More than 106,300 new ".vn" domain names were registered in the first 11 months of this year, bringing the total number of ".vn" domain names to 343, 370, a year-on-year increase of 16.4 per cent, according to the Viet Nam Internet Network Information Centre (VNNIC).

More than 106,300 new ".vn" domain names were registered in the first 11 months of this year. Photo ictnews.vn

The VNNIC held a conference on Thursday to review its activities this year and discuss plans for next year.

The ".vn" domain name was the most registered country-code top-level domain (ccTLD) in the ASEAN region and is now expanding in Asia.

According to the Asia Pacific Top Level Domain Association (APTLD), ".vn" registrations were ranked in the top 10 in the region this year.

Monthly statistics and growth reports from APTLD also showed that ".vn" had been consistently in the top five ccTLDs in Asia with the highest growth for per month in terms of registrations in September and October.

Registration of Vietnamese language domain names hit 952,710 by November 30 this year.

However, only 23.6 per cent were used, and 180,000 domain names that were not being used had been revoked.

The number of IPv4 addresses allocated to Viet Nam has reached 15.7 million, ranking second in ASEAN, eighth in Asia and 28th in the world.

Viet Nam is boosting the transition from Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4) toInternet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6).

IPv6, the upgraded version of IPv4, with larger address space, will help deal with IPv4 exhaustion.

VNNIC completed the plan to boost IPv6 by organising working programmes with seven service providers of mobile phones, internet and digital content in Ha Noi.

The centre also successfully held the Vietnam IPv6 Day 2015 in May, which attracted the participation of both domestic and foreign telecommunications firms and device suppliers.

At the conference, Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Pham Hong Hai asked the VNNIC to work with related agencies to increase the management of information and technology, the internet, online public services and administrative reforms.

The minister also asked the centre to promote the development of domain names and manage IP and IPv6 addresses in Viet Nam.

He also advised the centre to co-operate with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers for development orientation.