VietNamNet Bridge – Ninety percent of businesses have used emails in their daily works to date, 15 years after the day the Internet was available in Vietnam. However, 46 percent of businesses don’t know why they should use emails.

A survey by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) has found out that there are 520,000 enterprises in Vietnam, and 100 percent of them have internal information websites, and 90 percent of them use Internet.

It is expected that by 2015, 80 percent of provinces and cities would have electronic trade floors, creating favorable conditions for local enterprises, especially small and medium ones, to make e-commerce.

However, the survey has also found out that 46 percent of businesses said they don’t know what they should use emails for. Only 19 percent of businesses have their own websites, but they have been used to popularize the companies’ images or introduce their new products, not to carry out transactions or give consultancy.

The majority of businesses said they use the Internet to search for information, 50 percent of businesses have the leadership using LAN, 2/3 use popular office software pieces to support their business activities.

Meanwhile, up to 85 percent of businesses do not have the demand for consultancy on the issues relating to information technology.

Regarding the e-government, 100 percent of ministries and branches have their own websites, 98.4 percent of provincial and cities’ authorities have electronic information portals, 83.6 percent of government agencies’ instructions have been posted on Internet. Nearly 90 percent of computers at ministries ministerial agencies have Internet access.

In the healthcare sector, a report on the application of information technology in the field released in May 2012 showed that 100 percent of the units belonging to the Ministry of Healthcare and local departments of healthcare had LAN and Internet access. 74 percent of healthcare officers can use computers fluently in their works.

According to the Ministry of Information and Technology, to date, 2230 out of the 11,111 commune’s healthcare establishments have Internet access (20 percent). The figures are 30.3 percent in urban areas and 17.8 percent in rural areas.

The Internet has been playing a very important role in the education sector with the development of online training programs. All the education establishments nationwide had had Internet access by 2010. As such, about 30,000 education establishments, 25 million management officers, teachers and students now can access Internet to serve their management, teaching and learning demand.

In 2006-2010, the software industry and information technology saw the high growth rate of 30 percent per annum, with the turnover reaching one billion dollars in 2010, which was four times higher than that of 2005.

The number of software firms has been increasing rapidly with 1000 firms set up by 2010, or 2.5 times higher than that in 2005. The workers in the industry mostly work in big cities and provinces, about 70,000 people.

The digital content industry has just developed for the last few years, but it has been witnessing a very high growth rate of 40 percent per annum.

Vietnam earned 934 million dollars from the content industry in 2010, nine times higher than that of 2005. Vietnamese content firms have been trying to expand their markets, reaching out to Lao, Cambodia, Indonesian and South Korean markets.

Buu Dien