Vietnam software outsourcing sector grows strongly, in world’s top 10

Vietnam has outplayed India to become the second-largest software outsourcer in Japan, only behind China, and is now one of the world’s ten largest software exporters, according to the Vietnam Software and IT Services Association.

Only in the first three months, many local software companies received orders for the entire year and their 2014 revenues are expected to soar by up to 25 percent compared to a year earlier, the association said.

The Ho Chi Minh City unit of FPT Software, the country’s leading software outsourcing company, has said its annual revenue has expanded at a 30 percent rate over the last few years.

Tran Phuc Hong, managing director of TMA Solutions, another HCMC-based software firm, was quoted by newswire Saigon Times Online as saying that this year will be stable for the software outsourcing industry as most of the orders have been placed in the first quarter.

TMA Solutions reported a 20 percent year-on-year growth in the January – March period, and has so far signed contracts for the full year of 2014, Hong added.

Ngo Van Toan, deputy CEO of Global CyberSoft, also told the economic news website that his company enjoyed quarterly growth of 25 percent in comparison to the same period last year, thanks to orders from Japan and North America.

“The software outsourcing market remains stable and has the potential to grow further, with Japan and the U.S. being the two main markets,” he was quoted as saying.

Software companies headquartered in Quang Trung Software Park in HCMC’s District 12 also posted impressive growth in the first quarter.

These software outsourcers collectively generated VND678.1 billion (US$31.99 million) in revenue, a 34 percent year-on-year increase, the park’s chairman Chu Tien Dung told Saigon Times Online.

Park companies are completing orders from 20 countries and their main markets are also Japan and the U.S., apart from several European nations.

Their software exports in the first quarter were worth $16.82 million, up 37.4 percent from a year earlier.

Vietnam is home to 1,000 software companies with 80,000 people working in the industry, according to the Vietnam Association for Information Processing.

Last year the industry’s revenue surpassed the $1 billion mark, 25 percent of which was contributed by exporting and outsourcing.

FPT Software is the country’s largest software outsourcing company with 2013 revenues topping $100 million.

The company is eying $150 million earnings for 2014.