Quang Trung Software City in HCM City, Da Nang Software Park in central Da Nang City, and Cau Giay Concentrated IT Park and Ha Noi Software Technology Park, which is under construction, in the capital city.

Data released at the workshop on November 10 shows that these parks attracted investment from large domestic and foreign IT firms. They raked in more than US$200 million in revenue for the software industry, compared with the industry’s total earnings of $1.6 billion in 2015.

Nguyen Thanh Hung, deputy minister of information and communications, said the parks’ effect on the software industry was, however, not yet as significant as expected. They failed to create a favourable environment for business activities or attract major companies’ investment in setting up research and development centres.

The failure is attributable to various causes, including modest investment from the State and society and poor implementation of support policies targeting these parks. Meanwhile, investment promotion activities remain neglected, he said.

Le Quoc Cuong, deputy director of the HCM City Department of Information and Communications, said manpower is a fundamental factor in the software industry, but the lack of skilled workers has eroded opportunities to win global IT firms’ attention for Quang Trung Software City.

Less developed infrastructure and a workplace unable to satisfy high-quality workers’ demand are also weaknesses of this park, he added.

Hung said his ministry and the Ministry of Planning and Investment are preparing to implement a target programme on IT for the 2016-20 period. This programme is set to support seven concentrated IT parks nationwide. Some VND40-60 billion ($1.8-2.7 million) in initial support will be provided for each park to help them attract investment.