Last updated: 16:47 - April 29, 2006
Microsoft, Vietnam agree to develop IT http://www.nhandan.com.vn/english/business/290406/business_mic.htm
Microsoft President Bill Gates and FPT General Director Truong Gia Binh in Hanoi April 22.
Microsoft, the world's leading software-maker, on April 27 signed a memorandum of understanding with Vietnam's Corporation for Financing and Promoting Technology (FPT) aimed at developing the application of information technology in the Asia-Pacific region.
The agreement was an acknowledgement of the "outstanding development and performance of the IT industry in Vietnam," said Truong Gia Binh, general director of FPT, the country's largest software and computer manufacturer.
Under the agreement, Microsoft and FPT will co-operate on the integration of the Lotus Notes software application into Microsoft applications in the Southeast Asia region, and provide IT solutions for Government offices in Vietnam. The two firms will also work together on the development of IT infrastructure in Vietnam across the region using Microsoft-based platforms, said FPT.
Microsoft will assist its local partner in compiling the curricula for computer training programmes at FPT's newly-established university and at other training centres, and work on developing localised computer solutions for companies across the region, it said.
The two firms earlier this year agreed to establish a Microsoft Competency Centre, where Microsoft would help train local technicians to use its applications.
FPT last October became the nation's first Microsoft 'gold' partner, the company's highest level of corporate partnership.
The joint-stock firm last year posted earnings of VND 8.2 trillion (US $517 million), a year-on-year increase of 61%. Revenue from the sale of software accounted for VND 698 billion of the total, an 87% increase from 2004, while turnover from software exports accounted for another VND 135 billion, up 145% over the same period, it said.
According to the Ministry of Posts and Telematics, the total value of Vietnam's software and IT-related services in 2005 was US $170 million with annual growth projected at 40%. Exports were US $45 million last year. The country currently has 600 software development firms, which employ 15,000 people, mainly in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, compared with 170 firms and 5,000 workers in 1999. (VNA)
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