The seminar was organised by the Vietnam Software Association (Vinasa), drawing representatives from the Ministry of Education and Training, the Ministry of Information and Communications and a nunber of software companies and universities.

 

Vietnam’s IT human resources don’t meet current market demand, said Nguyen Dinh Thang, Vice Chairman of Vinasa. At present, the total number of people working in the IT field is 250,000. Vietnam has 3,000 IT companies with a total turnover in excess of US$4 billion in 2008. In comparison, Japan had a total turnover of US$170 billion, where 800,000 people were working in the IT field in 2008.

 

Mr. Thang said a shortage of IT human resources is common in many countries around the world, particularly in developing countries. This will be a good opportunity for Vietnam if the country takes full advantage of this time, so Vietnam needs a favourable policy to support the software industry.

 

The Prime Minister issued a decision in June, approving an overall plan for developing IT human resources, according to Dr. Le Xuan Binh, Vice Chief of the Information Technology Agency, under the Ministry of Education and Training.

 

The plan’s objective is to create a breakthrough in the quality of IT training and ensure that 30 percent of university graduates have the professional and foreign language skills to take part in the international labour market.

 

Under the plan, by 2020 Vietnam will have trained 1 million people for IT careers. Vietnam now has 230 universities and colleges that offer a major in IT.